Kawboy12R

Axis P3364VE 6mm can be found for $450-$500 on Amazon occasionally if you're lucky. Have yet to find a 12mm for that price but as soon as I do it'll be sold.

Got a link or a model number? You mix 2.8-12mm and Dahua you get this. You mix 2.8-12mm and Empire's dot com store and you currently get this. They've currently got nothing megapixel on EBay and their .com store is looking pretty bare and strange ($999 MSRPs) at the moment as well. Some stuff I click on tells me that I must be a registered used to view it. Maybe they got their knuckles rapped for using Dahua model numbers in North America? I've heard that names and model numbers were supposed to be changed for the NA market.

Search on here for "2100 magnet" or "2100 stuck" should turn up some hits. Also check networkcameracritic.com for night pics in different scenes to compare to yours. If a magnet or tapping doesn't fix it then it might be something set wrong in the camera. Or you got a bad one...

If you've got one then I'd say use it if it's well protected. If you DON'T have one, then after the budget creeps up a little then why spend bigger money on something that's not rated for the job when there are other options for about the same money that are? Instead of an indoor Axis, for example, install an outdoor ACTi. Or just look a little harder for a deal on an outdoor option. Or skip takeout coffee for a couple of weeks. Heck, there's one guy on here who spent 5 cents on a Ziploc baggie and a twist tie and had good luck in a beach location through a hurricane with some cheapo webcam. Whatever you do though, I bet in two-three-four years you'll regret not getting an outdoor one if you have a corrosion-related problem. There are ways to install OUTDOOR cams that'll almost guarantee they'll get water in them as well. Done right in the right location I'll bet you have good luck, but should you plan on sticking a high-budget indoor camera outdoors when you know there are longer lasting options? Answer that one for yourself.

IR cut filter stuck in day mode (all IR filtered out)? Seems to be a problem in some of these. Set to day-only mode somehow in your settings?

I wouldn't use one for that job- way too far away. Every video I see of them has very soft focus and it's not easy getting a clear crisp facial shot up even up fairly close in the daytime. Go to Youtube, search Logitech 750e, and watch the videos (both day and night) and pay attention to the faces. Make sure you crank the Youtube resolution up high too. I'd recommend something with a varifocal lens that goes to at LEAST 8mm. At 50' 8mm will give you a moderate zoom with a reasonable FOV and a closer shot to give at least a chance for ID at night. If you want better face shots you'll want more zoom (probably 12mm) and extra lights over the built-in camera IR. A varifocal cam with good night vision in your budget would be this Dahua or its 2mp little brother. The 3mp gives more detail but limits your recording options a bit. Dahuas NVRs (if you wanted to go the standalone NVR route) only support their cameras up to 2mp, and I've heard some issues with BlueIris and the 3mp for some reason. Dahua's free computer software works fine with it or you might want to try a free demo of NVR+. I've been itching to see video of this cam- http://www.gadspot.com/p-445-gs9405e.aspx Good features, good price, and I've read good things about Gadspot and seen good videos of their analog stuff. I asked their tech support and they said that it works with BlueIris, so there's a cheap software alternative if their free software doesn't appeal to you. This thread shows one guy's results with an Aote. I'd probably take a Dahua first, although the price is much better on that Aote (albeit with fixed lens rather than varifocal). For instance, check the aliexpress url- it says 5 megapixel while the ad description says 3. Typical when buying stuff direct from China. Aliexpress is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. There are other choices in the $400 range but it'll probably take quite a bit of looking to find one that beats the Dahua at night for close to that kind of money. Higher-end name brands in the same ballpark at night are probably double or triple the money of an EBay or Aliexpress Dahua, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. Better support, better software options, and possibly better reliability come with the extra cost. You might even be able to get away with one of the 1.3mp Dahua HFW-2100 minibullets with a special-order 8mm fixed lens from the factory. Should be available from a few sources for under $200 shipped. You can get a pair from Costco (QSee branded) with 6mm lenses for $300. Wait a bit and the 3200S minibullets will be out and you'll get a 2mp fixed lens cam for about the same price.

Those have a pretty wide lens. Decent ID for close up shots but only good for recognition (if you already know them) at much of a distance, although the wide FOV will show you what's going on in a large area. How far do you park your car from where you will put the camera? Is it always in the same spot? That makes a big difference in which camera and lens length you can use.

Sweet that it worked. If it didn't, although cctv toys are nice, I was going to suggest maybe just a switch that closes when the gate is closed and lights up an LED in the house somewhere. Open the gate, break the connection, and the tiny light goes out.

Hey Firefighter, good to see you back posting. Whatcha got for new toys now?

Mine's a CMVision IR200 flood that I got from Amazon. Lots of light and for all I can tell completely invisible under my dark deck, although there's a streetlight with a big blue spruce blocking much of the direct light at the end of my driveway. It's a bit overkill for some applications though. Throw "940nm illuminator" into Google, Ebay, Amazon, Pricegrabber, or whatever and you'll get lots of hits. CMVision has the smaller IR100 and IR50 if you don't need to give your target a tan while you're taking their picture, plus there are tons of other makers and options that may well be worth the extra money over the CMVision cheapos.

Can't boast about these personally, but ICRealtime has a good rep, it's got 950nm LEDs, and look more like a motion detector than a camera. Any pinholes I've used have been either cheap crap or weren't used with IR. I'd test my old KT&C pinhole but it's been pretty covert lately- haven't seen it in years...

Cat5e is good for 100m with no issues according to the specifications. I've heard of longer runs working but 100m is the spec. 20m is a breeze. The twist in the wires is great for noise rejection and reliability.

Wired is always better than wireless.

Thx Scott, much appreciated.

Like blakem said, WDR is important to get unlit detail when harsh light is present in part of the shot, as is BLC (backlight compensation) with the sun in the background or even the ability to set different exposure zones if you want the cam to prioritize, say, your porch (works for faces at the door in extra shadow in the day and because the porchlight lights it better at night than the yard).

Pointed up higher?

That videosecu dome you were looking at would be less visually aggressive than the bullet both because it is a dome and the white would blend in better. Bubble domes are even better because the cam isn't staring you in the face.

Hey, it works, right? Gives you a starting point if something goes wrong even if you don't have hi-def closeup face shots. I was a bit surprised to see the front door camera point AT the front door instead of away from it. More useful footage of the yard and mailbox and probably a better face shot of those standing at the front door if it was in the corner pointing outwards, but backlighting from the sun might darken faces too much at certain times of the day. Looks like you catch the mailbox at a distance in the corner of the driveway cam anyway. Just make sure you've got motion detection set sensitive enough that it records small people walking slowly from either direction towards your box if you don't dedicate a cam zoomed in and looking directly at the box. You'll be able to recognize people you know or can find later fairly easily now. The next step is looking at sample faces (and plates) at different times of the day from recorded footage and see if you could recognize them in a lineup afterwards. Enjoy your new toy. You'll love being able to take a quick look at the monitor when you hear a bang at night and see what's going on.

Cheapest reliable alert option might be to record on motion but set up PIRs at important choke points and email only when the PIRs signal an alert. That way you won't have to wire PIRs into every camera, just the NVR.

Both will work. I use a 940nm with good results. I don't know if I can say what you want to change in settings if it's set up the way you like it now. There's nothing really there to "enable" IR viewing besides the threshold to switch to B&W night mode. They tend to want to stay in colour (can't see IR) if there's any white light around. It's been a while since I looked at the menus/manual to offer other recommendations except to CNB to offer better explanations in the manual of what each option does and advice on adjusting them instead of just numbers.

I can assure you that Scott ( ssmith10pn) create separate sub net for camera Just checking to see how the network architecture handled things, regardless of theoretical good/better/best.

ssmith10pn, nice real-world numbers there, thanks. Looks like a nice hybrid setup on a less-than-current computer. I see the CPU temp but that's just running the server, not the client displaying all of the cameras, right? What's CPU utilization (ballpark) with lots of recording and displaying all cameras? 10/100 switch? Plugged into the router or its own NIC on your server? Sorry to the OP for the semi-hijack although this is more or less on topic.

I've never installed a mobile dvr so I have no specific recommendations. I was just pointing you in the right general direction. If you just want inside vehicle coverage though, that should be easy. Are you concerned about someone with a key using it without permission? Not that it matters except that they'll have a long time to find a camera even if they aren't looking. It'll also cut down on cellular bills because you'd probably catch them quite quickly. A trunk mounted dvr with a pinhole cam of some kind on the back dash looking forward from the passenger side towards the driver should give good coverage. A messy back dash with mixed junk on it might blend a cam in for at least a short while, or tuck one inside a speaker grille or whatever. Big cheesy 6x9 speaker boxes would be ideal if your fashion sense can stand it. Trunk to back dash is a quick easy install as well, especially if you've got enough power in the trunk to avoid running wires from the front of the vehicle under your carpet and trim. Maybe someone with experience installing mobile covert cameras could speak up? As ak357 says, budget matters quite a bit, as does how long you expect to have to run it. Cobbling something together to last a week to catch a known offender is different from installing something that'll have to be tucked away and operating for years "just in case". edit added: Guess it was "thewireguys", not ak357. That's what I get for reading quickly on my phone with the text blown up and the names/avatars out of view.

No troubles. I'm not saying it's impossible (nothing's impossible), but I bet Vivotek has gone through quite a bit of trouble to make sure that people can't use their free software with other brands of cameras. More power to you if you can make it work though.

AgCam or CabCam. AgCam is better, CabCam is cheaper. Both are designed for use in industrial vehicles to view places the operator can't see. If quality isn't that important, just about any cheapo backup camera on FleaBay can be rigged up on a switch instead of triggering via the backup lights.