Looking for a battery operated webcam to fit somewhere in my garden - specifically to monitor within the garden rather than the street or road. It would be placed inside a dog shelter so while it could do with being weatherproof, realisticaly it just needs to have a good operating temperature floor. Any recommendations?
I was looking for more in the way of recommendation from experience of a product. Problem I have with what I'm seeing on ebay (never thought of that, mind you, thanks) is that no single product seems to tick every box. The most limiting factor seems to be the wireless element. I don't so much want wifi as no wires anywhere - so battery powered. I nearly hit the buy-it-now button for the sentient mini then realised that it has no PC connectivity!
Will storage work or does it need to be broadcast? The device you're looking for is a wireless IP camera, but those aren't cheap. A TV type one and a cheap USB TV capture card may be your best bet.
what about using a wireless USB hub along with a standard webcam? might be cheaper than buying a specialized webcam. granted you will have to come up with a way to power the USB hub as they usually use wall warts. a 9V battery adapted to the wall wart plug would probably work, but i dont know what the battery life would be like.
I'm a bit split on the storage, in a sense that's the key - while the unit is not to specifically deter intrusion it would be unfortunate to have the device stolen along with any images captured. I'm really taken with the wildlife cameras which run off ni-mh batteries & have motion detection rather than permanent filming with software on a pc determining whether or not motion is taking place to capture. They also appear to have better photo resolution & quality lenses so I'd think low light pics of anything scuttling around the garden would be pretty good. However, while that would be nice to have, it's not my primary aim as there is a minor risk of the unit being stolen. I'm leaning towards this