Security Camera systems?

[WizeOne]

Does anyone have a recomemdation for a bundled system for the home? My hopes are to find a good system with 3 or 4 outdoor cameras, a hard drive recorder and a moniter. I do not need sound. (or at least I think)

Costco has a Lorex system for $999.00. It has an 8 camera capability but comes with 4 cameras. It has sound as well. It has a digital recorder and a good sized flat panel monitor. This is more than I need at a higher price than I would like to pay. I was hoping to find a decent setup for 5-600 bux.

Once again, two nights ago, the tweakers canvased the neighborhood. My daughter's car was accidently left unlocked. They rifled it front to rear and got off with her radio. Fortunately they were neat and did not do any damage but many little things were taken as well.

I have been hit at least 4 other times with various vehicles in the driveway that were not locked. I am sure that they canvas the 'hood many times more than they have found things unlocked. Even the local sheriffs have said they have watched then from helicopters, going from car to car, checking for any that are unlocked.

Four months ago, I left the back door of my service van unlocked. They got off with four tools including an $800 Bosch electric roto hammer.

I would like to have some cameras that are triggered by motion that will record to a digital recorder. This will give me the opportunity to see how often the driveway is canvased. It is odd that everytime this has occured, it was raining out. Tweakers sleep it off during the day and are active at night.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Wow! A lot of interested viewers of this post but no one with any experience or input?

In a way, I am happy to hear that because that means people are not having the same experience that I have had. And even at that, it has taken four other episodes before I have become serious about getting some video surveillance.

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Security Camera systems?

I'd have motion flood lights up in a heart beat. Not the crappy ones either.

That is what I would have. At least four of them for all parts of your yard and driveway.

It's INSANELY bright.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Security Camera systems?

The lights are a great idea. I have no idea about camera systems for home security. Our system has 2 units both with 4 legs and extremely loud voices !!! Anything within 50 yards is registered for our attention

 

[Summer Fun]

Re: Security Camera systems?

I put this on my boat for a little extra protection for $50 bucks.
Maybe it will help you ??

http://www.harborfreight.com/black-...prospects&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2410B

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Check out this link
http://www.ezwatch-security-cameras.com/

Their "you supply PC" option allows you to use your own PC hard disc as the recorder.
This would be especially useful for someone who has had recent irritations with one of their home PCs and might be looking for a good excuse to do the computer equivalent of putting it out to pasture....
Alternatively, you can pick up just obsolete PCs pretty cheap....all this needs as a PC is 1.5 Ghz + processor Pentium 4, 80Gb + hard drive.

 

[JRJ]

Re: Security Camera systems?

They've gotten into 5 unlocked cars at your place, so, they don't break into locked cars? Motion lights are good, easy to install, and not very expensive. Good luck.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Security Camera systems?

If you want a quality system, go with geovision, at whatever level you need up to 4 monitors and 32 cameras. they have good inexpensive 2 to 8 camera cards, and the software that comes with it is all you need. It's best to just go get a white box new PC and dedicate it to the video project. It should cost about $300 for the box, and whatever you want to spend on a monitor.

You can get a camera that will work for 30 or 40 bucks. One that will do a good job with enough resolution for identification of a person in a field of view that covers several cars is about a hundred bucks, plus a lens, which can be anything from 20 bucks to many hundreds. Personally I use 640 x 480 minimum color cameras with an auto iris manual zoom lens.

I've checked out a piece of software I like for 1 to 2 camera systems. It is Digi-Watcher. It's 39 bucks a camera. Good software will allow you to watch an area, and mask off what you don't want to trigger a recording, but record a few seconds before and after motion is detected. For instance, you could mask off all around a car except the door handles. If someone tries the door, it'll record his approach, the try, and retreat. Both Geovision and Digi-Watcher do this.

Geovision is for hardware cameras, which is the most reliable setup. Web cams, especially wireless web cams can be noisy and unreliable. I have installed hybrid systems where hardware cameras will feed a geovision stand-alone web monitor. The local users can use the video for their work, for instance watching a back door. The web feature forwards the video to the security system where the logging, alarms, and all that are handled.

Digi-Watcher will recognize any camera that winders can recognize, including your snap shot camera, and even the 6 buck eBay usb capture port. (Easy-cap)

I'm off to find and buy a low lux (starlight) telephoto camera for one of my customers. Expect to spend about 300 bucks on the camera setup.

hope it helps
John

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Thanks j martin, I'll study up on all that you have said.

As for using lights outside, I could see some benefit of using motion lights however, the area is already well lit out in front all night.

I am sure the vehicles are being canvased many more times than they are found unlocked. This is what I would like to be able to capture images of with motion detecting cameras.

One other question I have not been able to find an answer to. How do you translate harddrive size to recording time? Would it be good to have a specific recorder like ones that some bundled systems come with?

 

[LadyFish]

Re: Security Camera systems?

WiLife. Installs in 15 minutes, its cheap and reliable. It's made by Logitech.

http://www.wilife.com/About/AtHome.aspx

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Security Camera systems?

One other question I have not been able to find an answer to. How do you translate harddrive size to recording time? Would it be good to have a specific recorder like ones that some bundled systems come with?

No standard answer...It will depend on the actual choice of camera, the resolution at which you set everything, and the software that connects it all.

In any case, I don't think that the HD size will be any kind of hindrance for you given what you are using this setup to do....event-triggered recording rather than constant surveillance.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Security Camera systems?

WiLife. Installs in 15 minutes, its cheap and reliable. It's made by Logitech.

http://www.wilife.com/About/AtHome.aspx

Are you using this LF? If so, are you just running it off your computer? How many cameras are you using and what do you plug them into?

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: Security Camera systems?

299 for one out door camera? yea ok!

 

[Fl_Richard]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Edit - Remove sarcasm

 

[j_martin]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Thanks j martin, I'll study up on all that you have said.

As for using lights outside, I could see some benefit of using motion lights however, the area is already well lit out in front all night.

I am sure the vehicles are being canvased many more times than they are found unlocked. This is what I would like to be able to capture images of with motion detecting cameras.

One other question I have not been able to find an answer to. How do you translate harddrive size to recording time? Would it be good to have a specific recorder like ones that some bundled systems come with?

If the lights are on, you can use a moderately lo lux (0.1 or so) camera and capture a good image in color. I suspect that if the camera is in view, the intruders will not go to the cars. Likewise, if the camera has IR ilumination, they probably have an ir viewer that will see it like it was a light bulb.

Your best bet might be a wireless camera from inside one of the vehicles.

just some thoughts
John

 

[ftl900]

Re: Security Camera systems?

We're working to get a system to market- two, actually- a home (less expensive) and a business (more capabilities) version. We have a prototype already, and it's working great. The idea is to have a number of cameras feed to a PC, and then the PC supply the feed online to a URL that you can reach...

...with your cell phone. We've tried it on a Blackberry and on an iPhone, and both worked very well, with as many as 8 camera thumbnails at once, and you're looking at a live feed while you're at dinner, friends house, or whatever.

So when something goes down, you find out real-time, not just evidence for the courts.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Security Camera systems?

We're working to get a system to market- two, actually- a home (less expensive) and a business (more capabilities) version. We have a prototype already, and it's working great. The idea is to have a number of cameras feed to a PC, and then the PC supply the feed online to a URL that you can reach...

...with your cell phone. We've tried it on a Blackberry and on an iPhone, and both worked very well, with as many as 8 camera thumbnails at once, and you're looking at a live feed while you're at dinner, friends house, or whatever.

So when something goes down, you find out real-time, not just evidence for the courts.

Just like the several dozen that are on the market.

 

[LadyFish]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Are you using this LF? If so, are you just running it off your computer? How many cameras are you using and what do you plug them into?

No, we are not using it. A friend of ours who is also a police officer told us about it this weekend. He did say the the cameras would not do too well at night since they are not night vision cameras. They work okay in a very well lit area but not beyond that.

Depending on what your needs are and the purpose of the security system will determine what system you need to get.

This is an inexpensive system thats easy to use and you can install it yourself. We talked about the option of adding an external harddrive to handle the recordings. A 1T is fairly inexpensive (around $100).

 

[j_martin]

Re: Security Camera systems?

Many of the home computer players are in the game. Logitech, Linksys, D-link, etc. Most of these rely on network cameras, which tend to be easy to install.

Most of the cheap cameras, including the ones with the chain store systems, are 320 x 240 resolution, and not real sensitive. They will be advertized as 0 lux, but in the fine print, that's at about 12 feet illuminated by the ir diodes in the camera. Unless they are well lit and right on top of the target, you can't get enough picture to identify someone.

For 60 bucks or so you can get a 720x480 color camera with about 0.5 lux sensitivity. I usually spend about a hundred bucks for a good box camera, and 30 to 100 for the lens. 30 will get a small fixed focus lens with an electric iris, and 100 will get a zoom lens good for 100 yards or so. If you want to spend some money, you can get a pan, zoom, tilt, vandal proof camera that can be set up to scan an area, locate and follow motion, and read a license plate at about a quarter mile. 3 grand or so will get that for you.

The bench mark in mid-range (affordable) servers is Geovision. Their software does it all, and comes with any capture card you buy licensed for that card. For additional fees you can also use almost any other camera in the world, including remote web cameras, and fold them into the system so they look like they're hard wired right in. That's done with a usb dongle.

For about $350 you can buy a Geovision mpeg video server for 2 cameras. About 450 will buy a 4 camera server. Add cameras, a usb disk (or monitored live somewhere else by web) set it up with any other computer on your network, and you're good to go.

Geovision capture cards run from about $140 to over a grand. 4 cameras to 16 cameras, and 30fps recording to 480 fps recording. With the 480 you can run 16 cameras at 600x480, view all of them at a time at about 15 fps, and record full motion on 8 at a time, usually triggered by motion events. Needless to say, the card needs to be in a substantial, preferably dedicated computer.

One thing about Geovision. They are widely pirated, both hardware and software. Buy from a reputable dealer. None are authorized to sell on eBay or Amazon type sites.

hope it helps
John