Side by Side Comparison of: ZHOL vs Solar Eclipse

 I am doing some rework on my pool and needed a way to see 25-30' inside buried 1 1/2" PVC pipe. I checked used prices of a commercial drain camera on eBay, checked on renting one from Home Depot or rental stores. Rental was reasonable, but I wasn't sure what I was even going to be able to see.I decided to give this camera a try based on reviews. Amazon shipped it super quickly and it arrived in fine order.It connected immediately to a Windows 8 laptop, no drivers needed. The built in Camera application was able to record video from it, same as a webcam. I attached it to a 30' fish tape and hoped for the best. I had read that the LED lights on the head of the camera tended to get reflected back into the lens, so I wasn't sure what I would be able to see, if anything.I fed the camera (using the fish tape) into the pipe and watched the laptop screen for the fittings that I was looking to find. Low and behold, it worked great! There is no water in this pipe, so I didn't have that working against me. I was able to see the fittings about 22' into the pipe, and thus knew where I'd be digging and what I'd find when I got there. Without the camera I wouldn't have known how far to expect to dig, making my repairs/upgrades much more complicated.Attached is a video of what I saw. I hope this helps you determine if this camera may be right for you.

I attached this to a 50 ft drain tape to inspect a straight 40ft run of 4 inch pipe. My drain guy wanted over $300 to do it. This performed much better than expected. I marked the cable with tape when I saw the big ball of roots that was causing my blockage. Measured over from the clean out, and saw that the blockage was 3 ft from the basement wall. Had to dig up the pipe outside, cut it and reached in 3 ft with a short pole saw that I made. Cut out the roots, spliced the pipe with rubber boots. No more drain problems. This camera has been under water briefly and still works. Definitely not a professional quality drain camera, but for the money, it will pay for it self the first use. Would buy another if this one ever breaks.

This is awesome for the price. Like most everyone else, I purchased it to find out where my sewer problem was, however, I haven't had the opportunity to put it in the sewer, because I'm so fascinated by playing with it. I've looked up my nose, in my ears, looked for tonsil stones. You name it, I've put it there...... well, except for..... and under........ It magnified my pores so much that I thought I saw a sebaceous gland in there. If you're fascinated with nature or science, this is for you. Ever come across a small hole in the ground and wonder if it's a mouse hole, or a snake's lair. Now you can look for yourself. I've spent hours with my 10 yr old daughter as we investigate all kinds of things. They don't even need to be holes, since the camera magnifies the smallest of things, bringing us down to the ants world.Be aware that the camera is made to focus just a few centimeters away, so you won't get much a picture if you're trying to get a room full of people, but that's not what it was designed for. Now I don't want to put it in my sewer and get it all dirty. I suppose I'll have to buy another one for the sewer.

Ordered these USB camera to actually remove a 20' drain snake stuck down in a PVC pipe in a house. Worked like a charm. I attached the camera on to a 50' flat snake with some electrical tape. After running the snake through the drain and locating the old 20' snake (this had fallen from a second floor toilet drain), I then used some wire to attach a small 1.26" diameter magnet from CMS Magnetics to the very end of the flat snake and ran the line back down. The magnet was small enough to fit through the PVC pipe and make corners as needed, and with the USB camera I could easily see and navigate my way through the drains. With a little bit of patience and pulling gently I was able to get the old snake out. This camera was perfect for the job. I had no issues installing the viewer software that was included (Windows 7) and found the picture quality and lighting to be more than adequate. Saved me hundreds of dollars in plumbing bills.

For the price (about $22, plus shipping), this product is worth it.I purchased this after a drain clog that I could just not get out - with a plunger, hand auger, cobra auger, or drain bladder. I used the camera over a few days in various drains. I was able to use this camera to locate the clog and evaluate my best options.The package arrived on time, and in good condition. I had no problems using the provided CD to download the software onto my laptop with Windows 8.As other commenters indicated, the cable is not stiff enough to use by itself. I zip-tied it to my auger at the head, and that worked fine for my purposes. I note that doing so worked fine for both my 2 inch and 4 inch drains, and I did not have any more trouble.I do agree with other commenters that the four LEDs were not terribly bright. They worked fine in a white PVC pipe, but in an old metal pipe with accumulation on the side, the view was more difficult. One solution was to buy a pocket, waterproof 9-LED flashlight and zip-tie that to the auger immediately behind the camera.The camera has a very limited focal range. You can only see two inches directly in front of the camera. In a 4 inch diameter pipe, this becomes difficult, but manageable. (If you use the camera and flash light as I mentioned, it is important to keep the two in line, because if the flashlight goes off angle, it will not provide any additional light to the area).The big disclaimer that I have for this product is that it does not work well at all in water. It may be water proof (and took a fair amount of abuse in the pipe), but it has zero visibility in anything other than clear water. Accordingly, if you have a clog with a wet pipe, I would reconsider this product, unless you can get access further down the line, and snake this camera upstream to the clog.In sum: great for the price, but far from perfect. All in, this saved me $178 and avoided calling a plumber to run the camera for me.

Yes this is a cheap camera and it has its limitations but it works fine. I used it to check my plumbing in the house and main lines because I keep having stoppages and the plumber came out, cleaned my line but did not discover what was causing it. He recommended having it scoped at a cost of $350.00. Well I am a DIY guy and I wanted to see if I could see the reason first.I attached the camera on a 50ft line of snake and threaded it down the lines with my hand twisting the snake to make the camera move to try to see the area. I was worried about cracks or separation in the pipe. I did not see that so the camera worked well. I believe I found my problem.I wrapped the camera in duct tape and I even flushed the line and had the camera in water and it worked fine. Now the plumbing camera's will have better quality and are able to move around inside the pipe to get a better view, but again this is great to help you decide to spend the money for a professional.I plugged it into my 2007 Macbook and used the photobooth app, picked the usb camera and was in business. I even made recorded video of it. Worth the purchase. Multiple uses.

It's not HD and can't save pictures, but if you need to look into a wall or floor it works well. I didn't have any focus or range issues like some people mentioned and the light on the end is sufficient. The snake is just the right amount of rigid. Being able to rotate the screen is very convenient.Remember, you're only paying $70 for an item that professionals pay hundreds of dollars for.

I got this at a discount on Amazon Prime day. Honestly I only got it because I thought it would be a fun thing to own. I almost bought one at a well known discount tool store but the picture was terrible in black and white. This product was surprisingly clear and solid. It's been only a week it's already been used for peering into a wall to find the the whereabouts of a "mystery stud" that momentarily disappears from my stud finders... turns out there was an old window frame that was covered up some years ago. I've been able to inspect my car engine without craning my neck, finding a forgotten spoon behind a drawer that wouldn't close and solving the output of a "vent to nowhere".. I live in an old house that was remodeled a bunch of times. Of course the very first thing that I did when I got it was to put it up my nose.... yes... it was awesome and totally worth it for that alone.

I purchased this as a gift and almost didn't choose it because of the complaints about it not coming with a case. It came with a very nice case! I have several inspection scopes, all costing many times more than this one. I fired it up, to make sure it wasn't junk, and fell in love with it! I've been working with inspection scopes for decades and it can be very tricky to analyze what you're looking at. Color rendition helps a lot. This has better color rendition, and is sharper, than any of my scopes. There's a lot of complaints about focal length and illumination but this one is on par with my big name brand scopes. The gooseneck is very stiff and will hold any shape you bend it to. If I kept it for myself, I doubt my other scopes would ever be used again. The only improvement I would make would be a rechargeable lithium ion battery, but that would run the price up. My grandfather taught me to always look for the value. This is a great value!

I bought this so I could look around corners. Really.My first project involved a jacuzzi tub that had stopped working. I suspected that the air switch (which controls the electric switch) had failed. Using this I removed the air switch and found that the small air tube had fallen off. Used the included hook to fish the fallen tube out and reattached it using a bit of glue. So this paid for itself the first time I used it!I also used it to look under dashboards in cars without having to crawl in upside down. It has a night vision function which allows you to see in dark areas, this is really useful. The screen is pretty small, but it is in color (except, obviously, in night vision.) Just recently I used it to locate water leaks inside of a wall. If you are in the home repair or automotive repair business, this is a great tool to have.

What a great and fairly inexpensive tool. This device works great. The only issue is there is not enough light for really dark locations.

I just received this device and there were no other reviews so I'll give my first impression.It seems to work fine. There are four buttons: on/off,light, contrast,flip screen. The screen is 640/480 pixels. The focus is best over one inch. It comes with a little hook, a mirror and a so-so magnet (could be replaced with neodymium) attachments. It would be difficult to extend the length without a specially built attachment and none were offered. It uses a 9mm stiff steel goose neck type material for the cable. It might be difficult to snake it around out of reach. The quality seems perfectly acceptable. It is not Porter Cable but definitely could do the job. Supposedly the camera and cable can be submerged but I am not going to try that. I have no other experience with this type of device. I thought it would be useful to check for termites or fish wires in the wall. I am building courage to inspect the backside of my body

It works as stated although the field of view is so close, it's really hard to see very far in front of you when going through a pipe. It was hard for me to determine how the actual pipe was laid, weather the camera was going up or down, snaking left to right, etc. But it will help you find a blockage if nothing else. The software was easy to install in a Windows environment.

It's a good product and works very well. Thanks to all the other reviewers on Amazon I was well prepared to use this camera to inspect my drain.1. Get a 50ft sewer rod / tape (not a rotating snake)2. Tape the camera on the rod with the camera angled slightly off the rod ~20 degrees (I just taped the end near the wire and the housing naturally inclined the camera a bit3. Tape a cheap flashlight behind the cameraSend it down and be prepared to be disgusted =)

I had to snake my drain and was having some trouble. I bought this and taped to a steel fish tape I use working as a cable tech and threw a small flashlight on it. My laptop auto installed a driver and I downloaded the recommended free camera software. Not too shabby! I would rank the quality as fair to good but no where near great but let me tell you, for doing sewers, you really don't want too much detail! And for this price...come on!

Works well on a Mac using Photo Booth to either take still shots or record a movie.Used this to look into an underground gutter pipe to look for obstructions. Used an electrician's steel fish tape to push the camera through the tube / pipe. (Just tape the camera to the fish tape using electrical tape, then push the steel fish tape. Works great).This is a much better deal that the all-in-one units sold at the big box hardware stores for more than a hundred dollars. In fact, those units usually only have a 2" or 3" screen and a 6' to 9' cable.

Just like other reviewers noted, you need to tape this to something firm and flexible to snake it around turns. But it worked well. The light helps a lot. The instructions that come with the cd don't work since the file that is called out doesn't exist. But if you just go ahead and install the software that's on the cd and call it up, the camera will work. If you've already attached a camera, like a web cam, you'll have to use the drop down to select this camera. Beyond that, the software works well, including the recording capability. It's a real good value. My drains were clogged and the camera went underwater and survived without a problem.

For the price, it seems worth it. Old software, but seemed ok. Had problems getting it plugged in properly because it kept screwing up, but I think it might be my USB. Unsure. I would uninstall the driver and replug it a few times to make it work. I ended up using gnu/linux ubuntu (which was already dual booted on this pc) on a program called Cheese and while the usb problem still existed (that's why I think it's the computer), I didn't have to reinstall anything. I could just close Cheese, unplug the usb, plug it back in, and restart Cheese, which takes a few seconds. So working with it is much easier now even though my pc has problems.The picture is a little grainy, so had to turn up the brightness a little bit, but it all worked out and I can see just fine now. So far it works like a charm with exception to the usb problem that my computer seems to be experiencing. It may be due to the heavy connector sitting weird, so I'm going to get a usb extender to take the weight off the plug.

For the price, this works ok. The cable is not quite as flexible as I would have liked for what I needed it for, but on the other hand it does need to be pretty stiff for most uses. One thing I did was put some red nail polish on the top of the camera tube (where the arrow is). That makes it a lot easier to know which way is up. Yes, you can change the picture orientation, but it seems to work easier if you have it right side up to begin with. Plus it makes it easier to find that tiny hole the accessories clip on to.Oh, and to clarify the button that rotates the view. One is right side up, one is upside down, one is right side up, but mirrored (for when you use the mirror, to make it normal) and one is upside down mirrored (for when you use the mirror, to make it normal)

First up, my Solar Eclipse inspection camera did not come with a case. That's okay as I've got an old cordless drill case it can live in. No batteries either, but considering the low price all was not unexpected.I bought this primarily to inspect the framing under an old house without having to hang upside-down on a slope with my face in the dirt. The day of it's first use, however, was brilliant sunshine. The screen simply didn't have enough brilliance itself to be seen under the summer sun. I have the same visibility problem with my cell phone, so that wasn't totally unexpected either. With the screen shaded and the camera end under the structure, the results were unhelpful - but this was due to the super high contrast of that darn sun shining in under that opposite side of the structure. Again, I could have expected that. The lesson? For outdoor use, it's probably better to plan on using it on at least a cloudy day, or perhaps at night (after all, those mosquitoes need feeding too).I did give it a go indoors to check out some pipes. For the total amateur like myself, it's also going to take some mental adjustment to understand what I'm looking at owing to the limited view. Which way is "up", after all? On the other hand, it sure beats ripping up the floor only to find no problems.In sum, I certainly haven't gotten my money's worth out of it's first use, but I think it will be a tool with increasing value as I become more familiar with it.

For the price IMO you can't beat this. The picture is excellent and with a 9mm head it's easy to fit into small spaces. It has 4 led's with 7 total settings (off-1-2-3-4-5-6). You can also use the contrast to lighten up the picture but it washes out quickly.It comes in a nice foam liner inside a retail type box. I would have liked a case, but my plans are to fine a case/toolbox that the foam liner will fit into and use the original pre-cut liner and toss the cardboard retail box.Some have gripped about the lack of light output in dark enclosed spaces. It's only got a 9mm head on it and the 4 LED's are tiny - as you'd expect for a 9mm head. The low light performance of the camera isn't great but again, it's a 9mm head. You want better low level performance go spend close to $300 on the Ridgid camera with 4 LED's and a 17mm head. Oh and get out the 3/4" or larger drill bit to make your access holes. A 7/16's or 1/2" hole is more than enough for this camera and easier to patch/cover.The attachments leave a bit to be desired. The mirror is almost useless IMO, but this is not the first camera I've seen where the mirror is worthless. I didn't try the hook or magnet but I doubt I'll ever use them.

I have never used another inspection camera, so I don't have anything to compare this with. It provides a fairly clear picture, though the associated LED lights don't give it a lot of range. I use it to fish wire and cable through interior walls, and even with this device it takes some doing. But it's better than shoving wire blindly up through a hole drilled from the basement.I think the quality is pretty good, except for the accessories. The hook is the most useful accessory, and I immediately bent it up. There is nary a URL or email address on the manual or packaging, so I guess that a replacement is out of the question. I also lost the ring that retains the accessory on the camera head, so I use black tape to keep it on. I think that having no place to go if you need replacement anything is bad, but, then this only cost $70.I really don't use this enough to warrant a two or three hundred dollar device, so I will just continue to happily juryrig anything I need to attach to the camera head.I might also mention that manipulating the camera head is a real art, and it takes practice. Since you have to prebend the flexible tube to get it to go where you want it, this takes some thought to use unless you have a gigantic hole to work through.

I bought this for a few upcoming projects, but my first use was to peer into the wall below some outlet boxes to see wires I was running up form the basement. For that purpose, this was an excellent tool. I was able to look around and find my wires, and figure out which way I needed to angle them to get them up to the outlet boxes.As others have mentioned, the light isn't very bright, but it is well-suited for seeing a foot or two inside a wall. The end of the probe gets a little hot as it is, so I don't even think it's practical to add bigger LEDs to this without enlarging the tip, and a larger tip would have made my project impossible. So, I'm not complaining. Also, the problem isn't so much the brightness of the light, its more about the brightness adjustment of the camera. If you have a wall 2 inches away, but want to see a portion of the wall 5 ft away, the nearby wall is reflecting way more light, so the camera adjusts to that level of brightness and can't see the far wall. This is just a basic limit of optical science, not a design flaw.It is easy to lose track of which was is "up" as you rotate the tip, but they have a nice button that lets you rotate the view to match. While a gravity-sensor and auto-rotation would be handy, I don't see that getting added for this price point. I don't mind doing a few orientation-tests now and then.I can't really say I'd change *anything* about this product, for the price.

OK... You have to remember that you get what you pay for and you are getting a camera w/ a long flex arm, a color video screen and a battery power supply for under $80. That's a ton of functionality for not a lot of $$$.You sacrifice quality, however. The case is a hard plastic and I really wish that there was much more focal length to the lens when in a tight, dark space. Perhaps it is the weak-ish LEDs in the end.I bought this to look into walls when running cable and it worked like a champ. I was able to run a fish tape down 5 feet of wall to the sill with a piece of white twine taped (lightly ) to the end. I used the camera to look through a 14 inch long horizontal hole I had drilled to find the string and pull it gently through the horizontal hole. I used that one piece of twine to pull through 4 pieces and used each of those as a lead to pull through a strand of Romex (electrical) and 2 HDMI cables for video. My flatscreen TV now floats on the wall w/ no wires showing. Yea! I would have had to do a LOT of drywall cutting/patching if I hadn't had this little camera.The hook attachment is a bit of a joke. Nice idea, though. I lost it in 5 minutes of work in the walls. I found a bent paperclip and a strand of scotch tape to work much better.

This product is ok if you are looking strait down into a hole. if you are investigation around corners forget it. The line is not rigid at all so it flops around so you cant navigate threw pipes or sewers or even air ducts at that matter. but the kids liked to play with it so for a couple bucks it was worth it and i guess if your a mechanic it would be ok to peek in pistons or behind engine but not sure why you would need 45 feet lol

Camera worked in regular light ok but I could hardly see anything at all even with the light while in the dark.

Had problems trying to download the camera's software using the provided CD. Just throw away the instructions and CD. I have windows 10 so I downloaded the free youCam Mobile - Bundle version app. It recognizes the camera and keeps it on.

it's OK. the camera housing is too big to fit around corners in a 2" drain. Use only for straight pipes or pipes larger than 2" with bends. Also need a way to push it down the pipe like fish tape, which then means you need to increase the pipe diameter to get them both down the tube. Probably good for vent stacks. I didn't have to install the software. It worked with my native player, but I did install it on another computer and it worked. It immediately took on water inside the housing, but still worked anyway. I would say for the price and length it is worth it.

As others have pointed out too flexy to be pushed through a pipe without being hooked to a snake, booster at the halfway point not waterproof, image is ok and in reverse. I have a 14 ir led car back up camera I was playing with before and it was much brighter and twice the resolution

I bought the product about a month ago and I used it to look for a problem in my 2 inch service line in the basement.The camera is fine and I was able to see if the pipe was free draining or was backing up but I had to use a snake with the camera becuase the cable is not ridgid enough to push through the pipe all by itself.I used small pieces of wire to attach the camera to a 1/4 inch diameter snake and was able to push the camera and snake together just fine.I twisted on the snake cable which allowed me to rotate the camera head and see the flow line of the pipe as well as the sides and top.the low cost is what makes this camera worth the purchase.I didn't want to spend the $500.00 to $600.00 to get a professional grade sewer drain camera.

When you need it, you need it. On mine the camera tip needs to be fiddled with to get it to work each time. Easier to deal with it than send it back.

took a few good smacks to get it working (loose wire i figure) but liking it nowwould have returned it but was in need fastworks great now

It gets some jobs done that you just can't do without this tool. The light isn't real bright, but that's the trade off to get a small camera head AND inexpensive. It can be a little difficult to figure out which way is up, but I think that's normal. An angled screen would probably help. For me, it saved me a lot of drywall holes to figure out what I needed to do. I'll use it maybe 1 to 2 times per year, so the price/performance ratio worked out for me.

In tight places it is really hard to figure out what you are seeing or control the path of the camera. However; it has a nice screen and picture, it 's quality is adequate and I think it will come in handy for very specific applications (e.g., fishing around in walls). I consider the price pretty good for such an item as well.

The light is pretty dim. You may want to attach a flashlight if there is room where you want to put it. The picture is just OK.

Better than nothing but not great. Not great clarity or brightness and the biggest pain is orientation of the image. Very hard to figure out what you are looking at inside walls.

broke after 4 times use

Sounded like a great idea....attach to a pole and see under the house.... that was the plan.However, the light didn't show enough, so i used a shop light and an extension pole. Way too much work! Will just crawl under there!Maybe I will find another use for it and for the money I won't complain too much!Will update if I have any fun at a future date!

This is a useful product, but make sure you inspect it as soon as you get it. On mine, the camera lens inside the metal waterproof housing is off-center and is focused on a ridge in the housing lens, making the image blurry and dimmer and reflects the LED light poorly. Because of this, it's difficult to say was the real quality of the product is. Of course I noticed this 5 days after the return deadline; but that on me for not noticing sooner. I'm not sure there is any difference in the brands for these, and will be completely luck of the draw whichever you go with, so I would recommend just getting the cheapest one that has the specs you want.

Could not get LED to work so couldn't see down dark pipe. Might have been laptop but was using XP operating system.

Would be a great product, but very poor manufacturing quality. The first one I got, only 3 of the 4 LEDs worked. The second one worked great, but after using it for a couple of hours the camera shifted in the housing and that wrecked the picture - only about half the image was visible. So I tried a third one, but that one had really lousy picture quality - I think the LEDs reflected off of the plastic cover and created glare that washed out the image. On the plus side it worked for me "plug and play" in both Win7 and Win8.

The camera does not work with windows 7. Waisted untold hours searching the net for software to make it work, even the manufacturer's home page; nothing there. Got a partail fix from MSN comm post. Can't record anything but can at least inspect the spaces I need to be looking at. Really wish this thing had worked as advertized.

returned it not very good.

ITS BLORY PICTUR I RETERNED IT

Works well with well lit area, but can't see !@#$ in dark areas, i.e. behind drywalls. The led light is just not powerful enough. I had read reviews similar to this, but thought I could still see some things. I think a secondary light source may be needed. GOing to keep because may be handy for other jobs later.

Well, it's connection to the handheld unit is flimsy, doesn't lock into place well, and really is too stiff (the camera line) to work into tight spaces. Basically, you get what you pay for.

I purchased this and found that you could pretty much not see anything unless it was within about 2" of the lens. At first I was thinking that most of these things are probably pretty bad but decided to pick up a Ryobi one from HD for $99. The difference in what you can see between the Ryobi and this is well worth the extra $30.The one thing I did like on this one was that the flex cable and lens is only about 10mm where as the Ryobi is a good 15-16mm in diameter. Long story short - sending this one back. Sorry Amazon.

Worthless! Installed disc on computer, camera just shows me not what's on cable. Have to close it out and go to camera settings on computer, no place to do that on app.Then mess around trying to get camera to work. Finally got it to work, and resolution is very poor. Lights are weak, when I stuck cable in drain to find problem I could not see anything. Way to dark. Then when I thought I was seeing something it turned out to be very dim reflection on water in drain.Pushed cable into water, because it is water proof after all, and picture disappeared.So, waste of money. Will definitely not recommend to others.

i got this camera and tried it out it is not water proof it died the first foot in the pipe

light is bright for 1 minute when u first use it. then it dims low enough to where u cant see anything. CHINESE PIECE O POOP

Purchased to inspect a 1-1/2 pool skimmer line. Ordered at 5pm for next day delivery and shipping was faster than I thought. It showed up early morning. Taped it to a small fish tape and was able to use the camera for less than a half hour before I lost all view. Pulled the camera back out to find it was full of water. Removed the plastic cap and drained water out. Used low pressure air to blow it mostly dry. Even after 2 days drying out it never worked again.

Giving 1 star. I received this item and I plugged it in and the leds would go out and then come on when I moved the wire near the camera, thought nothing of it. Then I went out side to run the camera and I plugged it in the laptop and the leds wouldn't come on at all. Was not happy about that. Called amazon and I just wanted a replacement but they said I had to returned it and they would refund my money once they received it and then I could order another one!! What a hassle!! They should work on doing returns better.

Didn't work with any of my laptops. Never got recognized as a camera. When I hooked it up with the laptop, the four LEDs started glowing, but the camera itself was never recignized. Installed the software, as well as downloaded over the internet, but none of the camera capture software was able to recignize the camera.I'd like to know if there is any place where I can reach out to their customer support to resolve/replace this. Cannot return this back on Amazon since its past their return policy.

poor quality and screen

bad visibllty poor lighting

Not useful seeing inside dark pipe.

First class junk

Do not waste your money! The camera stopped working after it was turned on 3 times. A very expensive pen light!