Thursday
Apr012010
Mini Key Ring Spy Camera Review
Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 10:38PM I've found it impossible to mount my DV80 camera to my motorcycle helmet - so I bought a keyring spy camera (or two) to replace it - but I've found that the improved ease of mounting comes with a number of trade offs.
The camera cost me £10 delivered to the UK from a Ebay HK seller.
Video review below....
Reader Comments (18)
This looks really good! have you got a link to the seller you bought from? i want one! =p
No problem. The Ebay seller is called POWER-GPS.
Hi TM, Uhm, I'm not sure how you can test this, but how waterproof is the DVK808? :-)
Second question. :) What happens when you go over 11 minutes with a 1GB TF card? I want to use it as a way to record the last few minutes of my ride (as sort of a last will and testament) of any possible accidents that may occur. Hopefully, it just keeps recording, so that only the last 11 minutes are captured.
Waterproof - not at all - if any water gets in any of the various holes it will certainly kill it. The SD card slot is especially vulnerable.
I understand what you mean about the last 11 mins - you really want an accident cam. But unfortunately when the SD card is full it just stops recording. A real accident cam will keep re-recording until it hears a loud smash then it stops. Without that ability it would just end up recording over the crash footage with video of the bike being towed away or the scrapyard etc until the battery died.
Thanks TM for your great reviews!
No problem - it gives me an excuse to buy more stuff I don't need.
Hey TM,
I just bought a couple of these min-cams so will report back when I've played with them a while. Thanks for tipping me off to these tiny cameras.
Ambrose
(PS., would you mind emailing me at my gmail address so that I can contact you directly?)
Hi TM,
I've had these cameras for a while, but haven't really done much with them. I plan on using them on my helmet as a simple bike ride recording device. They are great as you state. The quality is great for the price. The form factor is right. The only thing that isn't perfect about them is that their field of view is somewhat narrow as you correctly stated.
Do you know of any hack or DIY add-on lens you can stick on the front of these key chain cams to give them a wider field of view without compromising the quality of the video too much?
Thanks,
Ambrose
Hi Ambrose.
Great minds think alike - I've got a mini stick-on wide angle lens winging it's way to me in the post (mail) as I type. I really bought it to stick on a webcam that I use as a wifi security camera, but I'll also try it on the key ring camera to see if it works out (it may be tricky to mount it to the camera). I'll report back as soon as it turns up. The product is called a 'jelly lens' and they are designed for use on a cell phone - search ebay for "jelly lens wide angle" and you will see a number of them on there.
Hi TM,
I spotted this web page on the DVK808 camera and it contains some of the most technical info available for this and many similar cameras.
http://www.chucklohr.com/808/
Ambrose
Ambrose - that link is brilliant. I'll be sending everyone there who asks for help in future. There is a mountain of stuff to read - i'll be studying it in detail (I've spotted that he already suggested the jelly lens as a wide angle option).
how much a keychaincam cost in indian rupees.what payment options are available
The unit is widely available on eBay and the payment method there is PayPal which I believe is fairly universal!
Here is an overview of the different types of 808 camera's: http://www.chucklohr.com/808/
Looks like they've come out with a new look for the keychain cam. Looks nice.
http://www.meritline.com/sound-control-mode-mini-car-key-shaped-camera-micro-spy-camera---p-49431.aspx
(no connection to ML, just a happy customer)
Ambrose
I've seen a couple of different keychain type designs, but this one has sound activation so must have different circuitry to my DVK808.
I've got another larger 'spy' camera to test out as soon as I get a few hours to myself. I'm hoping the (slightly) larger lens captures a wider angle than the keychain one. A review will of course follow.
This review is one that I need. This really shows how amazing that spy camera is. I am also hearing a lot of good thoughts about that spy gadget and I think I should get one now.