buellwinkle

The KCM-5311E will do a good job for what you need and it's priced well for it's capabilities. What you can do a set a patrol to stop at different zoom lengths. So you can provide a wide shot of the area, a few seconds later go to 15x zoom, then 30X and so on. You'll love the autofocus if you ever had to use a manual varifocal lens.

I don't know about that, it looks a lot better and a dark car at night is going to look dark. Have you tried with a person in the image? Also kick up the AE for night time, 15 is very low.

Most domes have a heater and fan, usually for cold weather operation but every manufacturer is different. They typically use very small fans as space is a premium and my experience is, the small the fan, the louder they are.

Can't tell you on the 5311e but on the 5211e it would not work in a driveway, way too dark unless you put in external illuminators.

Vizio CoStar says it's "coming soon". Does google TV support Android marketplace apps?

What I do is use a cheap nettop with HDMI out with NVR client running on it. So when I want to see the cameras, I can just switch to that HDMI port on the TV. Then I use a wireless mouse to navigate around the screen.

So you would say there's a night and day difference It worked so well it wouldn't even switch to night mode unless I changed the max exposure to 1/60th.

Based on Sean's recomendation, I picked up an IR illuminator from a seller in China. I took a snapshot from the regular image off an ACTi TCM-1231 below and below that with the external illuminator. Not bad for $40. The amount of noise dropped to almost nothing, the contrast came up, areas barely visible are now clearly lit. Even the grass has texture now where it was just a blob before. Also the motion detection is more accurate as the noise is not intefering with it. You have to power the illuminator with 12V and it has a daylight sensor so it turns on/off automatically. Uses 8 IR LEDs.

You would know if you were using DD-WRT as it would say so in the menus.

Sounds like a plan. Post some images when you get the camera.

can you provide a suitable Axis ip camera for home security? Indoor or outdoor? Budget? Is the area very dark or well lit. Axis has a wide berth in cost from $159 for the M1011 to the $4k Q6035-E. Check out my blog, click Axis under catagories so you can see what I've already reviewed. The next one to review is one coming out in August that's their first camera with IR illuminators built in.

Perfect candidate for DD-WRT.

For some people, white light is the way to go as it's less expensive. For me it's not, I'm in suburbia and my neighbors complain if I leave lights on. As for comperable light output out of a CFL, I can tell you that our 15W CFL at that location does not produce anywhere near the amount of light as the IR LEDs. Even indoors, we switched out CFL flood lights for LEDs of similar wattage and the light output difference is dramatic. As for motion detect lights, there's a few issues with that. First you can't use video motion detection if there's nothing to see, so you need to get external PIR motion detectors, not expensive, but additional complexity. Next, most cameras will not react fast enough to the light change and what happens is the first second or two of video will be washed out and that's when the person walks past the camera. Lastly, CFLs and motion detection don't work well together as it takes time for the CFL to reach full brightness.

The 5611 is special purpose for really good low light capabilities, hence the higher cost. If you have adequate lighting, then save the money and get the 5311E.

The camera can not be manually focused in any way shape or form at the camera or at the GUI. It's true autofocus and very accurate. What I found is if you physically move the camera, it won't re-focus unless you tap on one of the zoom buttons. I spent a good hour of my time yesterday going up and down a ladder, adjusting focal length and focus on my TCM-1231 and I can say that it's wonderfull not having to focus.

Thats a huge improvement, you can see the LED's lighting up the concrete where before didn't get that. If you don't want any noise, then you need to get a camera with noise reduction. The KCM-5611, albeit a box camera has no noise because of noise reduction but frankly, I still think the detail is better on the TCM-7811.

You know what they say about when something looks too good to be true. You have to be realistic. Many of these low end NVR's use atom processors, run Windows, maybe Linux and are painfully slow. The NVR is basically a PC and think to yourself, how can they sell me a working PC with their NVR software that can handle 16 cameras and provide me support for $400. I can shop all day long and not find a decent PC for that price. Sure, an entry level PC with a 500GB hard drive and i3 processor, but then no expansion for additional drives, no NVR software.

I agree that better glass will get you better results, I'm just not sure that a lens touting "mega pixel or HD" isn't just marketing hype. Stick a known brand like Fujinon, Pentax, Bosch, Tamron or a lens from the camera manufacturer and you'll be OK.

What Soundy is saying is you need a lens matched to the sensor size. For example, if you get a camera with a 1/2" sensor you need a lens rated for a 1/2" sensor and one made for a 1/4" sensor may vignette or have other issues. Here's the dealio about auto-iris. In the past, most camera used CCD sensors. These were more prone to damages from the sun's rays than more modern CMOS. The auto-iris limits the amount of sun that enters the lens/sensor in bright sunlight so they last longer. For example, I had a CCD camera without auto-iris in the sun, lasted 2 years before the sensor burned out. We have Mobotix cameras out in full sun, no auto-iris for over 3 years and they are fine. My ACTi cameras around my home are out in full sun, no damage after 3 years without auto-iris. My only auto-iris camera is one with a CCD sensor.

The Axis Q60 is a very good camera. I have video and images from the camera on my blog. I find that the Panasonic PTZ VGA cameras do well in low light, not so much from their HD PTZ cameras, not without having to extend exposure times significantly.

As a photographer, if you only have one light source, you want it to be 30-45 degrees to the subject from the camera. Having it straight on from the camera angle washes out face details and reflects of things like license plates and washes them out. Having it at an angle causes shadows from the nose and eyes and highlights the details in your subjects face. Also consider having it lower, as caps create shadows when lit from above and hides faces. Like in this drawing but instead of the studio or flash light, it would be your IR light.

When you say the IP address have changed, do you mean you use DHCP addresses and the changed, like from 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.12? If so, then you need to set static/fixed IP addresses for each camera so you can setup for port forwarding so you can view the cameras remotely. I have an article on this on my blog if that helps.

What's the budget? The ACTi TCM-4201 is reasonably priced, the resolution you seek, interchangable CS mount lenses (comes with like a 4mm). This is an indoor cam, so you'll need to put in some sort of enclosure to use it outdoors.

I've used DD-WRT for years and it has many plusses. It's less buggier than the feces that most vendors put out these days, it's free, it allows you to do things that you are not able to do with many routers because they dumb down the interface to the general consumer. So things like port forwarding is better than most consumer routers. For example, I can leave all my cameras at port 80 but map them so 8000-9000 range for external access. I can also change the power of the transmitter (you may need a heatsink if you do this), I can assign seperate antenas, one to transmist, one to receive. I can setup multiple SSID's, I can setup custom firewall settings. I can make it a router, a bridge, an access point. You can also setup WiFi hotspots, which one place I use it, to provide people in a park WiFi access while having a seperate SSID that's firewalled away from the public. I can drop people on one SSID if on too long. What's also a huge plus is that no matter what router I use, when I put DD-WRT on it, it all works the same, no relearning a new interface. So my Buffalo router and my Linksys router with DD-WRT work exactly the same. I'm lazy, so I buy routers with DD-WRT already installed on eBay, many times for cheaper than the big box stores sell routers for and some have been hacked with more memory, better antennas and such that's too tedious for me to invest my time doing myself. My best WiFi router without DD-WRT that I own is this tiny matchbook size router from Edimax. The model is the BR-6258n and costs about $30. I used to carry it in my laptop bag as a portable router as some hotels or client offices I go to only have wired internet and my Macbook Air or my iPad only connect via WiFi. But I needed a router and started using it and it is solid, good interface with lots of options and you can use it as a router, a repeater, an access point, or a bridge. It puts Netgear, DLink, Cisco/Linksys to shame.

Do you spray the RJ45 jack and plug seperately, or plug them together and spray the outside? Doesn't it get inbetween the connection and interfere? Just asking, don't know.