Scruit

I have a 6"x4" sign (red on yellow) on my front door that says: Once a person reaches my door the camera is pretty obvious so I'm not worried about giving away the tactica advantage, so to speak. Also, my property is set back 150' from the road and the cameras only show my own property (it does show cars passing on the main road but in such little detail you can't even tell make/model). Nobody who is on public property can be seen or heard on my CCTV. Only people who come onto the property. In other news, I got the IR illuminator, ir lens and new BW 480tvl 0.01lux camera all ready to install tomorrow. I'll use my existing 75mm zoom lens with that and should be able to capture license plates day or night wihtout worrying about ambient light or dazzling headlights. Will only capture cars that drive down my driveway, so no privacy concerns there. Biggest issue I'll have with that is setting up the filed of view for the camera. The closer the better, but I don't want cars with license plates that are unusally high, or mounted on one side instead of the center (back of a UPS truck is perfect example) so I'll be aiming the camera for the thinnest part of the driveway to funnel vehicles into the smallest lane possible for reliable license plate readings.

What expectation of privacy does he have, standing on private property he doesn't own, in view of a public road, in broad daylight, and standing 3 feet from 3 non-concealed cameras? I also did NOT post the other 2 cameras that caught him in enough detail to identify him and his license plate. In the rural US was have mail carriers who drive POVs (and actually drive in the british side of the car so they can reach mailboxes) The orange light and "US MAIL" sign on the back of his car is not really visible form this camera. Here in the US a person in a public place has no expectation of privacy. We also don't concern ourselves with holding the rights of those who act in bad faith above the rights of those who act in good faith. Wanna know if it's genuine? See the other post on the same forum "example of vdideo output" etc. Recognise the camera angle? I really don't care for you accusing me of being unstable. If you have something say then say it, don't hide behind arrogance or sarcasm.

It's been about 10 years since I emigrated from England, and I'm apparently no longer understanding British humor.

9ch CPCam CPD 576W DVR, all BNC cameras. Here's an example video - the UPS man came today. Bear in mind that phootobucket reduces the resolution a bunch... The license plates are very clear int he actual video. I was wondering if the frame rate might be a problem? All I need to it to is identify if someone breaks into the house or workshop. Does anyone have alink to infroamtion as to minimum standards for CCTV video to be used in a criminal trial? Also, just for grins I put my old 4ch DVR in my car. Got this on my first test drive... Again, photobucket has brutalized the resolution. The video I got right off teh DVR is much better.

Photobucket is responsible for the resolution loss. See this video for a better example. This was captured at 320x200, although I am able to capture at 720tvl, which is waaay higher than the resolution of the individual cameras. Yep, and they do a much better job. But this was free.

I have a 9ch home system, and one of the camera has a 75mm zoom lens and looks down a 150' driveway. Any car that drives down my driveway will have it's license plate captured. Well, that's the plan. The biggest problem I'm having is to do with lighting at night. - Car facing towards or away from the camera with headlights off = too dark to see - Car facing the camera with headlights on = blinds the camera - Car facing away fro the camera with headlights on = license plate lit up just fine. I have tried all of these configurations while shining a maglight at the license plate and it's readable on the camera. The reflective surface helps a lot. So, what I need is to light up side of the car facing the camera. Best I can think of right now is using low-voltage landscaping lights, and to install a spotlight in the grass beside the driveway and point it down the driveway. At night the spotlight comes on. If a car comes down the driveway then the plate is lit up. Can anyone else suggest anything better / cheaper?

I have a camera in my porch that records sound also. It's VERY sensitive and I can hear the tire drone from cars coming down the street from 1/8 mile away. It can also hear the two yappy little dogs inside the house even though the camera is outside. I did a test last night where I played back video of me getting into my car in the garage, backing out, turning in the drive and then driving down to the road. Even though the road is 150' away you can still clearly hear the car accelerate down the road. Of course this is in the middle of the country where there are almost no other sounds. For you application I'd ask if there is a specific area that is 40' away that you want to record audio from (like your car parked in the road), or just anything within 40' of the house? The cheapo camera with audio that I have would work fine, but could be easily drowned out by closer sounds. If you are trying to record around your car then can you put a microphone closer to the car?

I'm getting a replacement B&W camera with 0.01 lux and 480 tv lines instead of 330. This will allow for more precise license plate recognition at night, especially with the ir-pass filter and illuminator. I'll post before/after pics when I get it set up.

Thanks for the advice for checking the camera's sensitivity range - I wouldn't have thoguht of that. When I get home tonight I'll get the make/model and pull the specs. I'd rather use 900-950nm so the illuminator doesn't glow red and tip off the bad guy.

The license plate camera is a regular color BNC camera with 75mm zoom lens and reads plates on cars that are ~100' away. If i was to get an IR-pass filter (blocks visible light, allows IR light) AND an IR illuminator that is rated for 120', AND make sure the filter and illuminator are both rated at the same wavelength... Then that should help, right? Woudl it be better to switch to a BW camera? OR is the color camera able to see IR just as well? I did a test right now. Using visible light, headlights dazzle the camera. My hope is that by using an IR filter and illuminator that the camera will pick up the license plate withotu being dazzled by the headlights.

Did you get close enough to read the license plate? The police find them? Nice video.

I have a cheap ebay b&w camera with sound that I wired from the baby's room direct to the TV downstairs. Total cost $50. The camera is wired to one of the "line in" inputs on the tv and I can use the remore control to switch over and look at the nursery. No IR, just a night-light and a very sensitive camera

Oh, and I installed a camera in my cubicle at work after a couple of thefts. The cleaners do some very strange things... - Tried my headphones on, even though they were clearly not plugged into anything - Picked up a 'bait dollar' from my desk and looked at it for a few seconds before putting it back - Looked through my desk drawers - Dusted my desk, then wiped the duster on the carpet when it got too dusty - Sat and looked through all the pictures in a photo album of my kid. - Cleaned my cublicle while wearing MY glasses - Had sex in my cubicle (I showed the video to my boss - it was confiscated and I was told that recording my cubicle was an invasion of privacy and to never do it again)

Hello all. I'm a homeowner who installed a CCTV system after a breakin. Started out with 4 channel card in an old PC and now have a 9ch standalone CPCam DVR. All the cameras are hardwired with RG6. Some of the cameras provide overall views, each door has a closeup camera and the long driveway (150') has a zoom lens that can read license plates. The close up entry cameras are IR, whereas the area cameras are all backed up with motion-sensor lights. Since installing the system 4 years ago I have captured many cars parking in my driveway in the early hours... One lady who walked around my property for 10 mins during the day while I was inside. When I finally saw and challenged her she said she thought the house was for sale.