I need to replace a camera in an existing system that has gone bad. The camera mount position is underneath the eave of a standalone building (a Dr's office), and the purpose is to record and surveil the back parking lot area, which is used mostly by the 10 to 15 employees. Farthest distance from camera to outside boundary of parking lot is about 70 feet.
The existing system is a new Zmodo 8 channel H.264 DVR I installed, which replaced a similar system that has gone bad.
Research that I've done shows that 1000TVL seems to be the best resolution available, although another article said that the question of resolution is more complex than what narrowing it all down to one single specification can provide.
The Business is just outside a well-developed area, and in the past there have been incidents involving break-ins, theft, vandalism etc... and what they would like is a camera that has a high-enough resolution so that a license plate could possibly be read.
Research that I've done shows that they make extremely expensive cameras specifically for the purpose of capturing license plate numbers, and these are way outside our budget of about $150 (US).
I've found lots of cameras that look like they should work, but the wide price variation has made me wonder if I've missed something critical.
I know that we need a BNC camera, rated for outdoors use, with good night vision and the ability to show good detail out to say 50' - 60'. If there is any other information needed, please let me know and thanks in advance.