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Swann Outback Cam
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It is 12x10x4.5cm grey in colour and weights 315grams with the canvas strap attached that allows fixing to trees etc.
It takes colour images during the day and monochrome ones at night, it is really down to the available light level.
While it is described as waterproof this does not mean you can immerse it in water. One night when I had it set up in my garden tied to my apple tree there was a lot of very heavy rain, this in itself is probably going to cut dramatically the number of sightings as most animals tend to stay away during inclement weather, when I brought the camera in the next morning I was surprised at how much I needed to dry out and how far inside the unit.
So a quick tour around the outside before it is opened to reveal the controls that are on the inside of the camera.
The face has three items in a vertical row, at the top the motion sensor, next the camera lens and finally the IR LEDs. The final unit also includes a light sensor and an indicator LED.
The left side has hinges, the right side two clips to firmly hold the unit closed while the back has two points to feed the strap through allowing easy anchoring, alternately you can use the tripod screw in the base to anchor it.
Undo the clips to see the inside, at the base you fit four ‘AA’ batteries and to insure a firm grip there is foam rubber in the back of the door to hold them firmly in position. Above the battery bay is the insertion point for the provided 2GB SD card and beside this the control buttons, a top line of UP, DOWN and OK with a second line to enter SETUP and a master on/off switch. Above all these is a 3.7x1.5 monochrome display to set up your preferences.
The display you initially set up with time and date on the top line with a numeric display, below this there are four small icons that show what you are setup for, still images, movie, the time delay and that you have an SD card inserted.
There is a USB port on the left side if you prefer to download images or video to your PC without removing the SD card.
The camera will work up to 10metres away at night with the motion detection being a slightly greater area than this. While you can set it up to capture video at night I found that still images work better as these require less light.
It comes with a three language manual the first 16 pages are in English, most things are straightforward but on occasions the display and the manual do not quite sync in what they show (or say it will show) but this is minor.
Foxes quite happily play, dig, sleep on my lawn during daytime and often when I come towards the kitchen door they stir and reluctantly move away cursing me for spoiling their nap in the sun, more interesting I find the doves that lie on the lawn and spread their wings to sunbathe, these videos are captured with only a small time delay. Night time I caught a few visitors but you do need to make sure the camera has an uninterrupted view.
Doing my Internet searches found the Swann OutbackCam at a best price of £66.35 with free delivery from first link below.
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Comment by mark guest, 17 Jan 2014 19:49