Can anyone recommend one of those hidden Pen Cameras?

[groovyman 0]

I had a request today for a hidden pen camera - something that can be put in a shirt pocket and can record audio & video at the press of a button.

 

I can certainly google the term pen camera and get a ton of results, but I don't have any experience with this type of product, don't trust reviews and would rather purchase something via a recommendation from someone who knows about these devices.

 

Background story for those interested:

 

The person who wants this works in a retail store & has been getting customer complaints lately. I know the guy and this is very unusual. He feels it's retribution from an ex-coworker who was recently fired and is sending people to the store to give him a hard time then register complaints with the owner.

 

There's video surveillance in the store, but no audio. He's not concerned about the legalities - he just wants the ability to start recording when one of these "customers" starts to hassle him so he can defend himself against the accusations.

[MaxIcon 0]

I've tried a couple of inexpensive ones from DealExtreme with pretty mixed results. Terrible sound quality is a common problem, and they don't handle motion well, but that wouldn't matter for your use.

 

If I wanted to buy one for more than playing with, I'd go to Amazon and read the reviews on them, then pick the one that sounded best for the budget.

[groovyman 0]

Thanks MaxIcon.

 

I really don't trust most of the reviews that I read on shopping websites. You really never know who's behind them, both positive and negative.

 

Anyway, this is another case of taking action after a situation has happened. The employee hasn't had any issues since the last one a couple of weeks ago. I guess the ex-employee ran out of friends to do his bidding The owner believed the current employee as he really is a good a guy and the complaints against him just didn't make sense.

[Digiscan 0]

I trust Amazon reviews with some caveats. A highly popular item is likely to have a lot of quality reviews. I totally trust Amazon, btw. I've seen some products with horrendous reviews, and I've not ever witnessed behavior of Amazon manipulating reviews. I've personally reviewed 200+ products on the site.

 

Some other items, particularly those sold by third party sellers, may be lacking in reviews and/or appear to be padded by company shills. So the problem isn't Amazon, it's their reviewers.

 

Unfortunately, cameras like a pen camera are dead on in that territory. You can go to Amazon and you will not find one well reviewed. If it is well reviewed it's probably nonsense; click on the reviewers' "other reviews" and often there aren't any.

 

Pen cameras seem to me to be like dash cams: there are few good ones and the market is mainly saturated with cheap garbage that isn't worth a penny. At least with dash cams you've got 95% cheap worthless trash and then 5% that's good--and you'll pay through the nose for it. Not a ton of middle room necessarily.