Swann OutbackCam 12MP Outdoor Photo & Video Camera

Bohs Hansen / 8 years ago

Pricing and Conclusion

Pricing

At the time of writing, the Swann OutbackCam Portable HD Video & 12 Megapixel Photo Camera & Recorder can be yours for £99.99 from Amazon UK. I couldn’t find an American listing at the time of writing.

Conclusion

Swann’s OutbackCam is so easy to use, you won’t need any manual. Everything is logical from the time you unpack it to loading it with batteries and turning it on. The buttons are labelled with easy to understand icons and the menu is easy to navigate. As you browse through the menu, you’ll quickly find the settings you’re looking for as well as find out what the camera can do.

The OutbackCam takes some great photos and videos, photos with 12 Megapixel and videos in full-HD 1920x1080p resolution. Not only during the day but also at night. The camera is equipped with two sets of IR LEDs which make up 40 LEDs in total. That gives a great nighttime illumination that sometimes is too much. For this, you can just turn off one of the sections and only use half. During the day time photos, I did notice that it was sensitive to the light source, but nothing that interferes with the quality of the images. The colours only fade a little and the image gets brighter.

The built-in SD card slot accepts cards up to 32GB and that should be sufficient in most cases. You’ll most likely need to replace the batteries long time before the memory card is full. Speaking of batteries, the double compartment for up to 8 AA batteries in total gives the camera a great endurance. You can offload images from the SD card directly or connect a USB cable to your PC. You can also power it through a DC connector, but that takes away some of the ruggedness.

When everything is closed, the camera can withstand quite a bit of weather and you don’t need to worry about having it mounted outside. Neither temperatures nor rain should affect the functionality. The shape of the extra battery compartment and the included strap makes it easy to mount the camera on trees and poles, so it’s only your imagination of placement that sets your limits.