Milwaukee 2300-20 M-Spector Digital Inspection Camera, AA Battery Powered

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Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Milwaukee 2310-21 Cordless M-Spector Digital Inspection Camera lets you get a clear picture of problems in hard-to-reach places. Whether you're working with wiring inside walls, examining the fragile pipes of an old home, or looking for serial numbers on parts in an engine that you don't want to disassemble, this versatile, snake-like inspection camera uses digital imaging technology to display crisp, color images on the screen of a hand-held unit. This means you can assess projects without causing unnecessary damage.

Digital Technology for Useful, High-quality Images
When you can assess a project without having to do unnecessary damage, you save yourself time, effort, and money. Unlike some micro-cameras, this digital inspection camera provides accurate, high-quality images, so that you can get an idea of what you're working with quickly. With a 2.4-inch, high-resolution color LCD display, you get plenty of detail. An exclusive, adjustable 2x image zoom feature lets you pick the magnification that most accurately shows what you're looking for.

LED illumination makes it easy to see inside dark pipes and walls, and three stage brightness control combines with digital glare reduction to help you use this lighting to get a usable shot, not just an over-lit, difficult to decipher photo.

Flexible, Easy-to-Use Design
The Digital Inspection Camera fits through holes as small as 3/4-inch, so you can use it to look inside pipes, and you can thread it into complicated machines. This is possible because of an innovative design that includes a durable, detachable, three-foot-long water-tight flexible cable and an incredibly small camera head.

An ergonomically designed handle lets you comfortably hold the hand unit in several different ways, a feature that's especially important for professionals who perform lots of pipe or wiring installation projects with the help of an inspection camera. Additionally, up-front power and image control buttons make it easy to operate this camera with one-hand.

Convenient, AA Battery Power
Powered by four AA batteries means that you have the convenience of using your choice of rechargeable or disposable power and don't have to worry about tripping over a cord. The digital inspection camera also offers a power saving, auto shut-off feature, which preserves battery life, so you can work longer on a single charge.

What's in the Box
6-voldt digital inspection camera, 3-foot camera cable, and a carrying case.

Product Description

Digital technology delivers superior image quality providing a crystal-clear picture of hard-to-reach places such as inside pipes, drains and equipment, and behind walls. Ergonomic handle for comfort in any orientation. A power saving, auto-shutoff feature preserves battery life. Application: Inspection camera, Shaft Length (in.): 36, Head Size (in.): 3/4, Display Shows: Large, 2.4in. high-resolution (320 x 240) color LCD image, Case Included: Yes, Battery Type: 4 AA, Battery Included: Yes

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 13.8 x 5.5 inches ; 6.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001AOVBHG
• Item model number: 2300-20
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #111 in Home Improvement (See Bestsellers in Home Improvement)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for the price., December 3, 2008

By	D. MCKICHAN - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

Amazon Verified Purchase

The unit itself seems to be well made. The screen is clear and the camera and light function well. I have held a provision model and the rigid model which are both slighlty more expensive and I perfer this one.

It has four lights modes (none, bright, brighter, brightest) and a zoom function. The 3/4 inch head is larger then you might think, but putting both a camera and LED on a unit will lead to that. It also ships in its own case. I got the AA battery model as I knew I wouldn't be using this a lot and even with lithium batterys I don't trust them to work if I put this on a shelf for 3-6 months at a time. This was even 10 years from now this unit should function and I won't be looking to replace a lithium battery pack.

Like any model in this range understanding the proper orientation of what you are looking at will be difficult an the viewing angle will be small and the range may not be great in a long space. This is not a fault of the unit though it is just the constraints on the technology for the price.

Edit: I have had a couple of chances to use this for more then just testing it out, and it performed well. The price on the AA unit has dropped considerably since I first purchased mine and having now seen it down around the $100 mark I think it is a very good deal (ecspecially compared to the lithium powered one). For the price it does work very well. I mean a camera, LCD screen, waterproof, and a light for around a $100 bucks is pretty good. I store the batteries seperately to avoid any issues there and it has been nice to just pop a set in when I want to use it and have it function. I would purchase this unit again. (Attn Milwaukee: Although I don't need to buy another if you were to upgrade this one to let it record photos, put in a slightly higher resolution screen and camera, along with a cree led emitter while keeping it AA powered, and price it around $200-$250 bucks you would get my money again. The gen2 device currently out just isn't quite enough or priced right to get me to upgrade.)

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good first effort - not perfect, but is very useful, January 9, 2009

By	E. Redifer (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This works well for what it's designed to do and it can solve some pretty tough problems - however you should know what you're getting before you buy it.

I've been looking at fiber optic scopes for several years, but even the cheap ones start at about $350 and up. This thing is not one of them, but it costs less than half. First, it has an itty bitty camera on the end of the of the cable and an LED light. The end is about 3/4 in diameter, whereas the fiber optics can be about 1/2 of that diameter. So it won't fit in some of the small places that a fiber unit will. Also the cable is relatively stout and stiff - I think this can be a positive or a negative.

So I got mine a couple of weeks ago and immediately used it for a couple things.

- Used it to see if I dropped that missing socket behind the furnace a couple years ago (I didn't)

- Used it to see behind the dash of my wife's minivan to figure out how to change a burned out bulb.

- Used it to see how bad things looked behind a basement wall with a small leak.

- And of course I played around with it, looking into my heating ducts, and bottles, and such.

- I think it's too big to go into a spark plug hole, but I haven't tried yet - I was trying to figure out if it would have been useful to have when I had that blown head gasket on my son's car a year ago.

The only things I really don't like - First, as said in another thread, depth of field is very shallow - it can be really tough to see things that aren't right in front of the camera. Second, the LED does "bloom" on the high light setting - but it does have three brightness settings, so I've been able to see what I wanted to look at so far. Most annoyingly is that the camera is fixed in position and you can't really change it's orientation on the end of the cable - so you often look at things sideways or upside down and it takes some maneuvering to get it to where you want it. And, finally, the resolution isn't quite what I had hoped for however it's been good enough in my use.

Ridgid has a competing product which actually comes with a couple of accessories that might be nice, including a retreival magnet. I bought the Milwaukee, because I'm considering other M12 tools - however I bought this AA battery powered one because I thought the other tools would come with batteries and a charger when I decide to buy one. The device works fine on AA's.

I assume this product will someday be updated, and the next generation will offer a smaller end, better depth of field and resolution and a moveable camera - and when they do, I'll probably upgrade, but I'm happy with this one now. Buy it.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Cool, January 11, 2009

By	Zombie (Sunnyvale, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Have you ever watched a TV show where a doctor inserts a fiber-optic camera into a blood vessel or something and peers into the patient to discover a faulty heart valve or a blockage of some kind? This isn't one of those cameras.

It is very educational to use this camera and discover what it can do and what the limitations are. Then you realize how many failed attempts have been edited out of that TV show you watched.

The first challenge is figuring out what the orientation of the camera is so that you can begin to know what you are looking at and which way you might need to move the camera to get a better view. The LED light very easily produces a 'bloom' or white spot on the screen whenever the light reflects from a close object back into the camera but you can adjust the brightness on the LED or move the camera to avoid the reflection.

That brings you to the second challenge. The flexible cable that connects the camera is not much more flexible than a goose-neck lamp i.e. not very flexible. This probably works to your advantage when you are moving the camera inside a wall and need to have the cable support the camera for a long distance. I used it to get a look at some parts in an engine compartment and would have liked a little thinner, more flexible cable.

All in all, it is still really cool and in some situations, very useful. For a profession like plumber or electrician, where looking inside walls is done, it probably works really well. But if you are imagining you can put it inside your mouth and see where that tickle in your throat is coming from, it might not be the right tool for the job. :-)

When you really need it and nothing else will do, what a great tool to have. You could say this is a tool for pure professionals or early adopters except the price is more affordable than that. The battery life for the AA battery model is good (6 hours or so depending on how much you use the LED). It has auto-shutoff feature so you don't accidentally drain the batteries, comes in a great case, and everything is very well made.