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Chebanse, IL..... | Went to a local farm show (Gordyville) a couple days ago. For some reason I was looking @ ag-use cameras. There are 2 that look similar, but probably have big differences. The Ag-Cam looks very versatile, however much more expensive than the CabCam. They have similar appearing cameras using infrared led technology. Not sure of range in total darkness of both units however. Anyone have 1st hand experiences with either or both? Side-by-side comparisons? Again, the Cab-cam is about 1/3 the price of the AgCam....but maybe there's a reason? Also looks like you can make the AgCam wireless....but for a LOT more $$ if I read everything correctly. Also AgCam advertising working underwater. Probably a sign that it's very weatherproof!! But, I know from experience that "fogging" of lenses can be a problem. Not sure how well these cameras de-fog. I cannot find a website for the CabCam company itself (maybe there is one...I just can't find it via Google). But, I do have one dealership (Green Fun Store) that sells CabCam w/some specifications: http://www.greenfunstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4834 The Ag-Cam folks have a very nice professional site w/video of camera uses/operation. http://www.agcam.com/index.php?page=home So, does anyone have good-bad experiences w/either or both? Thanks |
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SE MN | I bought a cab-cam last fall for the grain cart and had no problems with it. It worked great and saved a lot of spilled grain. I bought mine through A&I from my local JD dealer. I also found somebody selling the same thing on the web after I bought one. Can't remember the web site, but I think he was from South Dakota and also sells some on ebay. The agcam looked like it was easier to move because of the magnetic mounts, but like you said it was a lot more money. |
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Manteno Illinois 50 miles south of Chicago | Ron I have them both. I just put a cab cam on the semi so I wouldn't`t have to get out all the time when loading at the bins,works great. And yes I'm getting lazy,and yes its cold out. They both so far work the same,only thing cab cam doesn't have is, suction cups or magnets in their kit. I will take this new one off and put in in the air seeder tank this spring. |
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| Hi Ron, I sell AgCam. I just uploaded a bunch of videos to youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uDJF2tEBwI
This might give you an idea of what the AgCams can do.
Dave |
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Leesburg, Ohio | Ron: We've had good results from the Ag-Cam using it on a grain cart tractor, and loading semis. Didn't notice any fogging problems. Night vision is good. Seems pretty indestructible. Don't have the other one you mentioned...I don't think it was available when we bought ours. Ag-Cam is quality stuff, but a quality price, also. |
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| Ron, I purchased a Cab Cam settup last fall for our grain cart. I bought 2 cameras, one to veiw filling the cart & the other for veiwing the unload auger as I unload into the semi. Had less than $500 in both cameras, cables & monitor.
For the money I was impressed with the quality of the picture with the Cab-Cam. both daytime & nighttime. Without additional lighting the picture will be like watching black & wihte TV but the cart's camera gave more than enough light to be almost as good as daylight. Light from the combine's auger was adequate but I plan on adding an additional light in the cart to help out.
Biggest problem I experienced was at certain time of day when the camera(s) was looking directly into the sun part of the picture would be grayed out. Bright sunlight on the monitor also could make it hard to see at times but I plan on making the sunshade on it bigger so that should help. Another thing I didn't like was that the monitor was always powered up though to get a picture you had to click it on. I added a on/off toggle switch into the positive feed wire so when we weren't using the monitor I could turn the electrical off to it.
I am also planning to add a 3rd cmaera to the rear of the cart to see traffic behind me when moving down the road. I tried to figure out how to mount the auger camera so that when the auger was in the unload position it would look into the truck & when folded would show behind the cart but never could get it worked out. Currently the auger camera is mounted on the tractor mirror bracketing. That does help keep it out of the grain dust yet gives good visibilty into the truck. Cart camera is mounted about 8" in front of the cart & about 6" up.
Takes a little getting use to the perspective, especially filling the cart, and getting your bearings. When filling the very front of the cart it almost feels like the grain is going to come right in on top of you. IMO, it really helps when unloading on the go in beans. With a 30' platform you really have to run close to the platform to get the grain into the center of the cart. We considered adding an auger extension to the combine but with an 8 row cornhead that would put us too far away from the combine in corn. The way we are we can dump on the go after making one pass on a new headland. With the auger extension to do that the combine would have to run with the auger angled back. Plus, going with the Cab-cam was a lot cheaper than adding the extension & have the ability to use it on other equipment. Plan on switching it to the sprayer this spring to watch for plugged nozzles.
Is the Ag-Cam wired or wireless? You do end up with a lot of wires in the cab with the Cab-Cam. As for weather problems, both our cameras are out in the weather all fall with no problems. Never experienced a "fogging" problem. Every 2 or 3 days I would wipe the lenses off to remove any dust.
First night I sat at the end of the field waiting on my son to get a hopper full I turned the camera on to see how well it would show at night without any lights. I couldn't figure out what all the little "flakes" were flying around. Looked like snow but finally figured out they were bugs .....lol
Edited by boog 1/25/2008 11:16
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Chebanse, IL..... | Ag-Cam is wired basically, though you can buy wireless transmitter/rcvr units for it. You still have the necessity of power wires, at least the +12 wire if you can get a good ground close by. The magnets usually won't provide enough ground thru the paint, from what I've seen. The wireless xmitr/rcvr runs a couple hundred bucks more yet. |
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Kentucky | It's A&I Products: www.aiproducts-cp.com/index.html
Not sure this is a manufacturer's site though. You can find what appears to be the same product on E-Bay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/THREE-COLOR-CAMERA-REAR-VIEW-BACKUP-CAMERAS-SYSTEM3_W0QQitemZ270203885011QQihZ017QQcategoryZ50073QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Edited by Jmark71 1/25/2008 23:22
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Kentucky | Ron,
You might want to try a search of agtalk. Just enter "ag camera" and search all posts and you'll find lots of good discussion on this topic. I too am looking and found the discussions here very helpful. I also found an informative review/guide on E-Bay. http://reviews.ebay.com/EVERYTHING-YOU-NEED-TO-KNOW-ABOUT-REAR-VIEW-CAMERAS_W0QQugidZ10000000000708736 |
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| Ron
There are many difference between the cab-cam and the agcam. The AgCam is built in North Dakota by a farmer. It has been down 1000 ft in water checking wells in Australia. Has night vision 50 - 70 feet in full darkness. It has a 25lbs. magnetic mount so you go from application to application. If you need a stronger magnet we also have a 60lbs magnet. The camera has a 3 year warranty. AgCam also rates it cameras to work in temperature ranges from -45 degress to 150 degress. They have been used in areas for 2 years now at 250 degress. Vibration nor dust has any effect on this camera. This camera has been put everywhere on the ag equipment. From the inside of the combine to the pecan tree shaking machine that knocks all the pecans off the tress. The owner of the company shot the camera 14 time with a 22 cal. rifle and it still worked. This is how tough the camera is. We have wireless up to 10 miles(clear line of site). To add wireless it runs around 400.00 per camera. Along with our camera and wireless we also offer a full security system to compliment our product. All warranty work is done in the factory in North Dakota.
The cab cam was made for one purpose, and that is to mount it in one place to see behind you. Also I believe it has only a 1 year warranty. Also any dealer for the cab-cam I talked to did not even know where to send the system for warranty. Believe me when I say the extra money that you pay for the AgCam is a good investment!! |
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| Tech department at A&I should handle the warranty. I sell A&I products and plan to buy one for my own use after seeing one in person. Image quality was excellent. Yes the difference is the camera case. Isn't ag cam aluminum verses the plastic cab-cam. I'm sure not saying there is not applications that ag-cam is needed for. However, at alittle over $100 per camera I could potetially wreck alot of cab-cams for the price of one ag-cam. |
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Chebanse, IL..... | Thanks guys for the responses. I wonder if the infraread distance ability is the same in both of them? Also-anyone have a problem w/sun glaring on them making them turn red? I've emailed one of them with questions. We'll see if I get answers. Thanks again. |
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| Seth that does not make sense. Why not go out and buy a top line product that will last you for years instead of a cheap one that might go out the first time it rains? |
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| Hello! I found this thread to be very interesting! I think I have some useful information that people could use in determining which of these two cameras best suits their needs. I bought a CabCam first because it was just a little over $300 and it looked pretty tough. It wasn't too long after that I decided to spend the extra money and buy the AgCam.
Just a standard AgCam camera costs more than an entire system from CabCam, but there is a reason for it. I have been seeing quite an interest in the differences between the two cameras and I decided to do some side by side comparisons. I have video and pictures of these two cameras in the exact same application. As AgCam's tagline goes "You Can Clearly See the Difference"!
The CabCam has a lot of extra wires and cabling and there are different connectors and you have to figure out which one goes to which; its a real mess. They say easy installation, but that isn't true. The monitor is pretty good; it has a variety of mounting options; flush mount, base mount, etc. and it comes with a sunshield that is very cheap. If you put the monitor in the flush mount base be prepared to fight with it if you ever want it to come back out.
The monitor offers a variety of things, including zoom feature (which isn't zoom it just changes the orientation of the picture really). It has a reverse image feature that is accessed from the remote which can be handy if needed. We found there reverse option to be backwards. If you leave the screen normal the image is reversed and when you reverse it, then it appears normal. This can be changed though with hardwired events I beleive.
The camera included with the CabCam system is square-bodied and heavy. It can be mounted with the bracket or by itself. It has a lot more LED's but if you take a look at my pictures, the LED's don't help out at all. The distance in the dark is very little and the clarity of the image is poor too. Besides that the shape of the camera makes it very obvious and is hard to fit into into tight places.
This system has the potential to utilize up to 3 cameras though, which makes it nice for surveillance. Also, there standard lens is a 2.8mm configuration which gives it a little wider view and also distorts the true image.
The AgCam has an easy installation. Mount the camera (which comes with a magnetic base too), plug in the cable and hook up to the monitor and its done! They also offer different size monitors; the 9" is the best.
The monitor has reverse capability but you do have to go into the menu and change it, it can't be done from the remote like the other system. Overall, it is a very nice image though.
The AgCam camera is a small, lightweight-bodied camera that has a circular shape and is easy to put almost anywhere. There are less LED's, but the distance at dark and definition and clarity surpass the other camera by far. This camera as you mentioned must be very weatherproof. Its water proof. We submerged it in a lake to catch fish and the image was the best I have seen from a camera like this and its still working to this day.
The wireless option is really useful too. You said its really spendy but you can buy a wireless pair for $299 (which again is about the cost of one cabcam system), but its worth it. You can use it from your combine to grain cart or from your barn to your house to watch animals during calving season. Its an intuitive system that is worth the price.
Or you can spend the few hundred dollars for the Cabcam system and either continue spending that to replace it or just spend a little more to buy a quality product. For those of you with wives you should know how this goes. My wife about up and left me when I said I was gonna spend another $300 to get a new Cabcam. She said just buy the other one already and get it over with, I'm not gonna go through this everytime that pile of junk breaks down! So...I didn't really have a choice if ya know what I mean.
I will post a link to some of the pictures too.
Hope this helps.
Anthony
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| AgCam is Camera 1 (to the left) and CabCam is Camera 2 (to the right). Put some more up of different applications soon.
Anthony |
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Garner Iowa | cabcam works great, Purchased from my local JD dealer. I put the camera on top of the sleeper of my peterbilt to watch grain go into my 66" hopper bottom. The LED works well enough at night to see the corn pile up in the hopper. In the winter (and some early mornings)had some problems with lens fogging, however a swift wipe w/ a blue shop towel(always have a roll in the truck) and your back in business.
Working on a set of relays and switches via. remote control to turn off/on bin and truck auger at my loadout facility. I know it sounds lazy, but i enjoy the technology, make use of whats available. I also run a grain bin moving business, thought it would be slick to add the camera to the back of the bin, to see behind and when I back onto the pads, but worried about the wire getting cut. Wireless would be nice, but not available w. cabcam, one advantage to ag cam, but like you said, for a price!
No major complaints on cab cam, think it would even be slick on the grain cart in the fall. avoid some piles. |
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Cab-Cam vs AgCam?? Anyone looked in detail?
