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Question

Camcorder for long recording 24-48 hours (low quality)

Sep 11, 2011 10:33PM PDT

Hey
We are looking for a camcorder, that is able to record for 24 hours.
The object is stationary, and the only thing moving / changing is a pill that is being disolved in water. So 80% of the picture is the same with no movents.
We are currently using a PC with a webcam attached. Then converting the 4Gb video fil into a more compact (WMV) of 1Gb.
But we are looking for a cam that can record og compact the video in one go.
High resolution is not required. 640x480 is what we are currently using.
Filesize is important, as we does this process many times a month, and save the files for 10 years due to regulatory requirements.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
That's called Time Lapse Photography.
Sep 12, 2011 8:12AM PDT
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Hmm.. Not sure that is what im looking for...
Sep 12, 2011 11:48PM PDT

I think the timelapse is like 1 picture every 10 seconds, and then it creates a short movie afterwards.
I need a video with 20 frames a second, so what we can proof that the test has not been tampered with, and out technicians can forward to like 5:34:34 into the movie, and see how the pill is still being spun around by the mixer,
Right now our webcam does this for us, and then I re-encode the video in a format that is better compressed.
Since 80-90% of the pictures is the same image in all 24 hours, it is just the mixer part of the image that in change, and therefor it is easaly compressed by a factor 4 (from 4Gb til 1Gb)

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That's no proof either.
Sep 13, 2011 8:43AM PDT

As I have some background in video surveillance we learned long ago that such is not "proof."

But that's another discussion. It looks to me you should continue with your system or just use some PC and webcam.

Just for discussion we went down that path of 10 seconds. Reduced it to 1 and still was tasked with being asked for more proof. I wonder how many FPS you need to sate such folk today? A locked, secure room is not enough it seems.
Bob