Brinno and the TLC range of cameras
about its history and its suitability for use as a traffic survey camera.
changes in the technology which have largely been for the better. The traffic survey
sector started using the old TLC200 F/1.2 version until around 2014 when the TLC200 Pro was launched. This offered an extended HDR setting making it perfect for surveys at dawn or dusk as its low light capabilities really punched through. Additionally, the camera’s reliability made it a leader in the sector with failure rates as little as 0.01%.
ASIC’s and the TLC300
Brinno were floated on the Taiwanese stock market shortly afterwards and promised its new shareholders that it would develop its own range of video processors for its cameras. Costing around £100,000, the new Brinno ASIC offers a lot of features that off-the-shelf versions couldn’t offer and was a game changer for the company.
The new TLC300 has this ASIC and can out-perform the old TLC200 Pro when used in Brinno’s traditional timelapse market.
In terms of positives, the new camera has the same form factor as the old one and fits in all the historic and current housings. It outputs to MP4 and not Avi which improves file sizes and it has a better battery life and will run for longer. It also offers a single event, 7 day timer which allows the user to exclude non-survey days in any 7 day period. The bad news is that it no longer has a standard HDR feature and the lowest capture rate is 1 image per second. There is NO ASAP mode.
ASAP Mode
The industry has used the ASAP mode in almost every survey and now demands this level of performance.
Brinno ASAP is a bit vague in as much as it is a variable capture rate ranging from 2.5 images per second to around 1 image every 2 seconds depending on light level and picture content. To date, no other camera on the market offers ASAP.
Good News
Now for the good news, we have manged to get the designers at Brinno to develop a special version of the firmware just for us. This new firmware offers new ASAP which is fixed at 3 images per second regardless of light level or content. It also allows a maximum file size of 4Gb which makes post processing a bit easier. Although its allowing the Brinno ASIC to run at a more basic level, the new firmware still has a lot of development headroom for new features and we are working with Brinno to improve the ultra-lowlight performance now.
Be Brave
To upgrade the TLC300 to the traffic firmware, you have to be brave and strictly follow the 4 stage process. We ‘bricked’ 10 cameras in the first batch we did which cant be fixed and now sit as paperweights in the office. If you are feeling confident we can talk you through the process or alternatively, we can upgrade your fleet for a small cost per camera. As the new ASIC is quite powerful, there are some additional settings to apply when using the camera at low light levels.
Avoid the night mode (unless you want a nice star trail timelapse video) and utilise the advanced settings such as saturation and EV level. Both of these settings also reduce the file size.