Wildlife camera range — model index

Handykam ceased trading. This site is preserved as a reference archive of its wildlife-camera guidance and equipment. Nothing here is for sale, and no orders, enquiries or support can be handled.

This page was the single-screen catalogue of everything Handykam made and supplied — the page that existed so that regular customers did not have to click through category after category to find a part number. It is preserved here as a descriptive model index. All prices, offers and ordering have been removed; what remains is the record of what the range actually consisted of, in the company's own categories, with the original HK part numbers that the web spent fifteen years quoting.

Sections: Camera nest box systems · Camera kits · Cameras only · Trail cameras · Recording · Cables · Boxes · Parts

Camera nest box systems — complete, plug in and play

The company's core product: a hand-made wooden box with the camera, cable, power supply and connectors already matched to it. Colour picture and sound by day, automatic infra-red black-and-white at night, twenty-four hours a day. Every system was designed so that the buyer's only decision after unpacking was where to put the box and which television input to select. Boxes were built from thick, responsibly sourced timber with stainless steel screws.

Wired systems

• HK100442w — Rustic wired camera nest box system, 20m cable. The entry point into the range, built on the rustic camera-ready box.
• HK100460w — Wired camera nest box system, high-resolution colour camera, 20m cable. The long-running staple; full model reference.
• HK100897 — Owl box with high-quality HD camera and 30m cable. The outdoor owl box supplied as a complete system.

Wireless and network systems

• HK100864w — Digital wireless camera nest box system.
• HK100462w — Wireless camera nest box system, HD.
• HK102501 — WIFI bird box cam system, 5MP HD camera with hand-made nest box. The final flagship; full model reference.
• Owl and birds-of-prey HD WIFI monitoring kit — the 5MP network camera packaged for the larger outdoor boxes.

Every system could be specified with a longer cable run, and with the option of recording to a computer or connecting over HDMI. Which route to take — wired or wireless — is the subject of the site's best article, Wired or wireless camera?, and the honest answer was usually "wired".

Camera kits — for a box you already have

The same electronics without the woodwork, for people who had a box they liked, a nest box already up, or something to film that was not a bird box at all.

• HK100137 — Colour camera kit: camera, 20m cable and power supply.
• HK100427 — Colour camera kit with a higher-specification colour camera and 20m cable.
• HK101201w — Outdoor HD colour camera kit, high resolution, 20m cable.
• HK100152w — Wireless colour camera kit, high resolution, full kit.
• HK100450w — Wireless colour camera kit, super high resolution, full kit.
• HK100935w — Digital wireless colour camera kit, super high resolution.

Cameras only

Bare cameras for upgrades and replacements, all with 24/7 streaming video, optional or built-in audio, colour by day and infra-red at night.

• HK100021w — Colour camera only, standard resolution. The most-reviewed item in the range and the usual first upgrade from a very old kit.
• HK100441w — Colour bird box camera only, HD.
• HK101182w — Colour bird box camera, 2MP HD IP camera only.
• HK101168w — 4MP colour outdoor mini dome IP camera with audio.
• HK101179w — 4MP colour outdoor mini dome IP camera kit.
• 5MP mini WIFI camera — the standalone camera from the final range; model reference.

Trail cameras and camera traps

Motion-triggered cameras for finding out what moves through a garden, hedge or field at night — hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, deer — and for property security. These were bought in from specialist manufacturers rather than made in Cornwall, then tested, compared and sold with the company's own part numbers and support. Models carried included HK101133w, HK101260, HK101261, HK101262 and HK101096w. The company's own buying criteria are set out in Choosing the best trail camera, and the mechanics in How trail cameras work.

Recording

• HK100221 — Computer USB recording device, for PC and Mac, supplied with capture software. The cheapest route from an analogue camera to a hard disk.
• HK100356w — Digital video recorder / network video recorder with a 1TB drive, supporting both analogue and IP cameras.
• Motion capture software, for recording only when something moves — which on a nest box camera is the difference between reviewing four minutes and four hours.

See the DVR and NVR FAQ for how recording length was actually calculated.

Cables — AV, DC and network

Three families. AV cables carried 12v power out to an analogue camera and video and audio back on a single run. DC cables carried power only, for wireless and network cameras. Cat5 and Cat6 carried network data, and power too where Power over Ethernet was used.

• AV: HK100121 (5m), HK100122 (10m), HK100123 (20m), HK100561 (30m), HK100124 (50m)
• DC: HK100131 (5m), HK100132 (10m), HK100133 (20m), HK100134 (50m)

Cables could be joined with an extension kit and coupler, at a small cost in picture quality per join. Everything about connectors, joining, and why a damaged cable was replaced rather than repaired is in the cables FAQ.

Boxes — camera ready, made in Cornwall

Hand-made from responsibly sourced timber and supplied camera-ready, meaning already modified with a mounting point and a trunked cable route so a camera could be fitted later without taking the box down.

• HK100001 — Pine bird box, camera ready, suitable for most hole-nesting garden birds.
• HK100724 — Rustic bird box, camera ready.
• HK100007 — Outdoor owl box, camera ready; full model reference.
• HK100005 — Hedgehog box with tarpaulin, camera ready.
• Dormouse box, hand-made cedar.
• Cedar nest box and bird feeder combination, with a wired high-resolution camera.

Hole size determines the tenant. The BTO's nest box guidance gives current recommended dimensions and siting; for hedgehog boxes, Hedgehog Street is the practical reference, and for dormice, the People's Trust for Endangered Species — note that hazel dormice are fully protected and box work involving them requires a licence.

Parts and accessories

• HK100157 — 12v power supply.
• HK100209 — Three-camera switcher, for changing between cameras without unplugging.
• HK100403sd — SD card, high capacity.
• HK100204 — SD card reader.
• HK100882 — Trail camera lock and cable.
• HK101202 — Trail camera swivel and tilt bracket, fitting most trail cameras.
• HK101161 and HK101161a — Trail camera mains power cables, 6v and 9v.
• HK100199 / HK101220 / HK101221 / HK101223 — AA alkaline battery packs in 1, 8, 12 and 14 counts.
• Bird box hole sizers and metal hole protectors, to set the entrance diameter and stop it being enlarged by predators.
• Nest box predator guard kit.
• Perspex windows for bird boxes and nest boxes.
• Splitters, couplers, tree protectors and connector trays.

Reading this index

Part numbers ending in w generally denote a later revision of an existing model rather than a wireless variant — the two overlap in the range and the letter is not a reliable guide on its own. Where a model has its own reference page in this archive, it is linked above; the remainder are recorded here only, because their individual pages did not survive and inventing a specification for them would be worse than leaving a gap. The equipment index gives the same range grouped by category rather than by part number.