Which Camera - cold mountains with view

Post by **charlie** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:02 pm

Here is my mountain get-away in south east Poland. See the attachment.
It gets cold in the winter, minus 25C or lower. It gets windy.
I would like to set up a web camera for both security and for the enjoyment of the view.
I would like to watch deer on moon lit nights, and watch for any tourists or vandals too.
The house is in the middle of a national park.
I also want to add some inside/outside temperature/weather monitoring, but that is a different topic.
If I can earn some cash somehow, I would like to get a good camera - one which will give me joy to use, and I would like to make it web available with tilt pan zoom, day and night time viewing. Can I get some good advice on which camera would be good?
[img]uploaded/charlie/barn_sept_15_2003_09.jpg][/img]

Charlie

Post by **MindBender** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:25 pm

There's no cheap solution to your requirements. A good image in low-light conditions requires a special camera or infra-red illumination. The latter is no option for your because of the wide field you would need to illuminate. Instead you could use a high sensitivity camera as often used in amateur astronomy (brand name Matrix) or you could use an image intesifier. The latter option needs special measurements for use in daylight, but solution produce black&white images only. You also need to provide the pan/tilt/zoom mechanism yourself.

A good alternative would be the American Dynamics (Sensormatic) SpeedDome VII Day&Night. It's a PTZ camera with very a impressive image quality and zoom capabilities. In low-light conditions it can take it's IR cut-off filter out of the light path for a better sensivitiy. I have these cameras without the Day&Night option and the picture quality is already good in low-light conditions. The Day&Night version I had was very impressive, but unfortunately it broke down.

All of these camera's need a video server to turn them into a webcam. I use the WebEye B101 (www.webgateinc.com), a small box that offers a web page the view a live image and control the camera with buttons. I also does motion detection and has alarm inputs to make it respond on external sensors. I could give you a test drive with my cameras on request.

The SpeedDome retails for about 1800 Euro, not including a weather proof and heated housing. A WebEye does about 550 Euro.

Post by **charlie** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:48 pm

Well, first of all, thanks for your interesting reply. I will re-read it when I am well awake! Do you think these cameras you mention could handle the low temps - I suppose I should go and look at them and their specs. I suppose I should start getting to understand "lumens", or whatever units it is light-levels are measured and specified in. For sure I will ask for a test drive, but let me do my home work first. Thanks again!

Charlie

Post by **MindBender** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:38 am

Yes, in the weatherproof housing is heated and ventilated, so the internal environment is ideal for PTZ camera's a fog free. I wouldn't mount a PTZ camera outside without one because of its fragile internal mechanics.

Post by **Bwired** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:36 am

Hi Charlie,
Mobotix has great outside camera's who can operate from -30 till +60 degrees. The cams have night vision but standard no pan tilt or zoom. The downside is that the cams are very expensive have limited bandwidth control and you can not block annoying users.
http://www.mobotix.com/eng_US/products/ ... era_series
Regards Pieter

Post by **charlie** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:52 pm

Thanks guys, I notice that Bwired has that camera - I wonder what you mean by limited bandwidth control blocking annoying users - I guess that means someone can sit on the camera and use up bandwidth (maybe I did that for a while with your camera). I will study this camera, and these concerns. It will be a while before I can earn enough money for anything at all, but if somehow I do, I would like to be ready to buy something.

Charlie

Post by **Bwired** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:13 pm

I Had a lot of discussions with the guys of Mobotix about there camera's. There are certain websites who want to relay your camera on there own site or keep the connection open for days. There are a lot of ways to avoid this. You can limited the session to x minutes (so after 5 minutes image goes blank), you can block the IP address, you can limit the bandwidth so it does not overload your Adls upload etc. Non of these features are available in the Mobotix camera. The Axis cameras all have these features. So I'm thinking now to buy the AXIS 223M High resolution day and night camera. However I must say the Mobitix has a very good and sharp image. So I'm thinking about selling my Mobotix which is a outdoor camera and used indoor:-)
No problem if you are on the camera for a couple of hours:-) I now have two adls lines which are load balanced.
Regards Pieter

Post by **charlie** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:53 pm

I am wondering, why not just set up something like a Canon 400D, or other SLR with a pretty good frame rate and snap away? Imagine that with a decent controlable telescopic lense, or maybe two cameras - one IR - I suppose that makes no sense - it would wear out too fast or something. Still, you can get these digital SLRs these days which can do some pretty fast rates and get nice photos. Any thoughts along those lines? Just curious.

Charlie

Post by **Bwired** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:00 pm

Hi Charlie,
We are talking about IP camera's, a camera that you can connect to your network and internet. These camera's are designed for streaming video or images at a higher rate. How do you want to connect the Canon 400D

I agree on the part that its taking good images......

Post by **charlie** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:57 pm

Well, I have not really thought about it - the idea just popped in my head - I have a 400D, but I do not have a good lense yet, and I do not know for sure if you can actually control the zoom/focus, and other settings via computer - it will allow you to set up timed photos - minimum 5 seconds between shots via the computer, then it lets you download the photos, etc, but I do not see any zoom option, of course, my lense does not have a motor for zooming. The software seems quite limited - no web link - nothing like IP addressable, probably using VNC somehow one could operate it remotely, but not my idea of the true objective. Seems all doable, though, if the big boys wanted to do it - maybe not enough market - for some reason, people want real video, not high quality photos at ten per second all day long. But, that may change.

Charlie