Having just been burgled, I'm looking into what options I have for a CCTV set up. I was wondering what others are using, and what I should avoid? I'm wanting at least 2, possibly 3, outdoor cameras, and a couple of small ones for indoors, (possibly hidden).
I'd get a good outdoor one for getting any license plate number/car features and a couple of internal ones (Which are a lot cheaper) to get the faces of them. You should have them record onto a semi-hidden NAS or similar.
This may sound obvious (and it is)...but you will want some kind of trigger. Like some sort of IR beam or something, otherwise you will end up with hours a-pon hours of footage of nothing. I don't know if home cctv cameras come with such, but it is worth asking when you buy some.
Can you not rig it to continually replace the last 24hrs of footage? Obviously not if going on hols but for day to day living.
been an ex cctv technical manager i should be able to help. Are you looking for a professional setup or just cheap as it can be ? Do you have a budget in mind ? CCTV units can come as all in ones such as this http://www.geniecctv.com/product.php?type=P&id=5341 ive used this box 100's of times and its a nice little box thats easy to use. We used these boxes a lot for small home installations. The box come with either 500GB or 1TB or storage. With 4 cameras this would last easily 30-60 days on motion activated mode. The DVR automatically rewrites when full. or you could opt for PC base unit and grab a Video Capture card Geovision (really good and flexible but probably massive overkill for you). I guess you could look at a low end card to add in to a PC but it works out a fair bit more expensive than standalone unit. Camera wise personally id be looking at some vari-focal lens something like 2.8mm-11mm which should allow to adjust to your needs rather than a static 3.6mm lens which gives you a nice wide angle and thats it. for outside the same lens but at least vandal resistant + make sure its an outdoor camera dont want water getting in. (the ones we used could take a 10lb sledge hammer and not break) EDIT - Not every camera and DVR are the same regardless of spec just like PCs. Some are good and some are horrible.
CCTV setups do vary in price tremendously and budget really determines what sort of cameras you can expect to purchase. Personally I use vari-focal Honeywell reinforced dome cameras with built in heating/cooling to keep the dome from fogging up and they are run as IP-cameras over CAT-6. There is no need for "IR triggers" or any sort of silliness. Your run of the mill DVR will have the option of only retaining video where movement is detected. The sensitivity can be set, and you can "black out" areas using software so the cameras aren't triggered by the swaying of a local tree for example. A decent 8-camera DVR with IP support (that is a network port, not IP-Camera support) for streaming over a URL, Tablet, Cellphone, with an expandable hard-drive should run around $500 and usually runs on an embedded Linux OS. The cameras on the other hand, can vary from $100-$1500 each in the light-commercial market not counting PTZ or Megapixel cameras (1080p video + 3-5MP still image). An "IP-Camera DVR" on the other hand is going to cost you north of $1000. In a 4 camera setup with 750GB HDD you can expect about 2-2.5 weeks worth of stored footage using motion footage only. By default the first 30 seconds before the motion is detected will also be stored.
For a cheap solution that works pretty well, I use my whs box, blue iris security software and a combination of webcams and IP cams. Records on motion trigger in similar way as described above. Also emails me screenshots of any motion detected and can stream over http. I only use indoor cameras which look out of windows at the moment. If you can get away with it, using 720p/1080p webcams is a hell of a lot cheaper than using the equivalent CCTV/IP cam since they only cost about £50. Only limitation I have is that I don't have nighvision capabilities since IR LED cams looking out of glass windows just reflect back on themselves. If anyone has a solution to this that doesn't require wiring up outdoor cams, I would be happy to hear?!
Yea the 2 solutions I was thinking of were either an external IR illuminator that is situated outside or an external IR illuminator that is situated close to the camera pressed up against the window. An outdoor illuminator would be a better option but would require rigging up external power unless I rigged up 12volt battery which would probably end up being a pain in the ass..
As nobody else has mentioned it, I will.... If you position cameras so that they capture images beyond the edge of your property, you have to put up a sign to let people know. If you don't, you could have problems because of privacy laws. If the cameras point downward and only capture images of people who enter your property, there are no issues (not sure if you are meant to put up a sign in that case). Most police would probably say nothing, but it could affect you if you ever used the footage in court (yeah, the laws an ass!)
Speaking of license plates... I mounted an infra red laser with the beam opened to a broad cone. It reveals any license plate clearly in total darkness. Laser is in the range of 150mw 808nm but I also have a 300mw IR at 980nm if I recall. The 150mw is pinkie sized (and half as long) and works from a couple of AA batteries. Such a laser is good for 200 yards if your cam has the zoom. Many years ago had a chav car park outside my house at 1am. 2 chavs inside, sat there looking at house and waiting to make their move. I got a visible red laser and hit them with it. They dint come back. Also used a green 100mw which hurts like hell if it touches your skin. I hate chavs. Love lasers.
Having done some looking around, I'm realising this is not going to be cheap. I have no problem with this, as long as what I buy actually works! The problem with a centralised box is the need to run cables to the various cameras? I have a couple of pc's, or a laptop I could use. I also have a couple of NAS boxes for storage. I was following you until this point! This I'm discovering. Hence the post. Thanks for the information. I hadn't given a thought to fogging or freezing up! Thanks for that. I think ideally I'd like cameras that run on Power over Ethernet, but I may need to buy a booster of some sort? I have scrubland out the back of my house, which means loads of wildlife. Especially cats! I'm thinking motion sensing, whilst a good idea, might not be too practical, if I plan on getting email alerts to my phone. That amount is wayyyyy out of my budget range, unfortunately. I'm unlikely to be away for more than a week, so this isn't an issue. I was thinking about this. Buy some wifi cameras for indoors only, and put a couple of fakes outside as deterents. Probably the cheapest option and uses my existing kit.
I was aware of this. I am/was planning on pointing the camera at the back door/window, and at the front door/driveway. Thanks though.
Probably others have mentioned it here but perhaps a pan/tilt cam would be a good idea. If you have an iSpoon or Android you can monitor the wireless pan/tilt and indeed control it via the phone.
http://sensr.net I use that site to upload motion capture from my IP webcams. I use Foscam FI8905W IR cams. They're pretty cheap (and it shows in their software) but they work quite well.
they sound good in theory but in practice they tend to be a massive failure. They always miss activity. adding IR breaks helps but these are not 100% accurate (usually 60-80%) and also miss activity.
