I have a spare Android on Android 9 that I'd like to leave outside as a
wildlife cam for day and night.

Anyone done this?
What software did you use?

How well did it work?

In comp.mobile.android, knuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I have a spare Android on Android 9 that I'd like to leave outside as a
> wildlife cam for day and night.
>
> Anyone done this?
> What software did you use?
>
> How well did it work?

Haven't done that. Some things I'd be concerned about:

* Weather-proofing (particularly power)

* Weather-proofing that won't interfere with photos, so no glass in front
of camera (to cause glare, etc)

* Taking acceptable photos at night, flash will disturb wildlife,
autofocus light may also disturb wildlife

* Is it safe from theft?

Assuming all that is taken care of, I'd use Tasker to set up photos
every N minutes. I've used Tasker for "cron" type jobs in the past and
it has worked well. Tasker is not free, but not expensive either.

Elijah
------
bought a dedicated outdoor timelapse camera about a decade ago

On 7/14/2021 5:36 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
> * Weather-proofing (particularly power)
> * Weather-proofing that won't interfere with photos, so no glass in front
> of camera (to cause glare, etc)

Weather and power isn't a problem as I can put it out at night when there's
no chance of rain, and it's going to be on a partly shielded porch anyway.

What is a problem is finding a motion-triggered camera that can take
pictures at night that will simply save the pictures to the camera.

Most wildlife cam apps I found really just the interface to a specific real
camera (which isn't a wildlife cam at all - it's just an interface to one).

> * Taking acceptable photos at night, flash will disturb wildlife,
> autofocus light may also disturb wildlife

The lack of infrared will be a problem as it will need to use the flash.

It will scare the wildlife, so I guess it should be set up to not trigger
more than once in a given short period of time, perhaps a half hour or so.

> * Is it safe from theft?

Well, I haven't locked my doors in decades, on my car which is parked
outside, or my shed, or even my house (except when I go on vacation).

I have left far more valuable things on the porch & nobody stole them.
Will someone walk up to my porch overnight to steal an old phone?

I don't know but theft isn't what I'm asking about here.

> Assuming all that is taken care of, I'd use Tasker to set up photos
> every N minutes. I've used Tasker for "cron" type jobs in the past and
> it has worked well. Tasker is not free, but not expensive either.

It will have to use the flash (I think) unless I leave the porch lights on
(which might work) but I was hoping for a motion triggered camera app.

Does a motion triggered camera app even exist on the Play Store?
I can't find a good one yet (but I'm still going through them one by one).

If someone has experience with motion triggered cameras, that would help!

On 7/14/2021 2:36 PM, knuttle wrote:
> On 7/14/2021 5:36 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
>> * Weather-proofing (particularly power)
>> * Weather-proofing that won't interfere with photos, so no glass in front
>>   of camera (to cause glare, etc)
>
> Weather and power isn't a problem as I can put it out at night when
> there's no chance of rain, and it's going to be on a partly shielded
> porch anyway.
> What is a problem is finding a motion-triggered camera that can take
> pictures at night that will simply save the pictures to the camera.
>
> Most wildlife cam apps I found really just the interface to a specific
> real camera (which isn't a wildlife cam at all - it's just an interface
> to one).
>
>> * Taking acceptable photos at night, flash will disturb wildlife,
>>   autofocus light may also disturb wildlife
>
> The lack of infrared will be a problem as it will need to use the flash.
>
> It will scare the wildlife, so I guess it should be set up to not
> trigger more than once in a given short period of time, perhaps a half
> hour or so.
>
>> * Is it safe from theft?
>
> Well, I haven't locked my doors in decades, on my car which is parked
> outside, or my shed, or even my house (except when I go on vacation).
>
> I have left far more valuable things on the porch & nobody stole them.
> Will someone walk up to my porch overnight to steal an old phone?
>
> I don't know but theft isn't what I'm asking about here.
>
>> Assuming all that is taken care of, I'd use Tasker to set up photos
>> every N minutes. I've used Tasker for "cron" type jobs in the past and
>> it has worked well. Tasker is not free, but not expensive either.
>
> It will have to use the flash (I think) unless I leave the porch lights
> on (which might work) but I was hoping for a motion triggered camera app.
>
> Does a motion triggered camera app even exist on the Play Store?
> I can't find a good one yet (but I'm still going through them one by one).

There is Motion Detector Pro
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.mvainformatics.android.motiondetectorpro.activity>.

But this is one case where a phone is probably the wrong tool. You'd
want an Android phone with infrared night vision, and there are very few
(see <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F9KRBV7>). OTOH, a wildlife camera
with infrared is well under $100.

"sms" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:scp0dv$77i$1@dont-email.me...

>> Does a motion triggered camera app even exist on the Play Store?
>> I can't find a good one yet (but I'm still going through them one by
>> one).
>
> There is Motion Detector Pro
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.mvainformatics.android.motiondetectorpro.activity>.
>
> But this is one case where a phone is probably the wrong tool. You'd want
> an Android phone with infrared night vision, and there are very few (see
> <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F9KRBV7>). OTOH, a wildlife camera with
> infrared is well under $100.

Yes, most cameras have an infra-red filter because CCD sensors can see into
the infra-red and you don't want them to. In security cameras with IR, you
hear a click as this filter is moved in or out of the optical path: it's
damn annoying when it keeps happening when the light level is borderline.

An ordinary camera (mobile phone, compact, DSLR) would not be able to see IR
because the filter would stop it.

We have a couple of Foscam security cameras which can be viewed by browsing
to a built-in web server, and can be set to various levels of motion
detection which triggers them to email 5 successive stills to an address
when I configure into the camera. The resolution is poor (maximum 640x480)
with a lot of compression artefacts, but it's better than nothing.

I've thought of using those cameras as nature cameras if I can get power to
them (they use a non-standard power plug - ie not mini or micro USB) and the
wifi will reach far enough into the garden. Particularly to see what is
digging shallow tunnels under our lawn - it's leaving continuous collapsed
tunnels rather than just mole hills, so I wonder about a vole since it's
near our stream.