I bought a rather nifty little camera the other day intended to be put to good use recording the wildlife in the garden. Incidentally the first thing I read when I opened the box was that the place I bought it from offer M&S vouchers if you use there equipment to either catch a burglar in the process of nicking your stuff or video eggs hatching, I’m now more determined to get a successful bird box cam working after my recent failure.

Anyway, although cheap this little camera has some nice little features. First off its wireless, transmitting colour picture and sound to neighbouring TVs and can either be powered off the mains or via a 9 volt battery. Its also an IR camera so when its pitch black you can still view things clearly although only in black and white. Finally when hooked up to the mains the range of this thing is impressive, unfortunately the same cannot be said for when its powered by battery.

The range is still good don’t get me wrong, its just that when using a battery the intention is to use is whilst in motion and when its in motion I’ve found the signal frequency varies ever so slightly but just enough to throw the picture off resulting in the TV having to be finely tuned again. I’m guessing its down to two factors: the constantly varying distance between the camera and TV and the aerial length possibly.

Before I stick it in any bird house however I still wanted to test its capabilities and wasted no time in building a bracket for it so it could fit on the back of my little fold up shopper. The original intention was to get it transmitting from a radio controlled car, giving you a first person persective as you drive round the house from the comfort of your living room but I’ve lost a vital part I needed in the move - still looking though.

Heres Shopper Cam:

Once complete and secured with plenty of tape (a bodgers trade mark) I took it for a casual spin round the end of the garden but was disappointed with the results due to the problem described earlier. Notice how the picture quality improves when the bike slows down. Also my TV is quite a away indoors surrounded by thick walls, so that also may have something to do with it. Still it was a fun first attempt and its all part of the experimental process I guess.

Maybe I should stick to birdbox ideas and leave the bike footage to my other bike camera. What would be good is if you reversed this set up some how - having a series of bird boxes throughout a wood, all with these cameras installed and all powered off solar charged batteries. Then rig up a bike with a small pocket TV so that the bike can tune into individual boxes when riding through the wood. Now theres an interesting idea.