Cheapo Digital Cam

[Eagle Eye]

Check out this cheap digital cam, sounds ready to hang on a tree.
http://www.tigertoys.com/yahoo/yahoocam.html

[bradleydale]

I wonder what the range is on the sensor?

[gizz]

Wonder what it costs. I click on "buy" but I see it is "out of stock". No price listed.

[Archilochus]

Eagle Eye,
I sure would like to check it out, but I get nothing but a blank purple page when I follow the link.
I'll have to do a search , see if I can find anything similar.

Archilochus

[Archilochus]

Hi all,
Had to view their page with Navigator - Explorer would not work.

This is an interesting camera. ###No specs were given for operating temperature ###or range / Field Of View for the cams sensor and IR illuminator.
The big problem with it (and digital cams in general) is the power consumption. ###This beast will only last about 12 hours in the "alarm" (spy) ###mode.

Any idea if this is the camera used in the "Game-Vu" - The specs sound very similar.

Archilochus

[Matt in MO]

On the FAQs page it states the camera goes into sleep mode after ?? minutes of non-use and requires a single press of the shutter to wake it up. Difficult to overcome, I think.

[Archilochus]

Hi Matt,
That's only when the cam is in regular mode. ###When switched into the "alarm" (spy) mode - enabling the cams motion sensor - the cam stays on all the time (until film buffer is full or batts are low). ###That's why the cam sucks up the batts in 12 hours.

Archilochus

[gizz]

Any more info on this digi? Price?

[Eagle Eye]

gizz, my father in-law brought this to my attention, seems YAHOO sent him an e-mail with an offer for this camera. He was looking for a digital camera to use around the farm and asked my opinion. I told him you get what you pay for so he didnt order one, ###Had ###I been thinking he could have been our guniea pig. ###Anyway I believe the cost was around 80 bucks.

(Edited by Eagle Eye at 7:41 am on May 17, 2001)

[wfontjr]

i bought one off ebay for $45, the picture quality is very poor, also it downloads the pictures when its in the mood, the motion sensor takes consecutive pictures, i think 20 or so with no counter, i plan on taking it apart someday and expermenting, but so far have not found the time

[Richard Webb]

If the purple web page is screwing up your computer you can load the Instruction manual directly as a .pdf file:

http://www.tigertoys.com/yahoo/Camera-inst.pdf

Still can't figure how the camera takes flash pictures at night without a flash? ###A true spy camera if it can.

[wfontjr]

uses infared lights, has about six emitters around the shutter

[Richard Webb]

Do you know the effective distance of the Infrared Flash. ###The reason I ask is because I gave my 10 year old an AGFA CL18 digital camera for his birthday, and in total darkness the flash is only good for 3 feet. I was a planning a father/son project with me doing an Owl PF, and him with the little $49 digital camera. We have plenty of animals here in the suburbs that come up out of the storm sewers, and mountain lions who chase them. ###Not to mention the coyote warning signs. ###When I was a kid I don't remember the animals coming that close to town.

[wfontjr]

sorry not yet, if i get a chance i will field test it

[dharter]

What is the resolution of that camera? ###
I have a WWF Slam Cam that I bought for $20.00 ###It is a digital camera. ###I just looked at the manual for the resolution, but I can't find it. ###I think its resolution is 320 ###by ___ pixels. ###The pictures it takes are not very good and it has a sleep mode. ###I think that you would want a camera with at least 640 by 480 pixels which is what VGA is. ###
A sleep mode would not be so bad if you could wake the camera up to take a picture before an animal leaves the field of view. When an animal trips the sensor, you could wake up the camera. ###
Then a timer would take a picture after the camera had "woke" up. A third 555 timer could then prevent multiple pictures in succession of the same animal.
The question is how long does it take the camera to wake up? ###For my WWF Slam cam toy it is about 4 seconds and if there is not a lot of light it won't take a picture.