Rista

It's a one way street and there is only really one car that parks near that area (between my house and my car) so another vehicle blocking the view would basically never be an issue. From those measurements, it does seem the 22mm camera would be a better choice for me and the small field of view would not be a problem I think. That one however doesn't seem to be a starlight WDR camera Seeing as the whole area between point A and point B is fairly well lit during the night (street lamps), do you think I could get away with a non-WDR/starlight camera as long as its IR range is high (they are claiming 80m in this case)? I would go with an IR booster but I would really need to get a better camera for that as well as this shot was taken outside the car. Once I bring it inside and point it through a window, it is a lot worse/darker. What I don't understand is, the camera that I had before this one was also a cheap chinese one but it it had more IR LEDs with higher range and yet it looked absolutely nothing like the shots you posted. The whole image was totally washed out and it was as if the camera was getting confused with too much light (street lamp + IR) or something, if that makes any sense. So I'm not really sure if an IR booster would help with this cheap stuff. So either I buy another camera + an IR booster if needed + a mini DVR, or I spend that money plus some more on a better camera that could record from a distance. Either way, thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

Thanks for your answer. So, given the car is parked under a street lamp, I don't necessarily need an IR camera but a non-IR camera would work as well as long as it good quality and has low lux rating? I know the numbers are probably BS but would something like THIS work then? I was thinking, I could also install the camera on my house which is located 25, 30m at most away from the car down the street. Then I wouldn't need to buy a separate DVR as I would be using my computer to record, there would be no issues with IR reflections AND I could monitor the car 24h a day, not only at night. That would, I imagine, require a much better camera. What kind of specs would I be looking for for this and would it even work? How about these two: EN-VI80-38 540TVL Sony 1/3 CCD VF lens 9-22mm IR range 80m Price: $300 CM453VIC-2 600TVL HDR wide dynamic Sony 1/3 CCD Star Light Auto Iris VF lens 3.7-12mm IR cut filter - true day/night IR range 40m Price: $400 Any chance of these giving me any kind of decent image quality in those conditions? Just to give an idea of what I'm looking for, here is what the camera I have looks like mounted on top of my dad's car. I need something quite better than this. The IR on this thing doesn't even work at this distance.

I know next to nothing about cameras in general and I did do some searching and reading on this topic but I still need help. My situation is as follows: I bought my car three months ago and it has already been keyed/scratched several times. It's always been during the night and I want to find out who is doing this. The car is always parked on street, in the exact same place and under a street lamp. Just across the street, 5-6m away is my dad's car. What I would like to do is to put a camera into my dad's car and record what happens around my car during the night, is this doable? I bought this: http://cgi.ebay.com/30-LED-Wireless-IR-Night-CCTV-SPY-Color-Security-Camera-/330417084320?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cee6497a0 cheap CMOS camera thinking any camera would be good enough considering the distance between the two cars and the fact that my car is never in total darkness. Turns out that isn't the case. At first I had a 30 IR LED one and all I could see was white, then exchanged it for a 12 IR LED one which is better in sense that I can see something on the screen but I'm not happy with it. The resolution seems pretty bad, there is a lot of noise (has also to do with it being wireless I guess) and the camera simply isn't sensitive enough to light. Like I said, the car is parked under a street light and yet the image I'm getting is very dark and the IR doesn't even seem to be working at that distance. Could I possibly find a camera that would give me a decent image in those conditions for under $250? I noticed if I mount the camera inside my dad's car next to a window, I get IR reflections which make it totally unusable. Is there a way to get around this? Do I even need an IR camera or there are any budget cameras available that are "sensitive" enough, or whatever they need to be, in street lamp light conditions? The image doesn't have to be great, just good enough that I can recognize a person that I already know (I'm sure it's one of the close neighbors that is doing it). I know that's very little but the most I'm looking to spend is $300. Still, if there is something more expensive that would very likely work for me I would think about it. I'd be using a mini DVR to record the video on an SD card. Sorry for the newbish questions, any advice/help is greatly appreciated.