First post. Could someone recommend a decent camera that is easy to work with for watching bird activity?
Thanks
ByGeorge
Camera Recommendation
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tboydshirt
- Posts: 77
- Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:42 pm
- Location: sugarcreek,ohio
- Martin Colony History: new in 2017, but ready for lots of birds. 44 gourds and 40 t14 style holes
2019 more visitors than in the past and a long suffering SY male. each year enhancing the site and hoping for the future.
If you have wifi and a Windows computer, and If you're not afraid to order from China, I got a really nice one from a company called 'securityshop' through ebay for around $200. You need an ethernet cable to connect the camera to your wifi which allows you to see and record to your computer. setting it up might be a little confusing for a first timer, but I'd be happy to walk you through the steps. You want easy, and might therefore go to an American and more expensive setup, but here are some of the nice things about the style camera I put up:
A PTZ camera (Point, Tilt, Zoom) can be aimed from the keyboard in any direction, and zoomed in as much as 30X on a target. My furthest martin house is about 200' away, but on full zoom, it fills the computer screen.
I can click a button and snap pictures or videos which will store on my computer somewhere.
The camera can be programmed to follow a travel pattern. For instance, you could set it up to look at a bluebird house for a few seconds, then move to a martin house, then to zoom out to see your whole neighborhood, etc. what you set up is repeated over and over till you manually move it.
I, myself, went through a huge learning curve when I got it trying to translate broken English instructions, but now have enough knowledge that I could make it easier for others willing to try this type of camera. If this peaks your interest, type in PTZ camera on YouTube and look at a few videos.
Below is a link to the Ebay store where I ordered Mine. Somehow, they can get from China to your door in about a week! There are many models and I chose one with audio which lets me Listen also. Oh, and you can put an app on your cell Phone which I used to remotely rotate, zoom, and view live while on vacation in Florida last week.
https://www.ebay.com/str/securityeshop
A PTZ camera (Point, Tilt, Zoom) can be aimed from the keyboard in any direction, and zoomed in as much as 30X on a target. My furthest martin house is about 200' away, but on full zoom, it fills the computer screen.
I can click a button and snap pictures or videos which will store on my computer somewhere.
The camera can be programmed to follow a travel pattern. For instance, you could set it up to look at a bluebird house for a few seconds, then move to a martin house, then to zoom out to see your whole neighborhood, etc. what you set up is repeated over and over till you manually move it.
I, myself, went through a huge learning curve when I got it trying to translate broken English instructions, but now have enough knowledge that I could make it easier for others willing to try this type of camera. If this peaks your interest, type in PTZ camera on YouTube and look at a few videos.
Below is a link to the Ebay store where I ordered Mine. Somehow, they can get from China to your door in about a week! There are many models and I chose one with audio which lets me Listen also. Oh, and you can put an app on your cell Phone which I used to remotely rotate, zoom, and view live while on vacation in Florida last week.
https://www.ebay.com/str/securityeshop