Squiffy

One way of doing it would be to display the luminance spectrum in real time, just tweak for the highest frequency content which would equate to the sharpest image. This could also be converted so that, the sharper the focus, the higher an audio oscillator sounds.

I'm just curious about the spec. : TIA

Basildon, Essex, UK. When revisiting the area, I noticed that their heights had been reduced - either that or there was some peculiar optical illusion the first time!

> There are no way of fixing anything in this camera. All repairs need to be sent back to the manufacturer. Like most electronics these days, which are not even intended to be repaired, just disposed of and replaced

> According to the flickr webpage it is a Bosch Mic400 Rory, it's my Flickr page, so I updated the description when I realised this Interesting comments Ilkie, my own reservations relate to the siting and height of the two I saw. Too near building obstructions and at that height (about 50ft) they'll generally just have views of the tops of people's heads. The mast is rather thin too, which make me wonder how they'll fare in strong winds.

> Its a good job the police did not see whoever it was taking the photo's doing it, they are sometimes really over the top when it comes to people taking pictures of CCTV/Security equipment... It was me taking the photos. There was no police around (usually just PCSOs anyway, they can't afford police to patrol the town centre...) and the CCTV is seldom manned, so I wasn't concerned BTW, with apologies for getting somewhat off-topic, there was a murder in broad daylight near to these camera locations a few years ago. Not only was there no town centre CCTV monitoring at that time (as in a centralised office) but the cameras were not even working Thanks for the other replies

Thanks again, I'm pretty sure it only had a single lens, so I guess it must be this one, or similar: http://www.cctvcenterwi.com/products/fv/mic1400alu.pdf

Thanks, it looks similar, but not quite the same as far as I can tell. The camera you describe would seem to be somewhat of an overkill for the location also. Perhaps the version without FLIR? Here are a couple more photos which may help, but unfortunately both are blurred http://yfrog.com/jpcamid1j http://yfrog.com/bgcamid2j

Certainly impressive. I keep meaning to get one of those kits and add a 2.4GHz video downlink to it

Good luck with the course, providing you understand the basics then I'm sure you'll do fine. I would think Basildon town centre are always looking for CCTV operators, I recollect their main HQ is actually in Wickford though. Southend town centre is also another local option for you, I would think they'll always welcome competent operators on an ad-hoc basis if nothing permanent is possible.

It should be a matter of simply switching to NTSC and rebooting PAL is technically superior to NTSC, but I assume you don't have monitors that can handle it. As for playback, if via the PC then it makes no difference, it'll handle either.

Try "123456"

FWIW, U2 is a DRAM chip. T3 might also be an inductor. I would advise against tweaking anything unless you know what it is and its purpose. If it is related to a frequency reference, then its proximity to the PSU regulator heatsink suggests thermal drift. You might try aiming a fan at the PCB and see if that makes a difference to its time keeping. You really need to look at the other side of that board to ascertain what to tweak, if anything.

I'm sure it's already the case, but ensure it's FAT32 formatted. You might want to search online for the Swann (or Safe-Core) equivalent to find a better manual.

As Ken says, a few hundred millivolts lower shouldn't be a problem at all. Much of the circuitry will be using 5V anyway. Experimenting in the past with various cameras, I've found no real discernible difference even if I've lowered the voltage to 9V. The main concern is with cameras with integral IR LEDs, which will have noticeably reduced output at lower voltages.

Given that the limiting factors will be normally be resolution and lighting, about all you can really do is denoise and sharpen (edges), as well as the obvious gamma adjustment. I've used AviSynth in the past, which has plenty of plugins for improving video (intended primarily in improving the quality on old VHS recordings). I've also used it to remove irksome dead pixels. http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/External_filters

For home use and with expandability in mind (if you want to progress to more than say, four cameras), I'd say it's perfectly adequate and highly cost effective. I'd certainly recommend it, but only to those who understand what they're doing.

To me it looks like cross coupling of the video sources (video cables bound together?).

See here: http://www.instructables.com/id/ATX--%3E-Lab-Bench-Power-Supply-Conversion/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-ATX--Lab-Bench-Power-Supply-Conversion/ Personally I find computer ATX PSUs to be much more reliable than typical individual dedicated PSUs. The latter tend to run extremely hot and are not generally well designed. The ATX PSU I use to power my cameras is actually a lot quieter than my old 'lab' linear 25 amp PSU. Given the ever increasing power demands for modern PCs, it's often the case that older PSUs are plentiful and available for nothing or very cheaply

I personally would recommend buying a PC ATX PSU and modifying that for your use. Plenty of current at 12V, if that's your requirement. You just need to connect two wires together for it to power up, there are plenty of articles around giving advice: http://www.instructables.com/id/ATX--%3E-Lab-Bench-Power-Supply-Conversion/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-ATX--Lab-Bench-Power-Supply-Conversion/

As already mentioned, I recommend taking it apart and drying with a hair dryer on low heat, then leave it in an airing cupboard (not one with lots of wet clothes in at the same time...) for 24 hours. Add a silica gel sachet inside and reassemble, then cross fingers

As zmxtech says, you can't really do much with it I'm afraid. Here's my attempt FWIW: http://img40.yfrog.com/i/licetweak.png/

This may provide an answer for FF and ActiveX: http://code.google.com/p/ff-activex-host/

Use Firefox rather than IE. To redirect from one site address to another, see here: http://www.web-source.net/html_redirect.htm