Interesting New Camera

I didn't get a competent shot of this—I'm embarrassed, and I still don't know what I did wrong (probably had the lens on manual focus while assuming it was on AF)—but what the heck, you can see what you need to see.

This is Matt Paulchel of Clean and Green Softwash Solutions, (check out the convincing before and after photographs at the link), a local house- and roof-washing business, whose crew is going to be clearing out my gutters. This was the maiden voyage, the very first use, of his spiffy new camera—it has a camera and sensor on the end of a long, telescoping carbon-fiber pole, with a monitor at the lower end, made for roof inspection. Here he's using it, obviously, to look into my gutters and conveniently evaluate their state of upkeep from the ground. It gives him a moving image on the monitor, and he can also snap a still picture whenever he wants to. It saves him from having to get up on the roof or laboriously haul a ladder to multiple locations around the house.

The only problem it has that I could see is that it badly needs a viewing hood—the monitor image is washed out and hard to see in bright sunlight.

An interesting use of digital imaging technology.

It might be fascinating to see a list of all the workmanlike tasks that can be accomplished with digital imaging. No way you could list all of them, and some are probably so specialized they would only mystify us. But there are lots of things you can do with DI that couldn't be done before. A prime example that springs to mind is back-up cameras in cars, which never would have been feasible with traditional optical/chemical photography. Drones, too.

Another example I saw recently is that, at the glass-blowing demonstrations at the Corning Museum of Glass (I'm a sucker for those—I've been to the same demonstration three times already and don't get tired of it), they have a digital camera set up to look inside the kiln, so the audience can see the glasswork being reheated during the process.

Matt's going to put his camera to good use—it makes this task so easy that he plans to offer free roof and gutter inspections as a sales tool for his business. Sounds like a viable idea to me.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Dave Van de Mark: "I had a friend sell his home in Eureka, CA and the real-estate agent hired this guy who had a Nikon DSLR atop a 40 foot high telescoping pole attached to a mighty big tripod. The home was in a beautiful location with the backside looking out over a lovely valley. So, situating the camera facing the front of the home, he was able to capture a scene showing the entire house and the valley behind it. The camera was controlled from an iPad. I saw the finished images and they were impressive."

Gene Spesard: "There's the use of digital cameras to inspect sewer lines, something that simply couldn't have happened until the technology was in place."

Mike replies: Two kinds of "sewer lines," too—I remembered last night that doctors can now inspect peoples' colons by getting them to swallow a tiny camera shaped like a large pill or capsule. The camera takes hundreds (thousands? I don't remember) of pictures on its way through the bowels!

Comments

[Tom Frost]

Infrared cameras to identify wet or poorly insulated spots in homes. They also can be used for inspection of overheating bearings, many industrial uses.

[matthew]

The first thing that came to mind are pipe inspection cameras: https://www.grainger.com/category/ecatalog/N-1z0drgn

NASA used them or something similar to inspect (I believe) the turbine blades of the space shuttles when they returned to Earth.

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

Now all he needs is Googles new Daydream VR glasses and he's all set!
Another great use for DI is inspecting drain and sewer pipes for clogs and such...

[Ken James]

Image looks 2x3. Is that the 7200 I have been waiting for? Oops I mean you have been waiting for?

[Inaki]

The site was quite a surprise. Do you still have outdoor and exposed gas metering equipment, and exposed pipes?
Quelle suprirse!

[Dave Hodson]

As a somewhat aging male, I have to admit that at least once a year, I give thanks for tiny sensors.

I wonder what Niepce, Daguerre and Talbot would be thinking. So much has happened in what - maybe four or five generations?

[Tom Passin]

I had my chimney inspected recently (it had to be relined, as things turned out, because I had had a chimney fire). The inspector used a digital camera that he passed through the chimney. The pictures were very clear and convincing.

I had no idea this was becoming standard procedure.

[Chuck Albertson]

Using that camera on a pole, instead of a ladder, probably cuts his workers' comp premiums in half. It should, anyway.

[Speed]

Mike wrote, "It might be fascinating to see a list of all the workmanlike tasks that can be accomplished with digital imaging."

Modern medicine would be at the top of that list. Even dentists have gone digital -- my last visit included what we used to call x-ray films displayed in front of me on a monitor as they were taken. If this had been possible decades ago I would have taken better care of my teeth.

[hugh crawford]

Most of the recent Sony cameras with wifi combined with an iphone or android phone can do this. You can control everything on the camera over wifi as well as view. I have put my A7 on top of a 16 foot painters pole by cutting the handle off of a paint roller and putting 1/4 x 20 threads on the stub, and attaching a tripod head to that.

I did it for panorama photography but its fun for birds nests too.

[Keith B.]

The roof cam, the backup cam, the furnace cam are all television cameras and could have been accomplished using analog technology. Even the snapping of stills out of the video stream could have been..and used to be... done with old fashioned analog electronic equipment. Digital made them small and cheap, but did not bring them into existence.

[Fazal Majid]

I'd use a camera drone for that myself.

[Michael Perini]

I bought a neat one called an iSnakescope which is a wifi borescope with a light, on which you mount your iPhone
It is basically a pistol grip with a 1/4" camera and light at the end of a 24" flexible wand. An inspection cam. Anywher you can drill 1 3/8" hole you can now get real time images and even record video or stills.
Want to look behind a wall, or up in the ceiling , or look for your wedding ring down the drain, this little gizmo is amazing.
The smartphone itself is now part of every workman's tool box.
From documenting a problem to asking for assistence from the home office, to downloading schematics for a washing machine.
I really is amazing how it has changed everything.

[Steve Jacob]

I think the two most stunning examples of DI are in medical imaging and space exploration. It's not just the hardware, but the image processing that's incredible.

[Robert Harshman]

That's one heck of a selfie stick :)

[Jason]

A friend of mine does agricultural insurance adjusting and uses a DJI phantom for most work. Only gets on the ladder if he has to physically move something

[Bill Kearney]

At the telephone company I work for in Canada, we're running a trial to use drones for microwave and cell tower inspection. This saves so much time and effort, it will definitely expand beyond a trial.

[Bruce McL]

Probably cheaper and easier to use than a drone - but not for long I suspect. There is a brand new small, easy to use, extremely capable drone by one of the leaders in the industry for $1,000.

http://store.dji.com/product/mavic-pro

Although in your neighborhood, drones frightening the horses might be a real problem rather than an ironic cliche. Here's a review of the Mavic Pro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YJ8WhQzaSM

[Steve Walker]

Drones and just about everything, but surveying farm fields come to mind as one workman like use.

[Jaap]

I had my sewer inspected with a digital camera that sends the pictures to my e-mail. These pictures convinced me to part more easy with the money(+ €1000) for the repair bill.