Need Camera/Housing Advice

[owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov]

> Are there any reasonable digital video camera with
> commensurate housing and using archaic PC editing
> systems??? - We have about 1 sq km to do inventory and
> prioritization for relocation.


Hi Tom and everyone,

  I'm using a new type of digital camera for my coral reef remote sensing
work from a light aircraft.  The camera is an Axis 2120 "Network Camera"
and it costs about $1000.  It does not have a housing for underwater
operation though.
  The camera can take up to 25 frames/second or as few as one every
several minutes.  I use it to take a frame once per second.  The pictures
come out of the camera via 10-baseT ethernet, or computer network
interface.  It connects directly to an existing computer network and you
can access it via it's own builtin webpage, or you can set the camera to
automatically "ftp" pictures to your computer (or any other computer).  I
use it with the ftp option.  It saves each picture as a single "jpeg"
image and includes a time/date/comment string at the top of each photo.
On a typical 4 hour flight, we will capture almost 15,000 pictures.
   For your underwater application you would need a small handheld
computer like an IPAQ or something to capture and view the photos.
  This camera would be very good for things like "video transects" or
other applications where you don't really need video but want a continous
overlapping photo record ot some event.  

  You can see the cmaera at:

 http://www.axis.com/products/cam_2120/index.htm




C. Wayne Wright



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