The PlantCam is a robust, well-designed device that produces timelapse videos at a very affordable price. It also has some idiosyncrasies that are worth knowing about. For me, it replaces an awkward method of timelapse photography in which I attached a video camera via Firewire to a Mac laptop and used iMovie's option of capturing frames at a reduced rate. That method was very flexible (the framerate was infinitely adjustable and the camera could zoom in as needed), but it tied up a computer and video camera for the duration of the movie, and it could not easily be used outdoors. By contrast, the battery-operated PlantCam is self-contained, compact, sturdy, sealed against the weather for use outdoors, and designed to do this one task well. Its preset choice of framerates and non-zoom lens are less flexible than the iMovie approach, but the PlantCam does the job at about a twentieth of the cost of the other equipment.The designers made choices that generally are very shrewd and user friendly. In Setup mode, one selects an interval from "ASAP" (almost real time) through 0.5, 1 or 5 min (the settings I have used for full-day movies) to one frame per day. Images are stored on an SD card that is easily tranferred to a computer, and there is also a cable for playing images directly to a TV. Images can be labeled with the interval, date, and clock time, or labeling can be turned off. Image size is selectable in three steps from 640x480 to 2560x1920, and the image quality is good (rich colors and deep blacks). Focus is selected from one of three choices spanning 11" to infinity. Both a laser pointer and a viewfinder are available to establish where the camera is pointed. For multi-day recordings, the time the camera turns on and off can be preset in hourly increments. All in all, the designers have provided well-thought-out functionality.
But the PlantCam also has a few idiosyncrasies that were not what I expected, although I was able to find workarounds for all of them. In particular, it helps to understand that at heart the PlantCam is a device for capturing still frames. The "video" setting does not produce a single timelapse video as I expected, but instead captures a series of 10-second video clips at the specified interval. (I am mystified by the utility of this series of video clips.) To produce a "normal" timelapse video, one instead captures still photos and uses Setup mode's "convert to video" function to compile the still frames into an AVI video. The conversion is limited to 360 frames, which is not enough for long videos at higher framerates. The workaround is to convert the still images in blocks of 360, specifying the first frame and last frame for each conversion, and then paste the blocks together in QuickTime before saving the compiled video as a QuickTime (.MOV) file. Another idiosyncrasy: saving the AVI file is wise even if it is complete because of a software bug that gives each compiled AVI file the same date and time. The individual jpegs are correctly time and date stamped from the camera's internal clock, but the AVI file is always stamped Nov 25, 1961. (I have corresponded with Wingscapes about this bug and perhaps it will be fixed in a future firmware update.) Finally, another limitation of the software is that AVI videos are always 640x480 even if the stills have higher resolution. Thus, there is no point in capturing stills at higher resolution if conversion to an AVI movie is the goal. However, QuickTime does provide a workaround: by importing a series of high-resolution stills, QuickTime can produce a high-resolution movie.
In spite of these few puzzling design decisions, the PlantCam is an excellent choice. It definitely does the job it was intended to do easily, with high-quality results, and at a very favorable cost. It's fun to use, and I'd recommend it highly.
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Product Description:
Watch your garden grow in fast-forward with this revolutionary, 4.0 megapixel timelapse camera.Fully weatherproof so you can use it indoors or out.Program it to take photos or videos at a set time interval to create time-lapse movies of your plants in fast-forward! Ideal for many creative applications (weather, parties, construction, etc).Photos are converted into a video so you can watch a long period of growth in a very short time (example: 1 month in 30 sec.). The PlantCam records photos and videos to an SD card or internal memory. View images on any TV or computer. No tools, wiring, or software required.Requires 4 AA batteries (not included).Dimensions (WxDxH):5-1/2 by 3.625 by 9.Green.
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