Hi there,

I just caught up on some of the Tech Tutor episodes I missed while being on field work.

Watching the animal-borne imaging technology talk and hearing the question from @Rob+Appleby , I came to think of the recent camera collars we received from Vectronic Aerospace. The cameras are from the company Foxeer and they seem to be pretty advanced and light. Perhaps worth a look Rob! 

Cheers,

Hi @Lars+Holst+Hansen and thanks for the tip. I've heard of the brand but only briefly looked at their camera range before. They are an RC camera company and make some interesting cameras. I've been thinking of trying out some starlight cameras (as opposed to infrared/night-shot cameras). Interesting that Vectronic is using them. Did the camera collars have a 'PVR' board (some way of recording images) or did they just transmit wirelessly?

Thanks again Lars,

Rob

Hi Lars,

I have a colleague that's successfully used the Mobius cam system (https://www.mobius-actioncam.com/) for camera collars as well. RC cams are popular choice it seems. I have been attempting to tweak cheaper 'cube' cameras (e.g. https://tinyurl.com/w72kh77r) to do a similar job. I am using a bit of Frankestein's monster array of small control boards, including an Adafruit low power timer (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3573) and a SparkFun pro mini (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113). I am using an SMD transistor as a switch to control power, and another could be added to control settings if needed. Hoping to do a tutorial on it at some point in case there's any interest. 

Cheers,

Rob

Would certainly be cool to see a tutorial on this! Looking forward to that!