Wireless Digital Inspection Camera with 2.4-inch Color LCD, On-screen Image Reverse and 180° Rotation On Amazon
- On-screen image reverse and 180° rotation
- 39.4" watertight flex shaft with 16mm CMOS video imager head
- Built-in 2.4" color LCD display with sharp 480 x 234 resolution
- Capture 640 x 480 JPEG images
- Two white LED lamps for low light viewing
Best Review: Wireless Digital Inspection Camera with 2.4-inch Color LCD, On-screen Image Reverse and 180° Rotation - [Short Summary]I purchased this at very cheap hardware store with the initials HF when it was on sale. I went in with fairly low expectations given that most tools you get from HF are definitely on the budget side.I was (am) pleasantly surprised with this little hot-rod.PROS: Cheap, lightweight, cable is stiff enough to help guide camera, image flip feature, video out jack, magnet attachment is likely the best of the 3, being able to peer into inaccessible places.CONS: Short focal length, near objects can wash out the image, LCD has a narrow view angle, no image capture (though the box misleads you to believe it does), mirror attachment is pretty useless.Quick Summary: I'm happy with the purchase. I had some water damage that this camera came in very handy during investigation. Yes it's cheap, but so far has been useful and for the price I got it ($70) I have no buyer's remorse.~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^[Deeper details]At 480x234 (advertised LCD resolution), the picture quality on the color LCD is so-so, but for my purposes, it's been fine.Before I got this device, I had expectations of what the video would look like and was a bit disappointed when I actually fired it up. I thought it would have a much better view and quality when viewing large open areas. Like if you slide it under a door, the image is pretty grainy and that's if the room is already lit. If the room or void is dark, you're not going to see much except the floor or wall right in front of or next to the camera. If all you want to know is if the room is full of zombies it might do that, but if you want to spot water leaking or mouse carcasses/droppings in a dark room, it would have to pretty close to where you can get the camera. If the void you are investigating is well lit, you'll obviously be able to see a lot more.If you are trying to peer down a long crack (like behind something pushed up against a wall), you'll see nothing past a few inches because the camera exposure will be adjusted to handle the light. Another way to think of it: Take 2 sheets of 4x8 plywood and put them an inch apart. Feed the camera in between. You'll only see a few inches in front and the rest of the gap will be completely black.About a week after getting it, I discovered some water damage in the bathroom. I tore into it a little and then used this camera to check inside the wall. It took a bit of getting used to, since anything near the camera causes the image to get a bit washed out, so as you slide and move the camera around inside a wall, thick spider webs will wash the image out a bit, but with a bit of wiggle and movement, you'll be able to recover the image. I was really happy with the results. For all its limitations, it's definitely better than having to completely tear up a wall just to see if you actually have to tear up the wall (which I did, but the camera allowed me to know beforehand :o)The actual camera whip is about 3ft long and is flexible but holds its shape pretty well. As you're fishing the camera around, it's easy to get disoriented and wonder "What am I looking at?" There's a button on the unit that enables 4 changes; flip horizontal and flip vertical. I thought it would just rotate the image by 90 degrees, but that's not quite what it does. I'll try to describe it, but really difficult with just text...Example: Let's say you are looking at some symbols in normal rotation and you see "o/-", press the rotate button once, and you get "-/o" (which is flipped on the horizontal axis), click it again and it goes upside down "-/o" but still flipped on the horizontal axis, and a third click it will be "o/-" which is just upside down (undoes the flip on horizontal axis, but still flipped on vertical).Hard to describe with just text, but instead of the image rotating around like on a dial, it flips horizontal, then vertical, then undoes horizontal flip (leaving vertical flip), then back to original. It's advertised to reverse Image and 180 deg rotation, which is pretty much what it does. From a circuit standpoint, I think that's much easier than trying to rotate a non-square image, and budget is what this camera is about.I've found that it's easy to disorient the image with a couple flips. A little experimentation can help get comfortable with this functionality.The LCD has a fairly narrow view angle, meaning that looking straight on gives the best image, but moving your head to the side, it starts to look pretty bad, and at extreme angles, the image actually appears inversed. Just an artifact of a cheap LCD, but where it does come into play, is when you are fishing the cable/camera around, it's easy to move the unit into a position that makes the LCD hard to see. I got used to having to move around head around to get the best view. Again, you can get used to this.There are 2 white LEDs on the sides of the camera that appear to have 8 levels of adjustment. The camera auto-adjusts its exposure, so as you increase or decrease the LED brightness, you can see the camera adjust to keep a fairly consistent image. This adjustment helps a little if you are struggling with debris that is causing washout.Another thing to be aware of, is the focal length is really short, so if you needed to read something, it starts to go out of focus at about 4 inches (example: 12pt font on a page gets blurry around 4 inches).*** NOTE: The box says "Image capture: JPG images (640x480)" ...uh, no. There is no capture functionality in this device. I'd say this isn't just misleading but clearly false advertising.What it does have is a video out jack that looks like it outputs 640x480 and when hooked up to a monitor it provides a darn good picture and more detail than when looking at the onboard LCD. What this also means is that any capture device that has a video in (like a digital or video camera if yours supports it), you CAN capture 640x480 images with that other device. So, maybe not completely false advertising but close enough. The video out cable that comes with it has a 4 segment (Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve) 1/8th inch male end, and the other end is a standard male RCA plug, which should allow for plugging into various TVs and monitors. Plugging into a digital camera will likely need some kind of simple male-to-mail adapter -- RCA from the inspection camera to whatever is on the end of your cameras plug...maybe another RCA? That would be convenient and easy to bridge.[Attachments]It comes with 3 attachments that clip on to the end of the camera. A magnet and simple hook attachments for retrieval, both stick about 2 inches in front of the camera which is right in the focal length zone. The third attachment is a 45 deg angled "mirror". That's "mirror" in quotes because the reflective surface is just flat, polished metal.I haven't had to use any of these yet other than experimentation, but it's easy to imagine all sorts of treasure hunts with the magnet and hook attachments. The magnet is really strong. I was able to pick up a 1 and 1/8th deepwell 1/2inch drive socket with no problem. So likely, it'll latch onto whatever you are looking to retrieve. But if you are snaking around anything metal, it may hamper your maneuvering by causing the camera to get stuck (like against a steel case).The quick test I did with the "mirror" attachment shows that it's pretty much useless. The camera picks up even the smallest bits of dust and debris. I tried to get it as clean as I could, but it quickly gets messed up when fishing around inside a wall. It might not be completely useless, just the situation where it's needed is going to be very specific, like if you are just soooo close to what you want to view, but it's just out of view.The attachments are actually a bit difficult to snap onto the end and when they are on there, they are very secure, which is a marginal plus because you don't want to lose these inside whatever you are spelunking.[Other]It came with 4 batteries so I was up and running in about a minute. It takes 4 AA and they fit into a square battery cartridge that slides into the base of the handle. It has a screw to hold the battery compartment on, but it seems to stay just fine without the screw actually in.The blow-molded case is adequate for storage but provides no shock cushion.All in all, as I mentioned earlier, I'm happy with the purchase, but I think I had the right expectations.
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