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2010 Uway Night
Explorer NX-50 8MP IR 30 count Camera Review
The past six months we have been off and on this camera with a series of
changes that finally led up to it becoming a proud
member of the Uway line up. Having gone through the
growing pains of getting the 50 and 50B camera
successfully to market and ironing out the difficulties
that followed that release, the Uway Company proved its
self in the customer service area very successfully. We
are up to ball two in this game and it looks like all
the lessons learned during the past year will not be
repeated and will make this game a lot more interesting
to many. My first look at this camera and the picture
quality left me just saying “wow”. This interpretation
was based on a pre release camera and of this morning I
have in my hands a post production camera that I will be
going through to see if what all was found during the
lead up to this release have been corrected or improved
upon.
A full 5 MP camera stuck in a small 5.5X4.0X2.5 inch case that is very
well camouflaged and has an drop down sealed access door
up front for the controls. Advertized as having just
over a second trigger time to fire the 30 count array is
a selling point in itsself. Plenty of light going down
range to be reflected back to capture some pretty
impressive pictures. Let’s hope that that last sentence
does not come back to haunt me later on down the line in
this review, because that was based on my first look on
camera #1 sample.
Most every one is familiar with the Uway XtendIR accessory marketed by
this same company. It comes in two different
configurations, one of which is a red flash extender and
the other is a black flash converter for red flash IR
cameras. This camera has a built in port and IR
switching capabilities through programming to
accommodate this excellent accessory. The original
XtendIR series will not work with this port. The
supplied cable and the v2 series XtendIR will be
required for operations with this camera. For those who
are a fan of black flash systems, this is an opportunity
to gain possession of a system that should not
disappoint.
Note: HCO has
confirmed that there is an upgrade for owners of XtendIR
version 1 who want to upgrade the XtendIR to version 2
for use with the NX50 camera.
The top resolution is interpolated to 8 MP and can be programmed down to
5, 3, and 1.3 MP settings if desired. The burst mode is
1 to 9 and video resolution is 640X480 at 10 to 60
seconds. Having sound with the video has very much
gained popularity recently with cameras like the new
Stealth unit and Spypoint cameras and last years Leaf
River cameras. This camera also jumped on this feature
with both feet and our test camera provided us with some
interesting samples during out field tests.
PIR sensing is done through a multi zone lens and again we found this
setup worked well so far during our sample tests. The
programming is done through a 6 button up down select
type of standard configuration. This is all displayed on
a color screen that will also serve as picture playback
and video play back in the field if necessary, for those
who feel that extra use of battery life is important
rather than just swapping the card. A full info strip is
displayed on all pictures and video with date/time and
moon phase/temperature. You can stick up to a 16 gig
card in this camera and it will sit there and ingest
several weeks of high resolution pictures/videos without
running out of space.
The power to this camera can be supplied through an external port with
their accessory cable for a 6 volt SLA battery or on
board 8 AA alkaline, NiMH or Lithium cells. Getting it
all powered up and programmed you can also choose to
password (4 digit) protect your camera from others who
may choose to borrow your camera without permission. The
warranty on this camera is 1 year and the customer
service has so far been proven to be first class.
11-13-2010 update: We checked out the
picture quality to see if it was still the same and yes
we did get some very good prints. We switched to video
and the video quality was also good but the sound failed
on this unit and just gave us some static. We will have
to see if that issue is just this unit or is the same on
others so that is an area that needs further testing.
11-20-2010 update:
After publishing a few pictures the roar from the field
came in loud and clear about the picture/video quality
not being super duper as we announced. Many felt there
was a degree of graininess to the photos plus the sound
on the video is just plain noise. We have the review on
hold until we hear a little more from the folks at the
factory.
05-24-2011 update:
Let’s get it right, was what we heard from the factory
and they went to work and they have made many changes
and the testing was running hot and heavy in the
background. The camera has now been released and our
tests so far are very positive and we are finding a high
degree of favor so far. Please look at the sample
pictures and you will see that this camera does do a
very good job with that. All the rest of the issues are
being double checked by us but so far we have found that
things are going well. Please stay tuned because we see
that there will probably be a fast following that will
develop once the word is out and a few are deployed in
the field.
05-25-2011 update:
We put together a sample of the video with sound and it
is pretty impressive. The one thing that kills our sound
capture is the fact we have an interstate not far from
the testing area and the background noise is high. The
day color is great and the night is not to shabby.
Please view the sample and judge for yourself.
click below to download and play video.
05-29-2011 update:
With the setup in 9 burst we logged about 2000 pictures
in 24 hours because our testing area was busy and
because of weather the deer seemed to hold over the top
of the corn. We had very heavy rain and storms and we
double checked and everything is dry so we know the
moisture tightness is in order.
The factory has doubled
up on the gasket thickness so it
makes a real tight fit.
There were no leaks. We
also had to spend a lot of time just analyzing the
pictures. Most every manufacturer except a couple have
really got this area under control. Where things fall
apart is where the night IR pictures like with every
other camera that quality is a little below the quality
of the great day time pictures. I would still have to
say they are good.
05-30-2011 update:
Being this camera has the port for the new XtendIR-B2 we
went ahead and selected External Illumination in
the programming and ran with the XtendIR only. The
results were that the night got lit up very well. Close
animals had some IR burn so if your setup is close to
the target area then select the lower IR count on the
ExtendIR to prevent this. This conversion to black flash
works extremely well and the only fault we can really
see is the motion blur that happens with most all IR
applications but not to extreme. Knowing that this is
covert black flash makes living with a little blur more
tolerable I would think. Even the high dollar cameras
have not been able to eliminate this issue. For about
$330 (prices taken from Beebusyoutdoors) you could have
a pretty good black flash setup. The nice thing is it
all just plugs together and you only have to do a little
programming.
05-31-2011 update:
Going from single capture over to video with the
XtendIR-B2 still attached and camera flash turned off,
the results were very promising and the illumination was
on down range. This camera seems to do a very good job
with this setup also. The more we play with it we are
starting to find favor. The thing that makes this work
is where the black content and the white content of the
videos are just that and not having that grey look that
many cameras have.
06-07-2011
update: We gathered some video samples plus we
received several from some of the field users and all
have background noise that is audible but not over
powering over the ambient field noise. The bird chirps
and leaf crunching can still be heard. We have completed
this review and will close at this time.
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