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2012 Eyecon Storm 36 count Black IR 9 MP digital
camera review
I will start this review by saying that as of now we have no idea if
this company will actually support this camera.
I have tried to E mail them and I have also
tried to phone them and have had zero success
contacting them. Our collection of material
during the ATA show has given us a good long
time to get hold of them. We see that this
camera is now becoming available through some
catalog outlets.
We have acquired our test unit and will proceed with the review as
normal. We are also asking for any input from
the field from other users. This request is
because this is the first year and the need to
keep other potential purchasers informed is
essential.
Out of the box first impression was that I am looking at a WGI camera in
a different case. Buttons and programming are
very much the same. The power arrangement is 6
of the old big C cell batteries which makes this
camera not exactly in the mini class. The
outside case is a good brown fall camouflage
color. Both the array and PIR sensor are blacked
out. There is a cable grove across the front of
the camera that is similar to the old Scoutguard
550.
The camera is about seven and a half inches high and four and a half
inches wide. It sticks out off the tree about
three inches. The Array is in an arch over the
main lens and the PIR sensor is just below. This
is in the top half of the camera. The bottom
half is a drop down door that exposes the view
screen (2.5 diagonal) with the control buttons
just below. The SD card slot is up under the
edge below the array behind the door. There is
no internal memory. There is no USB port or TV
out jacks. There is an optional rechargeable
battery pack that can be snapped onto the back
for extended battery life and will work with the
internal cells. There is an advertized 1 year
warranty, which will only be functional if
company access finally becomes available and a
reliable customer service is established. In the
mean time I would insure that the purchase place
has a very good return policy with a return
label like Cabelas in case the company fails to
become accessible. There is no security built
into this camera other than the cable grove.
The image sensor is 5 MP and is interpolated up to 9 MP for the top
resolution. Delay is advertized as being down to
10 seconds. Most other specifications are
relatively standard except for the claim of
being a true invisible flash, which will be
tested very shortly.
Documentation did not have a specification chart but most of the
instructions were easy to follow. At the tail
end of the booklet was the warranty data which
calls for a mandatory mail in card to authorize
the use of the warranty. It is a one year setup
and like Bushnell it is a pay to play type that
requires $20 fee to get it looked at. The back
board in the package did however have the camera
specifications printed on it.
The initial dark room tests showed that this camera will qualify as
being black flash. The temperature was at about
70 degrees but it seemed that the sensing was
not as good as it should be. Casual moves did
not seem to trigger the camera. I would have to
take a full step to the side to make it trigger
while watching the array through the black flash
analyzer. It will also be interesting to see if
it will make that 1/3 of a second advertized
trigger time when we put it on the bench. There
is a very noticeable filter clunk at transition.
I could hear it very easy at 20 feet. The SD
card instructions say best up to 16 gigs but
will take up to 32 gigs. The instructions also
state that the SD card needs to be the SDHC
type.
I was getting ready to do the drop and leak tests and boy does it leak.
When latched closed the latch still has over a
32nd of an inch play which allows the
door to not close tightly. I had to shim the
latch to get it to close tight enough to be
somewhat weather resistant. I also contacted a
friend who also has one and he also had to shim
his latch to protect his camera he received
yesterday.
We are going to put it on the bench and get a trigger time then get
range tests then this thing is going to be
shelved once that is finished. It cannot be
deployed as is. Maybe later in the year when
these have been pulled back and fixed, we might
try again.
The trigger tests got performed and as suspected they did not meet the
advertized specifications. In fact this camera
is fast but our tests showed times that were
more that double the advertized amount. The
range/8plate tests showed very weak color and
fuzzy night pictures. The black/white color in
the night pictures was good.
To further clarify the contact data, I have not attempted to contact the
company since I have had the camera in house the
past three days. Until we hear positive proof of
customer service, we can not give any additional
information on that. This review is closed.
04-30-2012 update:
Out of the blue came some correspondence and
there is a company associated with the
phone numbers and E mail addresses. Some how all
attempts went south and probably into some spam
filter along the way. From what we understand at
this point is only a few units actually made it
into the market. Once everything is OK, we
should have a replacement unit to re do the
review. Anthony has been in contact with them
today.
05-01-2012 update:
After being contacted by E mail to Anthony we
have now been able to actually establish that
the 800 number does work. Previously when I
called that number I would get no recording. Now
there is a recording that states to wait for
available CS person to answer. That problem is
solved. Now all we need is a camera that does
not leak.
06-08-2012 update:
We received communications (generated by their
customer service) that led us to believe that
the issues have been corrected so we again made
another purchase. We congratulated the company
on their fast work on this camera only to find
out that nothing was done and the original
cameras were still being sold. Our new unit did
in fact verify this and we were very surprised.
Their feeling about this was that the inside
switches are if fact sealed and the water
pooling inside the camera would not be an issue.
We still feel this is wrong and the day/night
temperature changes would cause moisture to
migrate up through the areas like the SD card
slot to the inside of the camera where it would
be trapped and during the cool times would fog
the inside of the main lens as we have had
happen many times in the past on other cameras
with like issues. The company did tell us they
are working on the updated cases and when
available we would have these to continue. The
review will remain closed until we again receive
a verified updated camera to continue the
review.
06-21-2012 update:
Being this bad water leak situation has dragged
out and corrective action should have happened
by now. We emailed the company for an update and
they only answered by phone. The conversation
basically stated that their attempt to take
corrective action to the water leak has failed.
They stated that their method of correction
would only result in the latch breaking. They
further stated that they were just going to go
ahead and sell the cameras as is
and just take the hits on water damage as it
happens. Please read the copy of page 18 taken
from their own manual about moisture in the
camera and you make up your own mind if you
would want to go head and own one of these
cameras. This review is closed and will not be
revisited unless there are improvements made.
Trigger Tests
(without flash 0.78s)
(with flash
0.84s)
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