Camera and full electrics for $225

Everything camera related. Includes triggers, batteries, power supplies, flatbeds and sheet-feeding scanners, too.

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DrCheap
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Camera and full electrics for $225

Post by DrCheap »

Just a quick note on the electrics for my build -- this is more to get people thinking about ideas for their own builds and not a model to follow precisely.

2x Powershot a480 cameras off ebay: $85 shipped (ymmv)
2x 4gb class 4 SDHC cards $12 shipped (Amazon)
2x AC adapters for cameras: ABC Products® ACK-800 $32 shipped (Amazon)
2x Canon AVC-DC300 A/V Cable $14 shipped (Amazon)
Dual-camera USB trigger $35 shipped (from Frans van de Kamp)
RCA DRC6272 7" Dual Season Portable DVD Player (2 units) $47 shipped.

This gives me the following:
Two 10mpx cameras with CHDK and acceptable (but not great) optics, powered by a/c adapters.
Triggering from a battery-powered (3xAAA) simple push-button USB wired remote that fires both cameras together.
Live (real-time) output of the camera screen to two 7" lcd displays so that I can see page alignments and get feedback from the cameras on processing/ready state as I work.

As always with these things, your mileage may vary and no doubt better cameras may well be worth the money, but for $225 total out of pocket for all the electrics, I think this is pretty slick (ok, maybe add $10 for the power squid all this is plugged into).
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daniel_reetz
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Re: Camera and full electrics for $225

Post by daniel_reetz »

This is really great, thanks. I'm going to link this in the next thread about the scanner kits as an official guide to thinking smart about camera purchases.
DrCheap
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Joined: 07 Jan 2012, 19:27
E-book readers owned: pdf
Number of books owned: 750

Re: Camera and full electrics for $225

Post by DrCheap »

Thanks, Daniel. It was from lots of time on these boards looking at what others had done and a relatively tight budget for the electrics that led me to this solution.

Those little RCA DVD players were sold in pairs and are made to be put on the back of a car seat and linked together to share video. It just happens they also have a little kick stand and simple RCA inputs on both of them, so they work great with the A480 cameras. Plus there were tons of refurbished, used, and broken ones on ebay pretty cheap a few months back when I went looking for a solution. It took some scouting and scouring on ebay to pick up two of them under $50 for the pair, so it's a definite YMMV situation, but something like that ought to be possible near that same price.
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