Just installed the Barlus cam. Took some finagling with wi-fi setups and required extra devices to make work. That portion was frustrating and still not seamless. Have to change wifi network to see the fish. But so fun to watch the fish swim around. Software does not give a clean explanation how the cam controls work, so trying to figure that out too.
New underwater camera for pond. Wow
- Thread starter big ron
- Start date
Amen to all of that. The camera is high quality, well built, great picture (on video anyway - the screenshots are garbage) but how to actually work the thing - incredibly frustrating.
I use the XMEye app - I think this must be the one they suggest in the very unhelpful literature that comes with the camera - to be able to turn the light on and off and switch from color picture to black and white - and that is far from user friendly. Here's a screenshot of the app - none of the "Zoom Focus Iris" buttons on the right appear to do anything at all. I can click on any of the arrows to the left to turn the light on and off and to switch from color to black and white. No rhyme or reason to any of it - they all just operate the same. Just click click click to go from light on-light off- black dn white-color and back to light on.
Here's my cloudy pond - we've had massive rain storms the last three days that have really stirred things up. It'll settle in an hour or so, if it ever stops raining. Anyway here's how the XMEye app looks on my phone:
And their tech support is laughable. You email back and forth with them (I say them, because altho the person I was emailing with used the same name, it was obvious it was a different person responding every time) and it takes many hours to get one question answered, if they even understand your question. I think I detailed one of those convos in my own thread about my Barlus, but at one point the "tech" suggested I ask my son because it seemed he was way smarter than me. Which is true, but not helpful. haha! When I suggested they should work on building their own app to control the camera, they seemed to think that was an incredibly novel idea. I mean you build and sell a device that is completely reliant on an app to control it, but you Have. No. App. Crazy. I was suprised to find that the camera has no external controls at al by the way - at least mine does not. It seemed like there should be at least basic on/off, but nope.
If I want a picture of something in the camera view, I literally take a picture with my phone of my tv screen - reminds me of the days when we would listen for our favorite song on the radio and then hit "record" on the tape recorder as fast as possible to get a recording. haha.
Long story short - LOVE the camera, love being able to watch my fish all year round, HATE how hard it is to operate. Without my really smart kid I would be hopeless.
i called customer service after the stubborn polock in me cried uncle , this not only wasn't any fun but took forever and they had to also add BS to get the damn thing to work. camera has been up and running this is year three i enjoy it but as a camera guy , the quality is a polaroid against a dslr
100% agree. I should have added "the picture is great on the TV... from a distance". When you get close to the screen it gets... not blurry, not pixelated... just not clear.
Matching your thoughts in all aspects, especially the feedback and camera software operation. That is frustrating. I did find a video on u-tube how to make adjustments to the software/camera settings, but too chicken to try. My luck, it would stop working. thanks much. Enjoy!