mccrabr

I agree with VST_Man that typically what you get with higher-priced systems is better quality and service. Low-priced systems found at retailers are designed mainly with low cost in mind. They may have actually some very good feature sets, and it can be difficult to convince customers that what you're offering is worth $x more. This could be a long discussion, but here are a few thoughts: Professional products allow custom designed systems to suit the specific application. You won't see interchangeable lenses on cheap retail systems. Lens quality and selection are a big deal in system design. Though the convenience store operator may put his cheap Exxis camera in his front window watching his gas pumps 'cause that's all he can afford, between the wide-angle lens that is standard with consumer systems and the poor resolution, he won't be reading any license plates. Cheap systems won't last as long. CMOS cameras use simpler, cheaper chips. Look at the resolution numbers for cameras and monitors to see how sharp an image one system will produce vs. another. Bryan

If you can install floods, I'd do that before going IR. A good BW camera will work well with artificial lighting. With enough lighting, color will work too, though it is always less sensitive and you'll get image graininess at night. Same with day/night cameras - most actually use color CCDs and a straight BW will give a sharper image after dark. If you can pick your lenses and have the subject big enough in the image, graininess shouldn't hurt your ability to identify the subject. IR is good - we use IR floods in some applications - but you'll get a slightly out-of-focus image under IR unless you focus under those conditions (I haven't experimented with day/night lenses, though). All in all, I'd take artificial lighting before IR, and then it's your choice on whether you'll accept a little graininess after dark to get color during the day whether you go color/day-night or BW. Bryan