[leighv]

Hi all,

Long story short - my neighbours are stealing my post and I need to get proof on camera. Problem is that there is no way to see the postbox from my flat, and the only way I can see that this is going to work is to put it in my car and point it out the back window.

As far as I can see, I have two options: wifi webcam or camcorder. The former is preferred however it would have to be wireless, and I'm assuming the drain on batteries/external battery would be greater than a camcorder.

So my question is as follows. There is about 15m between the car and the postbox - so I need a camcorder with fairly good resolution, that records to a pc friendly format (like .avi, so I can review and edit on a pc), that accepts the max memory card (32gb) and a long battery life. What is the max number of hours in terms of recording and battery life could I expect?

Thanks.

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by leighv

Hi all,

Long story short - my neighbours are stealing my post and I need to get proof on camera. Problem is that there is no way to see the postbox from my flat, and the only way I can see that this is going to work is to put it in my car and point it out the back window.

As far as I can see, I have two options: wifi webcam or camcorder. The former is preferred however it would have to be wireless, and I'm assuming the drain on batteries/external battery would be greater than a camcorder.

So my question is as follows. There is about 15m between the car and the postbox - so I need a camcorder with fairly good resolution, that records to a pc friendly format (like .avi, so I can review and edit on a pc), that accepts the max memory card (32gb) and a long battery life. What is the max number of hours in terms of recording and battery life could I expect?

Thanks.

All i can tell you is my hdv fx-7 shows around 420 mins recording time with the long life battery and my sr12 tapeless cam 380 mins with its long life bttery.

[A n d r e w]

It may be that you've already discounted this as an option, but isn't fitting a lock to your postbox the simpler option?

Otherwise you're looking at at least a couple hundred nicker for something like the Canon FS100. Canon has ceased making its manuals available online, so I can't tell you how much video you'll be able to record per GB.

One problem is that the maximum single file size for SDHC cards is 4GB, so buying a huge memory card will only mean you can record for hours on end provided the camcorder automatically starts writing to a new file rather than just dropping out of record and waiting for someone to press the red button again.

But the major limiting factor is always going to be battery life, which is never amazing with consumer camcorders. A rule of thumb would be 1 to 2 hours with a standard battery.

You'll find more discussion of the FS100 if you do a forum search for it.

Good luck,
Andrew.

[glesgaguyav]

You could also use a mini cam, the sort used for Bird Boxes, these would be far cheaper than a stanalone camcorder, Iam pretty sure you can get them wireless and you could possibly run it from your cigarette lighter in the car, you can then just monitor/record events from your flat.

Problem with a Camcorder in the back of the car is, someones likely too nick it

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by Courtaj

It may be that you've already discounted this as an option, but isn't fitting a lock to your postbox the simpler option?

Otherwise you're looking at at least a couple hundred nicker for something like the Canon FS100. Canon has ceased making its manuals available online, so I can't tell you how much video you'll be able to record per GB.

One problem is that the maximum single file size for SDHC cards is 4GB, so buying a huge memory card will only mean you can record for hours on end provided the camcorder automatically starts writing to a new file rather than just dropping out of record and waiting for someone to press the red button again.

But the major limiting factor is always going to be battery life, which is never amazing with consumer camcorders. A rule of thumb would be 1 to 2 hours with a standard battery.

You'll find more discussion of the FS100 if you do a forum search for it.

Good luck,
Andrew.

Yeh I agree with the FS100. The battery life is 3 hours when fully charged and it does automatically write over to a new file after the 4gb limit is reached so you don't actually need to manually do it. Obviously you'll need a memory card at least 3 hours capability like 16gb.

The thing is: it's quite expensive to just leave in your car back window

also for the camera to record the lcd panel needs to be open which can make it slightly obvious you're recording.

Hope that helps