Conbrov DV9 Hidden Spy Book Camera Review
One can never be too sure about one’s home or business security. If you feel that important documents, business secrets or your belongings might be at risk, the best way to make sure that everything is well and feel at ease is to set up some sort of video surveillance. Visible, threatening cameras are always an option, but a subtle, covert approach, using something like this camera from Conbrov, might be a better way.
When glancing at its outward appearance, one would never notice that it is anything more than a fancy binder you’d encounter in any upscale business. The illusion is further enhanced by its ability to act as a standard binder as it has everything in place for carrying your files. One of its binding’s decorative holes is actually the camera’s lens, but this won’t be exposed unless someone knows directly where to look.
In terms of recording options and quality, the Conbrov DV9 Hidden Spy Book Camera can record a looping or motion-activated feed in 720p resolution. This isn’t as high as the true HD standard that’s becoming the norm, but faces and actions are still easily recognizable while watching.
The picture is of a good quality by day, and a built-in infrared LED casts light in front of the camera by night, making true night vision possible up to a range of 25 feet. Sound recording can be turned on and off, and the audio is average.
Very long battery life keeps the camera ready for recording up to two years when not in use, reducing the need to recharge it and fiddle around with the binder once it’s set up. Even when it is recording continuously, the battery can sustain a maximum of 30 hours recording time in the daylight or 10 at nighttime. In this mode, old recordings are overwritten. In the motion-activated mode, about a minute of footage is captured once the sensor goes off.
There’s no Wi-Fi capability, so the recorded footage ends up on an SD card inside of the binder. Looking at it requires connecting the camera to a PC via a USB cable. Other than the card, there’s no internal storage, and the device doesn’t come with a pre-installed card, forcing you to get one separately before you can even begin using it. At about 60 to 75 degrees, its viewing angle is small, requiring you to place the camera almost directly in front of the thing you wish to survey.
Features of the Conbrov DV9 Hidden Spy Book Camera
- Spy camera in the form of a fully-functional binder
- Produces continuous and motion-activated footage at 720p
- Can record by day and during the night
- Long-lasting battery
Pros:
- Well-made disguise for a professional setting or a home library. Surround it with leather-bound volumes or other binders and no one will suspect there’s any difference
- Excellent night time mode that offers genuine night vision without being too much of a drain on the battery’s resources
- Battery has a very large capacity, enough for long recording sessions as well as a much longer standby time
- Video and audio quality are both satisfactory
Cons:
- The night vision mode can be too sensitive at times. It activates even when there’s dim light that might have been enough for a normal shot, so the recording can be too bright, diminishing its usefulness
- The recording bitrate can’t be adjusted. While this isn’t a problem in and of itself, if you’re using the camera in loop mode with a low capacity SD card, the card will fill up pretty quickly, causing you to potentially miss a vital portion of the recording if you were late in discovering an incident
- The accompanying instructions aren’t very clear
- An SD card is not included as part of the purchase
Conclusion
The Conbrov D9 is a hidden camera that does a lot of things right. No one is likely to discover it because of its ingenious disguise, and its output is good enough to land any potential intruder behind bars as solid evidence.
It’s disappointing that the camera can’t be synced with a cellphone, but given that it’s best suited for environments that don’t require constant supervision as much as swift action if and once something does happen, that stops being a major concern. Any business owner or concerned resident will find the Conbrov DV9 Hidden Spy Book Camera incredibly useful, and that is what’s most important.