Member Discussion
Do Attractive Housings Exist For Box Cameras?
I am going to mount a box camera (Samsung SNB-5004) on the outside of my house but the outdoor housings I've seen are very ugly. They are almost all boring rectangles with equally uninspiring brackets to attach to a wall.
Does anyone know of some nicer-looking housings for box cameras for indoor or outdoor use? I'd love to see something with really good industrial design.
I found a few cylindrical housings on the B&H website from Bosch, Pelco and American Dynamics. These look better to me but most of them were much more expensive as they contained heaters and fans which I don't need. I just want a housing that looks more elegant and protects the camera at least as well as traditional box housings. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Why not get a dome then? There are lots of outdoor dome models and, in general, people find domes more attractive.
Hi John, the domes do indeed look nicer and I will also do that. However I specifically want to use the box camera for greater flexibility of testing, such as changing lenses or even mounting it on a tripod for portable tests.
I've been looking at more box camera installations and just keep shaking my head at the lack of inspired housing design. It reminds me of the past when all computers were beige rectangular boxes. Has anyone used the cylindrical housings and do they work as well as the rectangular ones? There's something about rounded circle or ellipse tube designs which appeals to me over rectangular box housings but I don't know if there are any technical downsides given the enclosed cameras are square or rectangular shapes. Are there any other nice designs?
I personally like the look of the Moog Fusion housing:
And the small housings Arecont resells, but I haven't been able to figure out the original manufacturer of these:
Videotec is generally a little more aesthetic, too.
I've used the Advidia B-33 before, which is best described as a 'self-enclosed box'. 4MP and 18x remote zoom, as well. A little more residential-friendly than the traditional 'bank housings' of old.
The Veilux housings could be considered attractive (Veilux Housings and Mounts)
I've used the Pelco EH25xx series in the past, they do the job fine, but they're a pain to work with since you have to slide the camera out the back to zoom and focus it (usually means taking it out entirely), the seal around the back panel is really tight (which makes the job a hassle), and I've seen a number of them leak after several years in the elements. The last two issues can be mitigated with a thin bit of petroleum jelly or similar product on the seal before assembly. On the whole, not a real fan of these... but they do look a little nicer than the standard boxy boxes.
The Linear Designer Series is nice looking, but too small. I tried it with an Arecont "hockey puck" camera and it was like a half millimeter too tight.
Thank you Luis. It's great that they have a designer series. Hopefully they will expand their range to include a few, extra sizes for different cameras.
We use a lot for these housings for cameras. Messoa Housing, Arm & Sunshield, SAH725HB-2, SAB754, SAS725. They are very weather resistant and hold up nicely. The sun shields do fade in the sun but the housings are aluminum so they hold up good.
Pelco's EH1512 low cost series looks ok and better that the ol' EH3512 range. Watch the internal size to make sure the cam fits...
Alternatively I always thought these AD1314 enclosures looked good on jobs I did in the past as well...
They must of been ahead of the curve. I was using this housing in the late 90's ....apparently back to the future is contempory!
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