Hello there, This is a special query as I am trying to identify the type of camera best suited for a project here. If things work out well we may need a significant number of them (100+). Here it goes: For animal census purpose, we use camera traps in the forest, based on infrared detection systems. Till now we used a simple, relatively cheap (approx 50 U$) and reasonably reliable camera, the Yashica J-Mini. It has all required features, namely: motorized film advance auto-flash date-back electronic trigger (we get the connections out from under the trigger button) But unfortunately we do not find it anymore on the market in India. The biggest problem is that all recent camera want to be too smart and feature a power save mode that switches the camera off after a few minutes of inactivity. So, if the tiger fails to rush by as soon as the trap is set, it's just bad luck. OK, we designed a small circuit that keeps waking up the camera every few minutes, but that is a pain and it feel absolutely stupid to compensate from outside for a useless camera feature. My query: - is the Yashica J-mini really out of the market? - do you know of a good, cheap, camera with above features but without the power save mode? - if not, do you know of a camera with above features, with power save mode, but with access to the circuit manufacturer. I could then find out from them how to disable the power saving feature on the PCB (which component to remove). Kindly let me know if you have any solution to our problem. Waiting to hear from you Thanks in advance and best regards Andre ___________________________ André Pittet Chief technical Advisor CEDT, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India

-- Andre Pittet (apittet@cedt.iisc.ernet.in), April 28, 2002