GardenWatchCam – Product Overview And Uses
In addition to my overview of the BirdWatchCam application with Helmeted HoneyeatersI have also trialed the GardenWatchCam to see if it has any application for my work on these birds. The camera works by taking an image of about 150kb at a setting time of your choosing i.e. 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day. The camera then automatically stores the frames as a video series which are stored and shown as a video clip.
The GardenWatchCam has a focus range of about a metre on the macro setting (it unfortunately doesn’t work well up really close) but can focus to almost any distance, such as on the sky, mountains or ocean etc. The camera stores the footage automatically onto a USB stick (it comes with a 2GB stick). Which depending on how long you leave it out can easily take about 13,000 photos with the USB stick it comes with. The batteries I used would also easily last this long - click here for more information on the recyclable batteries used.
The camera is fully weather proof, works best when mounted on a good tripod (it does come with a monopod/stake which is okay but a tripod better), is fool proof to set up and download the video footage files and provides a reasonable image quality.
For birds this camera’s main interest would be to gain some footage of a bird building it’s nest, but to get this footage is easier said than done. Trying to find nests in the wild is a difficult task itself; let alone finding one being built and then to be able to put a camera on it means that there has to be no obstacles such as nest height or plant material in the way etc. So my conclusions on using this camera are that it has fantastic application for a range of uses but on wildlife or moving objects are probably too difficult. Applications in the garden where the camera would work really well are listed below.
Distant (landscape setting on the camera)
- People working in landscapes i.e. construction or tree planting.
- Landscapes changing over time - really an automatic photopoint.
Close (macro setting on the camera)
- Larger flowers like sunflowers
- Watching insect attack on a fruit or vegetable i.e. snails or caterpillars eating something
Click on the links to watch footage of:
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