Homebuilt Rov Forum

Hi guys, i,m looking to get a camera for my ROV. I am a mountain biker and everyone uses Go pro cameras, are they suitable for ROV,s with the low light conditions?

They are water proof to 60. I have read that you can get special dive cases that allow them to focus better and therefore improve video quality.

Dave

Go Pro. Awesome. It isn't really designed for low light though - but as color camera's go, it's not bad. It's not going to rival a really low lux board camera though, especially since they often are sensitive to infrared. Putting a flat lens on it, and also setting the frame rate to a lower setting to increase exposure time can help, though. Also, the later ones seem to work a lot better in low light, from what I can find on YouTube. Would you be viewing the video live? Via HDMI or composite video cable? You have to be able to run wires out of the housing for live viewing, so keep that in mind. With good lights, you'd have some pretty amazing video capabilities.

Hey Gadget guy! Can you recommend me a good quality camera please. Totally stuck with which one to get. My budget would be £160, $300.

Dave

What kind of quality were you looking to get? Will this be your only camera? Do you think you'll be diving deep enough that you'll be in complete darkness? Also, will you be building your own waterproof housing?

Just a few questions to narrow down the search a little!

I should have said, the ROV will be used mainly for exploring disused mines and quarries, so will be in total darkness apart from the lights on the ROV. We would like quite decent quality, no point building a really good ROV then putting a rubbish camera on

And yea this will be the only camera, we will just turn it round and fly out when we want to surface.

Cheers for the help

Dave

Hi. Here's a little hands-on info that I thought might help you. I just recently changed our ROV's lighting from incandescent to Infrared and found that the three color cameras on board did not respond well to the new IR lighting. After doing some reading on the subject I found out that (generally) a monochrome camera will be more sensitive to IR and will produce a clearer picture. I purchased three new monochrome camers from SuperCircuits and they are working great. The cameras are very sensitive to the IR lighting and only use 100ma @ 12v. I put each camera in a 1/2 x 3/4 PVC coupler with an "O" ring and plexiglass on one end. I have pressure tested them to 250 feet many times, and have actually used them on the ROV for long durations at depths of 125 feet. Here's a link to the cameras if you're interested in them: http://www.supercircuits.com/Security-Cameras/Bullet-Security-Cameras/PC88WR-2

Yeah, color cameras aren't sensitive to IR light, as they have a special filter that filters it out. B&W cameras don't have said filter, and are thus sensitive to it. Also I've found that between a B&W camera and a color camera at the same price point, the B&W will often have a significantly better picture.

I've bought from supercircuits several times, and have always gotten good service. You could also check out OEMCameras
http://www.oemcameras.com/
for some fancier/more expensive stuff.

Good luck on your search!

Hi guys, still pretty confused with which one to go for, is this on ok?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-COLOUR-DAYTIME-B-W-NIGHT-TIME-CCD-1-3-DOME-CAMERA-/200607395142?pt=UK_CCTV&hash=item2eb521ed46#ht_750wt_952

That one looks pretty good. It doesn't list the lux rating (it says zero, but that's just because of the IR LEDs), though. The lux rating has to do with how sensitive the camera is in low light conditions. Lower is better. Just make sure you can build a housing for it, or pot it.

I agree. For the money this is a pretty good deal. But it's tough to determine the quality of the camera when many of the ratings are based on the IR lights being ON, just as thegagetguy pointed out with the Lux rating. Many times (for me anyway) "Trial And Error" is the best way to go. Since you stated that you will only have one camera on the ROV and that you want it to be sensitive in the dark, it may be a good idea to get one and just put it in a temporary housing, throw it in some water in the dark and see if you like what it produces. Plus, it gives you a base-line to go on when looking at other camera ratings.