home brew camera

[deerman]

i have a steath cam i purchased last year, but would like to do away with the film devoloping expense. what is the cheapest and easiest way to go if i'm thinking of tackling a digitial home brew setup? i also want to say that i'm new on this site. i stumbled up on it by accident, but i think it is the coolist site i've ever been on.

[tom]

go with a olympus 370, ms-20 sensor, brians board, pelican 1150 case and run it off of 4 d batteries and you will have a kick butt digital unit that will work great, also slap a 16mb smart media card for more pics

[GeorgiaHunter]

Deerman,
I am just finishing up my D-380. I went with the pelican 1200, MS-20 with the power saver mods, Brian's board, and Jon's flash controller with a Vivitar 2000 flash unit.

From what I have seen and heard the digitals are all pretty weak on the flash, and given that they are power hogs I went with the larger case to make room for more batteries if needed. I am planning on starting with 2 lantern batteries.

[Hill Hopper]

Georga, one lantern battery for the cam is plenty. Use Duracell.

[deerman]

georgia hunter
what kind of money did you end up spending on your unit? if you don't mind me asking. did you use a olympus 380? what is the difference between the 370 & 380?

[GeorgiaHunter]

Deerman,
I got the D-380 for $135, the Pelican for $25, The flash for $12. The extra boards for around $35 each. With the misc parts (Power saver mods for the Ms-20, memory card, etc.) and shipping somewhere around $275-300.


Here is a link to the comparison
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/...ductcompare.asp (http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/productcompare/productcompare.asp)

[bradj]

What exactly does Brians Board do?
Can I get away with not using one.
Also what is this refresh I keep reading about?

[GeorgiaHunter]

Brad,
I think you just answered your own question. Brians board keeps the digital from going to sleep and powering off using the "refresh" function of the digital cam. If you dont use this function (depending on your cam) you will power up on the first PIR trip and take a pic on the second, or possibly not power up at all and get no pics after it goes to sleep.

[bradj]

Thanks for the reply, you don't realize how much easier it got for me to make my own cam. I thought I was going to be wiring all kinds of stuff and searching in stores for things. I think my brain just gave a big sigh of relief.