Camera hidden in spike light

[bank]

Another solution for hiding cameras, I took a Hikvision bullet camera, removed it from its casing and fitted it in to a "spike light".
I have a couple of real spike lights illuminating a tree, so it's hard to spot another one pointing slightly the wrong way...

 

[crw030]

That's pretty clever, but balsy to be cutting up a camera! The finished product looks sweet, but did you find it messes with your IR or caused focus issues having a lens on the front that probably wasn't high quality/intended for optical clarity or IR?

 

[bp2008]

I like the look of that. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if you could build and sell these around here LOL.

 

[bank]

That's pretty clever, but balsy to be cutting up a camera! The finished product looks sweet, but did you find it messes with your IR or caused focus issues having a lens on the front that probably wasn't high quality/intended for optical clarity or IR?

The camera was fairly easy to pull apart, the only hassle, was cutting and rejoining the pigtail as it has to go through the gland on base of the the lamp. (Solder and shrink wrap).
I also replaced the lens with a 19mm to make the framing much tighter. I was expecting more issues with the quality of the plastic front to the lamp, but it was fine. I removed the IR illuminators as I didn't need them.
(I'm currently using the camera with OpenALPR, and hope to upgrade its hardware later this week to an old Dell Optiplex 7010 with GPU acceleration via a GTX 1050.)

 

[djernie]

The camera was fairly easy to pull apart, the only hassle, was cutting and rejoining the pigtail as it has to go through the gland on base of the the lamp. (Solder and shrink wrap).
I also replaced the lens with a 19mm to make the framing much tighter. I was expecting more issues with the quality of the plastic front to the lamp, but it was fine. I removed the IR illuminators as I didn't need them.
(I'm currently using the camera with OpenALPR, and hope to upgrade its hardware later this week to an old Dell Optiplex 7010 with GPU acceleration via a GTX 1050.)

Could you share video or picture of what it is seeing. especially license plate when you get it. Great idea by the way.

 

[bank]

Could you share video or picture of what it is seeing. especially license plate when you get it. Great idea by the way.

The camera is on a 20MPH residential street. The angle isn't ideal, but it captures most plates during the day with OpenALPR.
View attachment Spike Cam.mp4

 

[djernie]

The camera is on a 20MPH residential street. The angle isn't ideal, but it captures most plates during the day with OpenALPR.
View attachment 61598

Great Thanks for the video, it works pretty good. I can see myself building something like this, but i just added two more overview cameras and i saw my significant others eyes roll as she walked past me setting them up. So i will wait for a few months before i add another.

 

[bank]

Make the additional one a spike light and she'll never know!