Skyking was correct, my first camera with the manual telephoto was too
touchy re; focus. I fooled with it enough (hard to do when the boom is up in the air, I needed to have someone up on a roof right at the boom tip, and on the phone with me to get it dialed in maybe) but before I managed to do that, I found another simpler camera and just used it for the first time today:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BZPDRTS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's depth of field seems to be much more forgiving, though I was surprised to see it still had a manual focus ring, , was hoping it fixed, but once I hit the best compromise on my average boom tip heights, some electrical tape will hold that position. This is the monitor I havhttps://
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076GZVCP2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1e, and it is working great right out of the box, and I still haven't fine tuned it. I figured the high quality transmitter and receiver deserved a high quality monitor.
The first job after I installed this camera was this morning, and I got there early and the home owner and his crew got there late, but I was still able to easily drop the hook on the other side of the house (working blind) some 63' away, I was even able to winch down to the right height, watching it's shadow helped. I purposely dropped it a bit off center to make it easier to reach. After I got it rigged, one guy showed up, and I
told him to wave his arms when he was ready. This is exactly the type of job making this camera worth while, working with no signaler on odd ball jobs. I picked it, swung 20', boomed down/cabled up, until he waved to me to stop, it was a huge help. Not as sharp a picture as it will be, but much better then my wireless backup camera ever was, and this will get better once I fine tune it.
Here's the price breakdown, best as I recall it:
transmitter and receiver $1450.00
battery, solar panel and controller, electrical J box and misc. switches/wiring $150.00
Camera $110.00
Monitor $130.00 Total of $1840.00, we will not figure the cost of the first camera, $185.00, because I say so (I'll sell it on eBay for $50.00, paid $185.00 for it, all part of the education on how to do it right) IF I had to do it again, I would MAYBE go with this outfit,
About APOLLO M1 Wireless Crane Camera System, for $1890 (plus shipping) but I was never able to talk to anyone, or get any idea how their specs compared to the high tech Amimon system. Also, I like the way my transmitter is separate from the camera, not all one unit. I consider the camera itself almost a disposable part of the system, some sub $100.00 ones may be all I really need. Amimon also has an all in one unit, but it's $2600.00 and I think my monitor is better. Typical do it yourself project, I made some mistakes, wasted some money getting the wrong thing, but for less than 2 grand I have want I want and can take credit for doing it myself, for better or for worse.