Brickhouse Security Camscura Hidden Surveillance HD Cameras (Mini Tilt Camera)

We were having problems with someone ripping down posters from bulletin boards. I bought this to catch the perp. I was more than impressed with this. First, setup was extremely easy on my Mac. I never had to resort to formatting the memory through an adapter plugged into my mac. I simply installed the micro memory card into the camera, plugged the camera into my Mac and used Disk Utility to format the memory as 'MS-DOS (FAT).' Then it was ready. The surface is flat-black, with no gloss, making it unlikely a glint would attract attention when put in an inconspicuous place. The lens is pinhole so no one would see a 'lens' and know they were being recorded. That's the upside of a pinhole. The downside is the picture can be grainy in low-light conditions as pin-hole lenses severely limit the amount of light that falls onto the sensor. So some light is necessary; there is no IR illumination from the camera. That wasn't a problem for me as a low level of light was always available. Perhaps the best part for me is that the battery lasted five days and may have lasted longer but I was ready to take it down and see what it had recorded. It was still operational. It cost a little more but I'm glad I got it. I'm very pleased with this camera.

As a professional Licensed PI. I've used several of these cameras. I've purchased more than 10. They are reliable to a point. Everyone that I have purchased has broken down within a year. They work well until they don't. On average they function for about a month of continuous recording until some sort of issue occurs. The most common malfunction is an SD card slot malfunction. This is when the device will no longer detect or read and SD card that is placed in the slot. Another common malfunction is the camera will fail to charge, or will not hold a charge and the battery will die after a few hours of recording. I have also exposed everyone of these cameras to the outside elements which may be a contributing factor to the ware and tare. These are the only self contained cameras that I've been able to find that will last for 24 hrs and record HD video.

Item as described, wasn't impressed or disappointed beyond the product description and answered questions. It does not have very good quality in low light, but reading the questions before purchasing, you'll already know this. The battery will last 10 hours in motion detect mode and record continuous for 2 hours. The software provided at the links listed in the owner manual are very easy to use, plug it into the computer, change your settings, watch your videos, delete, charge, and you're ready to go.

This camera is not totally independent of itself. You have to access brickhouse website to change and adjust settings. It is very difficult to download their software to do this, because it has on going glitches. I just use surveillance mode or on going mode, which is on opposite side of camera and motion sensor. If you are not very knowledgeable with formatting SD cards, then whatever you do don't stick a 64 g micro disc in the device. It can really ruin the device. I highly suggest a 32 g sd card or lower. 32 g might give you 8 to 16 hours of record time. If I could do it all over again I would not have purchsed this device. It is way over priced and the average person with little knowledge of tech this may have major issues with this product. You are better off going to buy a spy hook for 30 dollars than spending a big wad of cash on this black box. The hook will give you two to three hours of battery life, but if that is all you need, then you will be very happy you saved a 171 dollars.

Received this on time and with good packaging. Manual says 64gb microSD card is supported and includes a URL for downloading software which is supposed to format the card (only FAT) so it can be used. I purchased a SanDisk 64gb microSDXC HC-1 (10) for this and formatted it. Regard less of which format I tried (Fat16/Fat32) I never got it to work. I've aske BrickHouse tech support for help. Update: Spoke with BrickHouse tech support. The person I talked to was not very conversant about chips and was obviously just following a check off list. Kept telling me to download a formatting tool when I told them repeated I had already downloaded it and the chip still wasn't formatting. I kept getting a "19" formatting error. Tried Fat16, FAT32, EXFat... nothing They said the chip should work but still I could not get the thing to format so I returned it. Purchased a Scandisk 32gb SDHC HC-1 (10) and it worked right out of the box. Makes me wonder if I should have popped in the 64gb chip in before formatting it, ah well. The picture is poor for "HD" barely SD IMHO. The rather pricy item doesn't come with any memory or software to watch what's been recorded. However, it records, can watch, review, stop, rewind, etc with the software downloads they recommend. I'll be able to get the work out of this I want. Updated Update: Received an email from tech support. It seems there's another step to formatting a 64gb chip which their tech support didn't know. A specific size drive has to be selected Wish I had known that... would have saved a headache. Good responsive camera though.

exelent product,,

Not had the opportunity to try it out properly yet, but three things stand out so far... Firstly -- given how much these things cost, why on earth don't they include the setup program on a mini-CD...after all, much cheaper brands can do so. Secondly -- It can use a 64GB card ( and despite what the product description says, it's NOT an SD card, it's a MICRO-SD card ! ).....but to do so you've got to download a specific program to format it to enable it's use....again, given the cost of this product why don't they include it on a mini-CD ( as other, cheaper brands do ) ? Thirdly -- what they fail to mention in the product description is that the maximum frame-rate for video recording is only 18 FPS ( standard is 6 FPS ) This review will be re-evaluated once I've had a chance to try it out properly.

this took me 1/2 hour and it worked fine I am 71 years old so try it

A good piece of kit