Inspection camera opinions

[supershifty]

Hello members,

I've been pondering about buying an inspection camera as I thought it would be handy to get a look at areas out of the line of sight without pulling an entire assembly apart. I mean to get a look at under dashes, anything under the hood - just general stuff. I'm not talking about probing spark plug holes and looking into bores.

Supercheap has this one on special at the moment: http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/onl...33#Description

Have any of you had any experience with this model? I know you get what you pay for, and for the amount of use I have for one, it's not really warranted for me to spend a wad of cash. I'm just looking to make life a bit easier. I'm getting a bit stale with using a torch and mirror these days!

My questions are:

Does the screen offer reasonable resolution for image quality?
Does the camera work well in low ambient light?
Is it awkward to use?
Is it worth spending $100, or just forget about it?

Thank you for your valued opinions.

Cheers!

[pcman]

i brought one from jaycar that just plugs into a usb port on a laptop, next to useless was my opinion, needs to be much better quality brought it to check on the bore of a engine i was buying didnt tell me anything i didnt know using a torch and looking through the plug hole

[AndyXR6T]

I bought a cheaply from Aldi thinking it would be very beneficial for my work (sparky) but you can't beat pulling something apart and getting right into where you need to be. They are handy and it they are $100 (I paid that) than they can come in handy but wouldn't pay anymore than that

[dave351cid]

"lilmattie" mentions using one in this thread. might pay to pm him.
http://fordforums.com.au/showthread....50#post4502750

i was looking at these last night
http://www.bullantworksafe.com/inspection-cameras.html

look very much the same. some of those grey ones on ebay too. might be an older model.

[mik]

i have wanted one of these for a while, is that resolution ok(320x240)? it sounds a bit average, but without seeing it hard to say how good it is.

[cs123]

I bought a ebay special. $44 delivered. It is a usb camera, so you can take snapshots with it.

Looking into my manifold.



Downside is that the lights lack power which makes it of limited use when inspecting a large void.

You will also have a limited field of view in some places. I stuck it down a spark plug hole. You can see into the bore but cannot inspect 360 degrees. I could easily make out hone marks on one of our bikes.

This is looking into a old 351. The piston was up near TDC, so not much to see,




Looking into the plenum on my car. This area in not visible at all and is a common problem area.



If you could set up some better lighting then it would be very handy. As it stands it's OK for the money.

[mik]

thanks for the pics, that`s probably not too bad really, considering it`s so close up and everything, what is the resolution of this camera?

[supershifty]

I had a look around on ebay after reading cs123's post.
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_f...:MEFSRCHX:SRCH

I'm thinking that a USB camera and laptop would be more advantagous than a hand held unit for me. I'm looking from the point of view as a home user, not a tradie.

With a laptop you get a bigger screen, (this doesn't increase the resolution, but can increase the size of the image) the ability to record and save images, edit the brightness/contrast/hues to help with clarity, keeps one hand free to help navigate the camera, they seem to come with 5 or 10 metre leads that allow you to set the laptop down and go for a wander, and they're cheaper.

Decisions, decisions!

[cs123]

Originally Posted by mik

thanks for the pics, that`s probably not too bad really, considering it`s so close up and everything, what is the resolution of this camera?

640*480

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/USB-Endos...t_11727wt_1024

[Outbackjack]

Have a look here.... http://www.aircraftspruce.com/ Do search on inspection camera. A few options there. They range from about 170 to 1100 US $$ I have dealt with this company dozens of times. They are 100% service orientated.

[supershifty]

Hi all, I ended up buying this one off fleabay: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120998447...84.m1439.l2649

I paid $31 including postage, but the seller has upped the price to $33 since.

The unit seems to be made reasonably well for the price. The camera end is brass, has a recessed lens to help protect it from damage, the USB end has a thumbwheel for adjusting the brightness 4 led lights. It has a max resolution of 640x480 @ 30fps. It's claimed to be waterproof, but I'll only accept that as showerproof. The software supplied with the unit can only very best be described as utter crap. I will be sourcing better software, that's no biggie, it's only a USB camera.

As the weather has been crap in Brisbane over the weekend, I've only tried it around the house in few dark, out of the line of sight places like the plumbing behind the sink etc. It works quite well for what I want it to do. The image is not crystal clear high definition, but certainly enough to give you an idea of what's going on and what you're trying to look at.

The software supplied only gives the option of "real time" streaming video, or recording video, not photos. Therefore it takes a steady hand to acquire a good image. You can adjust hues, colour, resolution etc - but the supplied software is very clunky and totally unintuitive to use. The camera cs123 linked to has the advantage of taking photos at the press of a button - Niiice!

The only downside to using any of these cheaper inspection cameras, whether handheld or laptop is that you are viewing via an LCD screen. No matter what the size of the screen - sunlight is your ultimate enemy for viewing. Good shade or a dark shed will be your friend here.

Overall I'm happy, I was prepared to spend $100 and got out of it for $31 - thanks to the advice of you folk on the forum!

Cheers!