Customer Reviews

Brinno GardenWatchCam with Flash Drive, Item GWCTLC130A

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first GardenWatchCam I received lacked the essential bottom housing plate that contains the tripod mount socket. After an exchange, I found that the camera would only accept flash drives formatted FAT 16, limiting the size of the flash drive. My second unit also has an erratic timer. At the one minute setting, the camera snaps its photos at about 40 second intervals. At the custom 20 second interval, it snaps at 14 second intervals. While tolerable, it also makes the 24 hour setting pretty useless for me.

Brinno's included documentation for the unit is minimal at best.

Two emails to Brinno's customer service have gone unanswered and unacknowledged. It appears that buyers experiencing negative issues with the unit are on their own.

The camera does take acceptable time-lapse movies, but with the issues above, I'd like to warn folks off of it until Brinno becomes more responsible in their quality control and customer service.

So I wanted to use the GardenWatchCam for everything except a garden! Heh... Unfortunately I couldn't find exact details on their website or elsewhere about the user customizable setting--which can go from 5 seconds to 12 hours in 1 second increments and comes set at 20 secs. (Not fast enough for clouds or driving unfortunately.)

Of the seven reviews here then, one hinted at it, but all had various issues.

Thankfully I don't share those problems. The timer on mine is exact to the second, per including a timer in a time lapse video. (Search YouTube for RJFerret, the Melting Ice Cubes Comparison shows a timer in the background so you may see for yourself.)

So I am very happy with the GardenWatchCam. It does more than it advertises!

Another reviewer couldn't hear the beeps the unit produces, let me tell you hearing them doesn't help. It gives two beeps when it's turned on as well as the same two beeps when it's turned off. So they are useless. You have to look at the green light (hard to see in daylight) to see that it's on. This light also blinks every 15 seconds and when your unit takes a picture.

Speaking of which, as another reviewer pointed out, it does not store individual picture files, it only produces an AVI file. If you want to composite a picture series you'll need to export frames from the video with other software. However this is FAR more desirable than producing thousands of picture files you'd need to assemble into a video.

There is no way to turn off the time/date stamp at the bottom, so you have to use software to crop the bottom 16 lines. Also it produces a video file that is set to 10 fps instead of the more usual 30 fps. I needed to find/download the (thankfully free) software program VirtualDub to crop and convert the video.

Someone complained that there wasn't much instruction for the included software. Well it simply has six entry fields. Two for time/date, three cover the interval (by hours/minutes/seconds), and the last is for which drive letter your system assigned to the USB flash drive. Only two buttons, OK or Cancel.

Unlike another, I found the manual to be good, the first two pages both explain and show how to assemble the pole, which is self explanatory, just stick it together! Heh... It also explains the lens setting, with exact details of the macro setting, again, obvious to anyone who has used a camera before.

Page seven covers operation, turning on/off, explaining the beeps and indicator lights (low battery and memory card full).

The final two pages cover installing the software (put in your CD and click install--there are no custom options even if you select expert install) and using the software (insert USB drive, note which letter it is assigned by your computer, choose time/date/period and click OK).

There are four things I would change, move the LEDs to the side of the unit so you can see them from front or back, ability to turn off the time/date stamp, make movies at 30 fps and provide a viewfinder. I mounted another camera in place to align my composition, then compensated for the height of the GardenWatchCam's lens.

All in all, considering the value you get for the money, weather resistant, customizable time, video output (many other time lapse cameras require software to combine the thousands of photographs into a movie), easy to use, I am very pleased with my purchase and glad this produce is available.

It simply does what you want it to do, the extras are all secondary to that main function.

hth!

I got the GardenCam to capture the construction of a building over the course of many months. I could find no other product that has its unique combination of features anywhere near this price. The alternative would have been a very expensive camera and a weather-proof enclosure that doesn't fog up. Then try to figure out how to deal with a camera battery that will need to be recharged very frequently. And what if somebody decides they want to walk off with my gear? I'd rather be out $139 than $1000.

I mounted the camera on a utility pole for a week-long test and it performed as advertised - withstanding some rain and lots of dust. It captured 1 snapshot every 5 minutes. I experimented with the custom time interval setting and it worked ok too. The result was a 118MB AVI and it plays fine on my Mac. There is no need to buy additional software to create a movie.

You can set either close-up or distance focus. I used the distance setting and the quality of the pictures are OK, not excellent. Image resolution is kind of low (around 1MB?) and the pictures are a little fuzzy in the area that the camera doesn't autofocus on. But it does the job.

I think Brinno has done a nice job making it simple to use out of the box. Pop the included 2GB Flash Drive and 4 AA batteries in the unit, press the power button, aim it at your subject and you're making a time lapse movie. I think they may be missing a wider market by calling it a Garden cam, since it could be used anywhere you want to do some time lapse during daylight hours. It has a light sensor so that it doesn't take pictures at night (a power saving feature), so no night time photos with this camera.

Overall, I'm pleased so far with this purchase. I'll be putting it to the acid test over the next 3 months, so we'll see how well it really stands up.

I received this as a gift. The instruction manual is vague at best and confusing at worst. Yet there is no way around it.

First, you must listen to beeps which are so inaudible as to be non-existent. The beeps tell you whether it is on of off. The problem is it is the same two beeps so you never know if you turned it on or turned it off. Thus you set it out and pray it is on. The only cure is to remove the batteries between each use and then restart listening carefully for the beeps.

Second the software apparently sets the time and sequencing on the memory chip. It worked once but I have problems the second time. It is not clear if you have to set time and recording data every time, and the instructions are no help at all.

Third, I managed one set of pictures and the quality was good. To process the data you will need an upgraded version of a video system. I have not gone that far yet. What is missing is the ability to just pull out the frames one at a time. You get video and that is all. It would be nice to get frame by frame, I think I can do that with some other software I have but it will require some tricks.

This is potentially a nice product but their design factors for human interface is one of the worst I have ever seen. The instructions are incomprehensible and the interface prompts are confusing and misleading. Hopefully someone is listening at the company and fix this on the second round. It has potential if only they understood that they had a customer out there.

Although I too, wish the GardenWatch Cam came with a means of aiming-especially when using it close-up, I have found a fair workaround. I set up the camera and aim it, then turn it on and take about 10 frames. Next, I turn it off, take the flash drive out and view the video to see how it is aimed. I repeat the process until the aim is correct.

To be sure the camera is on, I leave the back off and watch the led on the drive. When it lights at the proper time interval, I know it is on.

I really like the function of this camera. I have been a photographer for years and appreciate it's durability and reliable. Also, it is much less expensive than risking a high-value camera being stolen or ruined in the elements.

I love this product. I have only had it a short time so I can't comment on battery life yet but 2 weeks into it and things are looking good. I use this for pre-scouting hunting spots and think this idea of time elapsed video is the way to go. I use digital cams at my feeders but cant tell where the deer are coming from but with the gardenwatch I can see the whole food plot all day. Images are great and the software (PC only) is ok and simple but I take the images from the USB key direct to my Mac and simply click play and watch the video - seems much easier to use then waiting for my PC to boot up etc... The images are crystal clear even on a rainy day. It did get some drops on the lens but they soon rolled off. Make sure you place it facing N/NW/NE so the sun doesn't ruin the image. Also I looked at the camo version of this Day 6 Plotwatcher - exact same product just camo paint job. I saved $60 by getting this camera plus $4 on some camo spray paint and painted it myself...Excellent product.Brinno GWCTLC130A 1.3MP Garden Watch Cam With Extra 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive

This is an excellent time lapse camera for the price.

Software included is only for Windows based computers, but camera can be used without any software right out of the box, as it has a selectable dial on the inside that allows you to control how many seconds, minutes, hours, days between shots. You will need the software to create "custom" lapse between frames.

Uses four (4) AA batteries (included) and requires an USB flash drive to store the images (included).

The resultant .AVI video file can be edited with many different software. I've tried with Sony Vegas Video 9 and with Apple's iMovie.

For fun, work or for research this is a economic, well constructed time lapse camera that is as easy to use as pressing a single button.

Very easy to use. Wish the photos/films where of higher resolution but it is sufficient to see things in your garden grow.

Works as advertised and not very hard to figure out It takes still pictures on a preset or custom set interval. Playback through quicktime. It's a step up from a 'toy' not a professional photographic device. If you lack common sense or basic electronic skills then you may not be able to operate it. It does what it's supposed to do.

I purchased this camera to record the construction of my home. I am completely amazed by its high quality and simplicity of use. The user interface is ridiculously simple...it is so intuitive that you don't even have to read the included instruction manual to get started. I did a lot of research on time-lapse cameras and in my opinion, nothing comes close to this for the price. I especially like how it runs off of 4 AA batteries (which were included, by the way) so you don't have to worry about a power source. I would highly recommend this to anyone in need of a basic time-lapse camera.