Awesome WIFI Security/Baby Monitor Camera!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I checked Amazon when I was looking into getting this and saw that Foscam makes outdoor IP security cameras that are enclosed and have many of the same features as this for less that $150.

 

Thanks TMF. Agreed if one hasn't bought yet and has a permanent outdoor location in mind (or even definite plans to operate outdoors a lot) then it would be better to buy an outdoor camera. Some of the sensitive high-res pan-tilt-optical-zoom outdoor cams with nice sony CCD chips cost thousands though.

[TMF]

[quote name="Lester Weevils" post="881723" timestamp="1357929095"]Thanks TMF. Agreed if one hasn't bought yet and has a permanent outdoor location in mind (or even definite plans to operate outdoors a lot) then it would be better to buy an outdoor camera. Some of the sensitive high-res pan-tilt-optical-zoom outdoor cams with nice sony CCD chips cost thousands though.[/quote] And something to consider as well, if a person intends to incapsulate an existing camera to protect it from the elements, you're gonna have a hard time getting it so that the IR LEDs which allow low light viewing to not reflect back on the glass and flood out your camera.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

And something to consider as well, if a person intends to incapsulate an existing camera to protect it from the elements, you're gonna have a hard time getting it so that the IR LEDs which allow low light viewing to not reflect back on the glass and flood out your camera.

 

Exactly! In addition at least some glass is somewhat opaque to infrared. That feature is what makes greenhouses work, or so I've read. OTOH amateur astronomers can do infrared astronomy thru glass elements designed for visible light, and both astronomers and photographers sometimes have to use infrared blocking filters to minimize infrared, because some CCD's are "too sensitive" to infrared for some purposes. So maybe the infrared opaqueness would not be as crippling as reflection of the LED's.

 

It must be solvable though, because of so many nice outdoor cams build inside transparent domes. Whatever those domes are made of, obviously must be fit for the purpose.

 

Possible sources of experimental materials include ordinary "high quality" transparent polycarbonate, acrylic, and lexan. Also there are optical supply houses that sell all sorts of crazy stuff if you have the money, and even more interesting some of them sell surplus glass and plastic flats removed from surplus military equipment, various precision flats and lenses for a few bucks that might have cost uncle sam thousands to put in the bomb sight or camera or laser aimer or whatever weird device the precision pieces of glass and plastic were originally installed.

 

Another possibility that wouldn't cost much, which are not usually judged "precise" enough for amateur astronomy, but ain't that bad maybe for a stupid security cam, get a raw neutral glasses blank from an optometrist for a few bucks. Polycarbonate or whatever. Pay a few bucks to have it coated before delivery. Possibly the fly in the ointment on that alternative would be if eyeglasses fancy antireflective coatings include infrared blocking as a "feature". They probably include ultraviolet blocking as a "feature" but maybe not infrared.