Trail cam time lapse?

[spandit]

Assuming my land purchase goes ahead soon, I'll be planting some trees this winter. Thought it would be fun making a time lapse video of them growing.

The plan would be to mount a camera high up in a tree and take a few photographs a day. I know some of the trailcams boast a battery life of a year but I was thinking about more time than that although I suppose I could just change the batteries every couple of months.

Are there cameras out there that could do this? Not interested in the IR wildlife triggering features so wondering whether an external wired CCTV might be better? The camera would be about 15m from a barn with mains power

 

[jackcbr]

Interesting idea mate, might be worth looking at external wireless webcams linked to a PC running a time lapse programme. It all comes down to how often you want to take pictures and what period of time. That and budget. If you are thinking of a video from what you are doing, you are looking at about 32 frames per second. When I've been on location filming TV adverts we've taken a stills picture every 15 mins to record light levels and to give us a reference point. Given the choice I wouldn't fix it high up in a tree for an extended period of time. You'd probably find the leaves would grow in the way. I'd be more inclined to fix to a building or drop in a dedicated pole. Also consider the transition of daylight. If you position your cam in the wrong place, you could find that the sun bleaches out your frame. And this envelope will change with the seasons as the sun transits through different regions of the sky, but you know that.

 

[joejoe]

good friend happens to run asecurity company , wil have a word with him

 

[santaman2000]

Don't know about attaching them to mains. but maybe powereing them with deep cycle batteries that can be recharged a lot.

 

[greensurfingbear]

No idea but it sounds like a cracking idea. Great advice from jackcbr. Sound like he knows the score.


Orric

 

[spandit]

I've got a wireless IP cam that would work but the image quality is frankly awful. I think a high resolution webcam could work although weatherproofing it would be a challenge...

 

[spandit]

OK, what I need is a weathercam, basically a box for my digital camera with power supply connected to a server... Time to dig out my old camera cables!

 

[jackcbr]

Think about sub zero temps and the effect on your cabling. You might want to bury the cable quite deep and maybe run it through another tube or hose. I think a wireless system would be better with maybe a solar panel and battery option. Also consider condensation build up if you use a housing and the possibility of rodent attack.

 

[jackcbr]

Just found this online. Complete package, but might give you an idea of what you need.

https://harbortronics.com/Products/TimeLapsePackage/

 

[jackcbr]

Or better still

www.brinno.com/html/GWC-intro.html

Looks like a unit that does it for you