bike_rider

I guess that is the heart of my question: When it tracks something, does it also zoom in/out as the object gets closer or further away? For example, If you cover a street and somebody is walking down the sidewalk on the far side and they cross the street how does it behave? Does it zoom a predetermined amount or does it zoom until the object fills the image? Thanks

Yup. The question, has anyone used it and does it work?

I have a GV800 hooked up to a EX-14 - the mono version. These two don't get along very well with AGC. When the image is bright enough for night viewing, it is way over blown for day time use. The area covered is directly under a couple of street light, maybe 100 feet way. So, the only way to get it to work for me is to adjust the AGC each morning/night. Any I expecting too much? or do I have a problem?

thanks. the weather is mostly fine in California. Snow is at 3,300 feet, so we'll get in some good mountain biking this weekend. If the rain holds off, I can return to commuting on my Kawasaki. We have all kind of bikes in the garage.

I'm looking for color, high quality cameras for residential use in the 'burbs. Outside lighting is typical 'burbs - street lights that would back light anyone in the driveway or front yard. I'm not inclined to add flood lights, but IR pojectors could be acceptable. The 484 looks better on paper, so why is the CW374 more expensive? Of course the 374 is all weather, so the 484 would need a box, but that isn't very expensive. Did I miss something in the specs? Is the 374 notably better image quality? (are there other manufacturers in this price range I should consider?)

Long version: I'm putting some cameras around the house and I have all the same questions all the beginners have. DVR choice made - check. PC Based. budget - check - a few hunderd dollars per camera won't kill me. $500 would be ok if there was a visible difference between those and the next level down. Mission statement - no - but I know that I want identification camera in four spots: 2 entry ways & 2 out by the side walk, plus 2 general activity cameras Ability to do it my self - check - I'm an IT guy and I started at the bottom, so I've done a little cable work (OK, so it was thicknet and thinnet days). At this point, based on recent history, I'm all about image quality. If I have to have two cameras in one spot, to get great day and night performance, I'd consider it. So, as with most things, you get what you pay for (or as a former co-worker said, You don't get what you don't pay for). I figure that with most things there is a point where big $ only gets you a small improvement. I don't know where that point is. So, for my 2 key spots, I'd like concelable cameras. BW would be fine because I'll have color wide area shots. Anyone want to point me in the right direction? Short version: Can anyone recommend 2 small high quality cameras, plus 2 high quality cameras that don't have to be small? Or at least suggest at what price point you start to move to very, very good image quality? Cameras will not be monitored live, so recorded image quality is what I'll ultimately care about. (Edited to fix a few typos)

So what is the one on the lower right?

Interesting that the bottom right camera looks a little clipped in the day time highlights, but has the best night performance.

Yeah, the second one looked cool, but I'm not sure I need IR. I can put up motion activated floods around the yard, so I think that I'll have the lighting issue (mostly) covered.

Yes. I think off site transport to another site should included in any unattended system.

Thanks Rory. I think you summed up the relationship between the parts of the system better than I did. So uh, $1500 (quick froogle search) for a camera. I'd guess that is about the price point where lots more money only gets you a slight improvement. Hey it's still only 480 lines! I'll admit it might just be easier to point 4 cameras with a narrow field of view at the approach, but where's the fun in that?

Hi Rory, You are thinking problems not solutions 1 shot every five seconds is probably fine for people walking up my drive way. OTOH, I could shoot 3 frames per second if I wanted. If the camera only fires when another system detects an event (motion or other alarm input), I could go a long time before I had to empty a drive. Drives are cheap; I just bought two 500G drives for $350. An SLR could provide a much larger FOV and still be viable for identification. But again, this is not the only piece of the solution. It would need to be used in conjuction with full motion cameras to provide context. In this case, when I say basic digital camera, I mean basic digital SLR - Canon Rebel ($300-500 used). It could easily sit quietly for months or maybe even years - depending on how many shutter activations. Weatherproof boxes are cheap and easy, but I'd probably stick mine in a garage window. Around here, the guy that breaks in at night is also the guy that went door to door during the day casing places. Yes, getting a night time ID shot would be hard to do with an SLR, no question, but a few flood lights would help and it doesn't seem easy to do with CCTV either. For the home user, cameras do not provide security - they provide a record of events. There is the deterence factor of course, but mostly I want to know who and what triggered the alarm. In the "arms race" against breakins, I'm looking at all possible tools to prevent a B&E, minimize exposure to loss and record what happened. Keep giving me details to work out. This is good. -br

Hi Rory, Everything has trade offs. I'm a "defense in depth" kind of guy. I haven't seen a CCTV solution that will let me point one or two cameras at a two car wide driveway and get an ID quality image. Oh, when I say basic digtial camera I mean "basic digital SLR." So if the SLR lets me extend my odds of ID during daylight (or longer with a few stong outside lights), I'm interested. An 8G compact flash card will hold a lot of images. I'd rather have a really good image once every five seconds than have 30 fps of D1. I was looking at my property and confirmed what you already know - getting close enough for identification means a very narrow field of view. Even an "old" SLR like a Digital Rebel at 6MP might cover my driveway with enough detail for identification. Right now I'm trying to figure out how I might use Geovision's IO board to trigger the SLR. The SLR just uses a momentary switch to close the circuit, I just haven't figured out how to link the 2 pieces. I'm open to any advice or recommendations.

Thanks Collin, I may send you some info when I've firmed up what I want to acheive. I've been thinking that CCTV image quality is not good compared to even the most basic digital still camera. For identification, it seems like one should be able to rig a nice 6MP still camera to some sort of trigger device. I'm looking into that beofre I go any further.

Right now the plan is Geovision 1120, but I'm open to suggestions for something with better image quality.