Camera to store photos/videos on SD

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi everyone,

I am contemplating to make a Halloween contraption to scare a bit. For that I would also like to record the reactions of the people, hence I need some way to record videos (preferably) or photos. What I have seen most people asked to use the Arduino directly to process the data, however I would rather have a camera where the Arduino only provides the trigger/controls the camera.

I have seen a couple of systems, but not sure which one can do the trick and is not too expensive (it is only for a prank!):
FlyCamOne eco V2:
At 40 dollars my favorite so far.
Pros: relatively cheap, can be triggered externally
Cons: image quality, external control seems problematic

Boscam Hd19, $109 at Hobbyking:
Pros: Image quality
cons: not sure about external control, little info, price, has probably IR filter

Is there any other camera system I am missing? Any other ideas on how to do this?

Thanks!
Tommi

2

I can't comment on the cameras, but do you perhaps already have a camcorder or any other camera?
Pretty much any decent camera can be triggered externally, either via a wired shutter release or by a IR remote.
With modern DSLR cameras you usually need only to connect two wires to trigger them via wire.
IR is also simple. You can easily record the IR signal from the remote and replicate it with an Arduino.

3

Even if the camera does not have a remote trigger you could arrange for an Arduino to operate a small servo to push the button.

...R

4

According to the guy in that video, you can control the FlyCam from a RC receiver. The good thing about this, is the arduino has a very nifty library that can control servos, so you should be able to control the FlyCam with that library. However, what you need to send in order to record and stop recording will take a bit of trial and error. Luckily it has a status LED that shows what the FlyCam is doing, so you may be able to write a simple program using the Servo library and see what values do what. (tedious process, but beneficial in the end)

5

Hi,
thank you all for the replies. I also saw that the FlyCam can interface with a RC receiver. But some guy on some page commented that this is not that straightforward, so I was not sure..

After having slept about the whole thing another night, I think that I will rather try a Raspberry Pi/Beaglebone black solution. Seems that they might be more suitable for such a project. Or I dump the project overall, might a bit more involved than I have time...Always the same...