Cameras

[LittLeTS]

Hello all,
First time posting and I'm new so bare with me please.
I searched the forum and only found one post about cameras if I missed anymore I apologize.

I am currently using blink 4th generation cameras for my nest boxes which do okay for those but doesn't work for my feeders even with a prescription only can be viewed for 5 minutes at a time then you have to hit continue again. I'm wanting an outdoor camera wifi that is battery operated. I wouldn't say live streaming but something I can use that's easy to install and can watch my bird feeder station for long periods of time with good night vision and alarm and maybe lights can be turned on and off.
I wouldn't be streaming them on a platform or anything just on my Mac and iPad.
To many to choose from and I'm not tech savvy please if anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks so much

[LittLeTS]

WOW! Nobody
I bought one but it's okay no zoom or night vision oh well. Thanks everybody for at least reading my post.

[flyin-lowe]

Welcome, for most of us this is the off season, or the very beginning of the martin season so the responses come in slow. There are also not a ton of people on here who use cameras in their housing so the odds of finding many people to answer your specific question this time of year is lower than it would be in a month or two once things start to pick up.

I have Blink cameras at my home for security, and I know some people here use them in nest boxes I don't think they would be the best option. Just because they would be going off constatntly and the battery life would be an issue. At my house the batteries last several years because when we leave the house and activate the cameras, they only trip when someone pulls up or we get a delivery. That is how they are designed to work. If you could run a wire and go solar or something it might make more sense. I would like to have some type of camera but my martin houses are about far enough away I am not sure the wifi signal would be stable.

[C.C.Martins]

Welcome! I'll second flyin-lowe, hes spot on. I used a blink camera for gourds, and like your nest boxes, worked fine close to wifi. Batteries lasted the whole season, depends on the settings...only peered in when I got curious.
I tried to use them elsewhere, and the signal crapped out. Solar or hard wire wouldn't be an option out there for me.
For a bird feeder, think as suggested, solar is a good option.

Wild winter weather has many of us hoping returns are delayed, so a very large group is not on just yet.

[flyin-lowe]

CC, sounds like you left the cameras off and only used them if you wanted to look? If that is the case th batteries should last quite a while. Some on here had used them turned on so they just constantly recording 30 seconds clips because of the constant motion. That is the scenario I was saying would not be ideal, do to the way Blink cameras record.

[tboydshirt]

if you have wifi at home, for roughly $200 you can get a PTZ camera (point, tilt, and zoom) and it's totally weatherproof . Mine is 40X zoom meaning my houses are over 300 feet from the house yet I can zoom in so that the farthest house down by the pond will completely fill the screen! A free App on my phone called VideoLink lets me look at my phone from anywhere and rotate to look at other places it easily lets me set up patrols where it moves from house to house. Thee app is awkward to install due to language barriers but post me here and i can walk you it. For another couple hundred, you can get a dvd recorder which I have. with it, i can review every moment of the day to easily to check out and preserve any bird action.
on EBAY I found a number of Chinese vendors with free shipping.