spy cams

Originally posted by GarryB
“Why anyone would want to involve someone who didnt willfully enjoy participating in such a thing by filming them clandestinely is beyond me.”

I wasn’t thinking of porn actually… more as a fight solver… who keeps pinching the change out of my drawer, does that neighbour throw grass clippings over the fence when I am not home. Internal security issues like who has been trying to get into my gun cabinet… very serious whether it is a child or a burgler.

I think you will find that wireless link technology is rather mature and that colour signals are common. I have a friend with a spitfire with a 9ft wingspan I have been trying to convince that putting a camera inside would be cool…. not a camcorder… as they are large, heavy and expensive… a mini cam, with battery and transmitter can be the size of a cigarette packet or less and weigh just a few hundred grammes. The receiver with a tape recorder and a small LCD TV, or perhaps a laptop with the receiver and you have your own UAV… though manually flown of course. I am too big to fit in a model plane but I can see what it is like. I have seen colour minicams for $80-$150 and whole camera systems with power supplies, transmitters etc for $300 odd dollars. The NZ dollar is worth about 58c American, so roughly half it for american dollars… you can probably get such things even cheaper in the US.

Garry, if you want that your best bet is to add an omindirectional antenna with it…Usally these things come with a patch antenna…somewhat directional….add in some amplifiers at both ends too….unless there’s somekind of regulation in which case you just amplifier the receiver. It should work out to the range of your RC aicraft.

I should mention that these systems can be quite sophisticated… you can have cameras at your front and back doors etc pointed so that you get a good look at a persons face, but also that it doesn’t pick up background activity… ie generally up high, pointing down. You can use software that will detect movement in the image, so that when a person comes to the door it starts to record and when thigs in the image stop moving then it will stop… this gathers the required info without wasting “recording time”. (I would have said tape, but harddrive space is better as it it more durable and generally of greater volume than your average tape.)

As I work in the Security Systems Industry your best bet would be to have a look on Ebay as most serious suppliers wont deal with the public. I have used a couple and the Sanyo ones to be the best although as with most pinhole spy cameras you will never get a vrystal clear picture as a normal CCTV camera.

“Why anyone would want to involve someone who didnt willfully enjoy participating in such a thing by filming them clandestinely is beyond me.”

I wasn’t thinking of porn actually… more as a fight solver… who keeps pinching the change out of my drawer, does that neighbour throw grass clippings over the fence when I am not home. Internal security issues like who has been trying to get into my gun cabinet… very serious whether it is a child or a burgler.

I think you will find that wireless link technology is rather mature and that colour signals are common. I have a friend with a spitfire with a 9ft wingspan I have been trying to convince that putting a camera inside would be cool…. not a camcorder… as they are large, heavy and expensive… a mini cam, with battery and transmitter can be the size of a cigarette packet or less and weigh just a few hundred grammes. The receiver with a tape recorder and a small LCD TV, or perhaps a laptop with the receiver and you have your own UAV… though manually flown of course. I am too big to fit in a model plane but I can see what it is like. I have seen colour minicams for $80-$150 and whole camera systems with power supplies, transmitters etc for $300 odd dollars. The NZ dollar is worth about 58c American, so roughly half it for american dollars… you can probably get such things even cheaper in the US.

I prefere Garrys method of madness!

Originally posted by GarryB
still works as a cover for your clandestine fliming… }>

Garry- your making some pretty specifac assumptions here(and your evil smiley didnt activate for some reason). First off, I want to use it as a wireless webcam around the house, for things like seeing whos at the door, having a view outside, just stuff that would be fun to shoot without having to hold a camera or deal with wires. And if I ever get a laptop, that opens up more possibilitys for filming stuff that is unaccessable or combersome with a normal video camera in outdoor situations. I imagine your right though, that these spy cams will only be in B/W due to bandwidth restrictions of the transmitter. But Ive heard the range and picture quality is phenomenal with todays electonics. And let me say as a disclaimer that there is plenty of quality porn out there produced by consenting individuals. Why anyone would want to involve someone who didnt willfully enjoy participating in such a thing by filming them clandestinely is beyond me.

Do you have a local electronics hobbiest type shop near you. You can generally buy parts or whole kits depending upon your needs and level of expertise.

Rather than go for the smallest, which often means the most expensive and probably Black and White CCD camera, I’d suggest you be a bit creative and hide it in something, like a suitcase, or old radio or something. If you hide a camera in an old gheto blaster make sure the ghetto blaster still works as a cover for your clandestine fliming… }>