Any advice on best flat car camera system to buy?

[Anonymous]

I see several thread on filming layout and cameras, but it is always good to ask again as new products may be available.

I am thinking of getting something like the video camera offered by Micro Mark with the power from the rails adapter etc.

Any recent advice on this or a better product for adding a video camera to the layout?

Any non-rr hobby products (surveillance/spy shop -type stuff) that are better that you have adapted or seen adapted to someone's layout?

Thanks for any tips.

[chatanuga]

I've been using the Micromark camera for about seven years now with no problems.

 

The antenna is bendable, and I have bent it down some since these pics were taken.

Kevin

[MisterBeasley]

I've had one that I bought from SJT Enterprises quite a long time ago,  It still works fine.  The power supply unit looks a lot like the one from MicroMark.

After the novelty wore off, though, I find that I don't use it very often.  For that reason, you might want to reconsider the power supply unit.  You may find that a battery is really adequate for your needs, especially if you're mounting it on a flat car so it's easy to get to.  (Mine is inside a subway car, so changing batteries would have been an annoying task.)

For most of these, there is a problem with reception of the camera signal by the receiver box.  There are a lot of "dropouts" which cause the picture to momentarily break up.  Some people blame this on poor power pickup, but I tried running with a battery and found the results were just about the same.  On the other hand, the subway car came from the factory with interior lights, so it has good 8-wheel power pickup that I was able to piggy-back off of.  If you add wipers to standard freight car trucks, you might have trouble getting reliable pickup.

The best installation I've ever seen of one of these had a ceiling-mounted antenna from Radio Shack.  It was a better antenna than the one provided, and gave a good clean signal.  Of course, being above the layout meant a direct path to the transmitter not obstructed by layout items, other trains or people.