The same endoscope: review of the flexible video camera “Videomaster PRO”

How often did you have to disassemble the siphon under the sink to find out why your drain is not working? How often did you have to crawl under a car to compare factory numbers with documents? How often, absolutely necessary for you at the moment, did the thing fall into a very uncomfortable and inaccessible place?

Another thousand different when and how often occur in everyday life. This device is designed to solve such problems. Today, we will test the endoscope or otherwise a flexible video camera.

In my hands, “Videomaster PRO” and now I will shove it into the most ugly places to feel the whole genius of the engineer who invented such a useful device.
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Videomaster is a device with a long probe, at the end of which a video camera is located. The color display shows in real time everything that is in the field of view of the camera.

Specifications

Weight 420 g
Battery life 12-13 hours
Probe diameter 9 mm
Operating temperature range from -10 ° C to + 50 ° C
2.7 inch TFT-LCD display
Probe length 1 m
IP67 protection class (only for probe)
MiniSD memory up to 32 GB
Power supply 4 AA batteries
Dimensions 263 x 86 x 49 mm
Resolution 640x480 (PAL / NTSC)
36 ° viewing angle

I would like to start my report on the use of this gadget from the very beginning, namely, opening the package.

The tidy box contains the outside of the photograph, the characteristics and layout of the control elements, inside it is filled with packing material made of polyethylene foam. Everything is packed quite tightly, nothing dangles.

We analyze the equipment

LCD monitor arm
Usb cable
Video cable
Waterproof flexible probe with 9mm lens and adjustable backlight
Nozzles with fastening clutch: hook, mirror and magnet
Instruction

What did I know about these glands before? Yes, almost nothing, except that they are used to inspect various hard-to-reach places. At the moment there are two types of such devices: medical and technical (sometimes they are called borescopes). Let's leave the first to medical workers of the most different orientation, as there is a rather detailed article about them in wikipedia .

Regarding the technical use of endoscopes, the first thing that comes to mind is the ability to work with different plumbing equipment, but this does not closely limit the scope of these extremely useful devices, both in professional and in everyday life. And in general, their use is limited only by the user's imagination. So offhand, you can use the device to check the condition and the presence of congestion in the sewers, the state of the internal mechanisms of various instruments and engines without disassembling, checking the condition of the wiring and various communications for the recently popular drywall.



According to the characteristics, I got the gadget, I think almost no one will have any serious questions, except, perhaps, the class of protection .

In this case, IP67 (Ingress Protection) is a system for classifying the degrees of protection of the electrical equipment shell against the penetration of solid objects and water in accordance with the international standard IEC 60529 (DIN 40050, GOST 14254-96). Please note that this characteristic is only a probe, the device itself does not have this degree of protection.

The marking is carried out with the help of an international protection mark (IP) and two digits, the first of which means protection against ingress of solid objects (dust), the second - against the ingress of water.

The maximum protection for this classification is IP69: a dustproof device that can withstand prolonged immersion in water under pressure.

In our case - IP67: a dustproof device capable of operating during short-term immersion in water, while the water does not get inside in quantities that disrupt the operation of the device. Permanent operation of such a device in the submerged mode is not expected.

The device, in fact, made very high quality, despite the origin of "made in China". On the other hand, now everything is from there, even the praised smarts from one well-known company. So this is no longer an indicator. In the case no backlash and unnecessary cracks are noticed. Comfortable ergonomic handle, which lacks perhaps the rubberized non-slip coating. But this is already the taste and color, although when working in difficult conditions (dirt, water, lube oil, etc.), I think such coverage would not be superfluous.

The control buttons are made of high-quality plastic with embossed icons and inscriptions, which is an important advantage for long-term use. Paint or stickers in aggressive conditions will not last a month.

The probe is fastened easily and simply by connecting the socket and plug with a threaded lock, eliminating the gap between the pairing. The connector is a component analog video interface that provides for the separate transmission of video signal components (S-Video or Mini-DIN 4). The photographs below show the relative dimensions of the probe parts. Optional accessories included in the package (magnet, mirror and hook) are mounted on the end of the video camera probe using a groove and a rubber mounting ring.

Standard 4-pin S-Video connector, such as "mother":

1. GND "earth" (Y)
2. GND "earth" ©,
3. Y Brightness
4. C Color.

Like any other techie who cannot imagine himself without a computer, I was immediately interested in the possibility of connecting to a PC. And I immediately confess that at first I slowed down a bit. According to the instructions, I connected the camera via USB, and turned on the power. And nothing…

It turned out that the device is determined only in the presence of a miniSD card.
The instructions clearly do not say this, although one could guess from the order of description, in which the card is installed first, and then the connection is made. After installing the card, the gadget with a half-ping is defined as a removable disk, on all computers that I have at my disposal running systems of the Microsoft family (XP, Vista, Win7), Macs and X's, unfortunately, I don’t keep at home, so I don’t check the work in these systems failed.

When installing drivers, an additional disk device appears in the system - ZORAN COACH6 (I62) USB Device.

After the computer came the turn of the TV. Here, too, everything is simple. The camera can be connected via an analog composite input, and on the TV, select the signal source, and voila:



According to the video specifications, you can see that the device supports both NTSC and PAL. The main advantages of the first are good compatibility with black and white images, low cross-distortion of brightness and color signals, as well as good noise immunity, while the transmission channel is used most efficiently from all existing systems, allowing for its relative narrowness to transmit an image with good color clarity. The second allows the best way to carry out the separation of signals of brightness and color. In this parameter, PAL is significantly superior to NTSC, although compared with the first one, it has a lower vertical resolution in color.

We proceed to the test, in close to combat, conditions.

In the device settings there is a function to display the date and time in videos and photos. When you first start you need to configure them. An important advantage is the presence in the menu of the Russian language. Recorded video files turned out to be without significant barrel distortion. In some cases, too intense illumination led to a very overexposed image with the loss of some details. The device allows you to adjust the degree of illumination from 0 to 5. There is also a three-fold zoom.

To check the color accuracy and sharpness of the camera, I sketched on a A4 sheet just such a blank.




Then a few video files.

Shooting rooms under the hood of a car.

Shooting TV with 2.5 meters (held to control the smoothness of the video in daylight).

The wires of the taillight (here you can see a small overexposure of the image).

Sink and pouring water (the water was a rather unpleasant surprise).

Check the readability of the text on the packaging of a music disc under the car seat.

Check the sharpness and color reproduction of the template.

The same in extremely small space (1.5 cm).

Characteristics of one of the resulting video files

Checking the sharpness and color rendition on a template .avi

Format: AVI
Format / Info: Audio Video Interleave
File size: 55.9 MiB
Duration: 1mn 32s
Overall bit rate: 5 060 Kbps

Video
ID: 0
Format: AVC
Format / Info: Advanced Video Codec
Format profile: Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC: Yes
Format settings, ReFrames: 1 frame
Codec ID: H264
Duration: 1mn 32s
Bit rate: 5 025 Kbps
Width: 640 pixels
Height: 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio: 4: 3
Frame rate: 30.000 fps
Color space: YUV
Chroma subsampling: 4: 2: 0
Bit depth: 8 bits
Scan type: Progressive
Bits / (Pixel * Frame): 0.545
Stream size: 55.5 MiB (99%)

Audio
ID: 1
Format: ADPCM
Codec ID: 2
Codec ID / Hint: Microsoft
Duration: 1mn 32s
Bit rate mode: Constant
Bit rate: 32.2 Kbps
Channel (s): 1 channel
Sampling rate: 8,000 Hz
Bit depth: 4 bits
Stream size: 364 KiB (1%)
Interleave, duration: 254 ms (7.63 video frames)

If you look closely at the characteristics of the resulting video files, you can see that the audio track is also present, indicating that the head unit can record sound. Although the probe itself, due to the use of S-video, does not support sound recording.

Perhaps with a smaller size of the camera module and a more flexible cable, it would be easier to look at different angles, but a thicker and stiff cable is better suited for those cases where you need to overcome some kind of congestion, then you can force the camera through.

It should be noted that the image quality requires some dexterity in holding the device, and also controlling the probe. With shaking hands, high-quality pictures will not work.

Separately, I would like to note a very high-quality execution of the instructions, containing a complete description of any actions with the gadget, starting from the assembly and ending with viewing the firmware version. Tellingly, devices of a similar class on the market cost one and a half to two times more, and this is at a minimum, so my final verdict must have. The price of this device in the store Dadzhet currently is 9900 rubles. So hurry while the price is still so low. In my opinion, an excellent investment, unlike several microwaves, refrigerators, or even a bag of buckwheat. In general, the device, after my some acquaintance with him, I give a definite assessment must have.