XCam XRay

by Rick LaBanca

Color Camera

The new XCam camera component is a small unit connected to the transmitter by a flat multicondictor wire. This allows placement quite a distance away from the transmitter.... the cable is about 18 feet.

On the hookup end, there is a male RCA connector for video (mounted in a little plastic box), and an audio connector. There is also a "T" shaped connector that plugs into the transmitter's power connection, and the wall wart's connector plugs into another wire from the XCam. This allows the XCam to be powered by the same supply as the transmitter.

The camera is a lot smaller than the web site implied to me as shown here.

For the best evaluation, I tested the camera without the transmitter. I just powered it and plugged it into my Matrox Rainbow Runner video capture card. This card allows me to view video live on the screen (excellent quality, better than a standard TV), and also capture.

Got light? You're going to need it! The camera does poorly in a well lit room. For comparison, here is a beautiful picture of my kitchen stove, in the upper right is a light source of two 60 watt bulbs. One is from the XCam, and the other from my Sony TRV-65 camcorder. I'm not sure of the lux rating, but it's middle of the road. You can see the comparison is quite dramatic.

XCam - Where am I?

Sony TRV-65 - Hmm, a mess, maybe I'm better off in the dark!

The camera would probably fare well enough for daylight use, but night time, forget it. Funny how the X10 site suggest provocative bedroom use of the camera... it wouldn't be too romantic having 300 watts of lighting there too!

One thought I had about this low light was infrared. CCD device can see infrared, and the Sony camcorders with the 0 Lux ability have a few IR LED's in them to light a close (1-3 feet) scene. I tried using the Sony IR lights to illuminate a dark area for the XCam. No luck... even aiming the Sony IR light source right at the XCam just looked like a tiny blip!

So my final suggestion is pass on using the camera for anything other than very bright subjects or day use.

Overall impression: C-