On 2009-11-30 15:12:44 +0000, "Spider" said:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
I'd quite like to get a camera that will record the garden at night. I'd
love to see what comes and goes in the hours of darkness. Can anyone
recommend one that isn't silly money but does a reasonably good 'hobby'
job?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon


Hi Sacha,

Our house is bristling with CCTV cameras which see at night, but you may
need to specify 'night vision' to get reasonable images. We can see if a
burglar approaches ... but we don't want to admire him! We are on our
second set of cameras now, and we could afford slightly better the second
time round ... they are *so* much better. Whatever you buy, you'll wish
you'd stretched your purse strings. Just a thought, if you persuade Ray to
have CCTV for the nursery, you could charge it against tax and slip in your
personal 'critter camera'!

If you go ahead, you should be aware that if you place the camera anywhere
near a light source, moths will be attracted. If moths are attracted,
spiders will be attracted and you will have webs obliterating your view :~(.
It's a regular occurance here due to our many approach lights. Also, since
your camera will probably use an infra-red heat-detecting device (so it's
only on when it sees something), you should avoid putting it where your
boiler flue (or similar heat source) will trigger it. You will quickly
learn that scrolling through CCTV footage is rather tedious. You want to be
looking at limited images of something worthwhile.

Spider

Many thanks for all that useful info. I did find one at a place called
fly on the wall.uk.com, which describes itself as an Infrared CCD
Wildlife Camera with Built-in DVR. Any (polite) comments would be
welcome.
http://tinyurl.com/ylgmjrz
I looked at the Maplins site but couldn't see anything similar. This
one would have to be mounted where we can get at it to change the SD
card (no, I have no idea either!) But all our security lights are set
at a height where they would be triggered only by humans or the
occasional branch waving in front of them and the boiler is in a little
room on the corner of the house near the courtyard, so we wouldn't be
pointing the camera in that direction. There are absolutely no street
lights round here, I'm happy to say, so that shouldn't be a problem.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon