DIY CCTV (IP-based) camcorder
Inspired by u/Rottolo_Piknottolo I wanted to have a go at building my own CCTV camcorder. Here is my attempt (Raspberry Pi and IP-based rather than Mini DVR) 😄
Sanyo VCC HD2500P camera with Fujinon TV ZOOM lens (relatively naked)
Rather than go down the Mini DVR route, I was attracted to the potential of a Sanyo VCC HD2500P as it has an internal SD card reader.
Recording to the SD card is triggered by an alarm event (a dry connection such as a couple of wires and a switch) but the SD card functions on the camera are frustrating when mounting / unmounting regularly. So as its an IP camera, I decided to use a Raspberry Pi (an old Pi 3) connected to the camera via a small network cable and capturing the stream; acting as an NVR.
The camera is capable of quad-stream though there isn't much point as the utilisation gets pretty high with just one stream, so I am sticking with 1280 x 720 (max 16:9 is 1920 x 1080).
The lens is a Fujinon H16x10A-R11 with the servo removed and gives 16x zoom, 10–160mm, and f/2.5.
Screen grab of leaves at the end of the garden when zoomed in
The lens is a TV zoom and has the parfocal party trick of the shot to staying in focus across its range as well as a macro option for close-up.
Screen grab zoomed out (I need to fiddle with the lens / sensor distance)
Sitting on top of the camera grip is huge (well 7" inch) monitor. I hadn't realised the camera would be so small compared.
Not a photo showing off the cable management
Fully loaded it has a 12v LiPo battery, 3-way DC barrel lead for the camera, monitor, and to a buck convertor with micro USB for 5v to the Raspberry Pi. The monitor is HDMI from the PI and RCA from the camera. When in use I duct tape the battery, buck convertor, and Pi to the back of the monitor. And yes the weight it all wrong at the moment!
The Raspberry Pi uses pygame for a UI with a cheap wireless shutter button to trigger the recording and a small wireless keyboard to change camera settings via the menu, such as white balance, gamma, and export the recordings to a USB stick (taking care of the mount / unmount, copy, and delete). There isn't an API to the camera however it has a HTTP interface so the Pi sends URL encoded requests to the camera that change the settings. The stream is recorded using ffmpeg without any conversion applied on the Pi as its a Pi 3 so not a lot of resource to be able to process on the fly.
Everything (camera, lens, grips, cables, monitor, battery, buck converter) came to under £100 / $130 (I already had the Pi).