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A bit more detail would really help here– do you have wifi in the target area? Electricity? GSM service? [I know that the sim cards are horribly difficult to bu

A bit more detail would really help here– do you have wifi in the target area? Electricity? GSM service? [I know that the sim cards are horribly difficult to buy in Denmark cheaply – they are tied to CPR numbers I think beyond 30 days] Are any of your old "digital cameras" dSLRs capable of running Magic Lantern? Is the 1000 USD (≈6500 DKK?) budget for the duration of the project, or just the set-up? Will you be able to visit it periodically once running? Are you trying to do a timelapse photo, CCV, or watch some specific event?

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
It's outside my house, so assume very high quality Wifi - ability to connect electricity if needed. I want things to be 100% sure so never lose a picture. So I would think if I were designing it, I would send picture to local computers if available in area. I have 3 computers that would probably be running at the times that pictures should be taken, but not guaranteed that they are running, and there is one stationary I could probably setup to be always running as long as house has power. I want things to need minimal input from me. So if wifi goes down should still work, if house electricity goes out should still work. 1000 USD is for setup. I can visit it periodically but as I am somewhat limited in my free time I want to not have to do it that often. watch specific event - sunrise sunset, but actually it would also be useful to catch an image at moonrise. >Are any of your old "digital cameras" dSLRs capable of running Magic Lantern? I believe so. The 1000 dollars is not a hard guideline, it's not a target either (obviously I would love a solution that said 300 dollars), but it isn't that I would decide to cancel the project if it turned out the price for something that was going to give me a high degree of surety never missing images and low maintainability was actually going to cost 2000 - although 2000 is pretty much the upper limit I would be willing to pay to setup.
- baldeagle 5y ago
  If you want to be 100% on image capture, you will need some redundancy. Plan your budget for two cameras and backup systems. Local caching invade wifi goes down. Which is more important, that the image is taken or the if taken it is transmitted? That answer will inform where you apply additional redundancy. Maybe plan to take many images plus/minus 5 minutes of your target time in case there is something standing there to block the camera.
  - azalemeth 5y ago
    This. Go for tethered capture on a pair of old dSLRs and use something like an rPi or just bloody long cables to pull the images to an always-on linux box. Have a look at this to get started -- https://entangle-photo.org/ https://entangle-photo.org/ -- which works with many canon/nikon bodies. There are a few "lithium to power" hacks (e.g. "ONsite Relay A Camera Power System") but they are expensive and often many of the bodies can power themselves over USB. A bigger problem you'll have is condensation and generic detritus if you want to leave it outside unattended.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago

It's outside my house, so assume very high quality Wifi - ability to connect electricity if needed. I want things to be 100% sure so never lose a picture. So I would think if I were designing it, I would send picture to local computers if available in area. I have 3 computers that would probably be running at the times that pictures should be taken, but not guaranteed that they are running, and there is one stationary I could probably setup to be always running as long as house has power. I want things to need minimal input from me. So if wifi goes down should still work, if house electricity goes out should still work. 1000 USD is for setup. I can visit it periodically but as I am somewhat limited in my free time I want to not have to do it that often. watch specific event - sunrise sunset, but actually it would also be useful to catch an image at moonrise. >Are any of your old "digital cameras" dSLRs capable of running Magic Lantern? I believe so. The 1000 dollars is not a hard guideline, it's not a target either (obviously I would love a solution that said 300 dollars), but it isn't that I would decide to cancel the project if it turned out the price for something that was going to give me a high degree of surety never missing images and low maintainability was actually going to cost 2000 - although 2000 is pretty much the upper limit I would be willing to pay to setup.

baldeagle 5y ago
If you want to be 100% on image capture, you will need some redundancy. Plan your budget for two cameras and backup systems. Local caching invade wifi goes down. Which is more important, that the image is taken or the if taken it is transmitted? That answer will inform where you apply additional redundancy. Maybe plan to take many images plus/minus 5 minutes of your target time in case there is something standing there to block the camera.
- azalemeth 5y ago
  This. Go for tethered capture on a pair of old dSLRs and use something like an rPi or just bloody long cables to pull the images to an always-on linux box. Have a look at this to get started -- https://entangle-photo.org/ https://entangle-photo.org/ -- which works with many canon/nikon bodies. There are a few "lithium to power" hacks (e.g. "ONsite Relay A Camera Power System") but they are expensive and often many of the bodies can power themselves over USB. A bigger problem you'll have is condensation and generic detritus if you want to leave it outside unattended.