Sawbones

If you have line-of-sight, and a set of directional antennas (panel/waveguide/dish), you could simply put a wifi bridge on either end.

The only no-name Chinese stuff I buy from Ebay are certain IR illuminators... and that was only after testing several different kinds, and weeding out the junk. Like other posters, I pretty much stay away.

I've actually used a Nuuo encoder card for a system... worked pretty well, and came with software.

Hi the system i have posted is pc I know... Just reiterating the point.

I'm with Soundy... PC-based systems are the way to go... particularly if you're facile with basic PC construction. It's not that hard.

That's actually very reasonable... they're almost down to Luxriot territory with that deal... and from a major VMS-solution provider too... I guess competition is good. " title="Applause" />

Is that a new pricing scheme? For some reason I remember them being much more expensive than that. Or am I having a "senior moment?"

The lowest-bidder is often the cheapest for a reason. For only a little more money, you can sometimes get a MUCH better setup... price-to-results is NOT a linear relationship. Of course, this only applies if you're dealing with people who will actually tell you the specs and models of what they're using... otherwise how do you compare apples-to-apples? I prefer to buy quality. As they say, "buy once, cry once."

Probably not but was there a budget? Now Milestone is an option even at low end setups. Milestone Essential was released the other day and I'm not sure what they're after but base license incl two cam licenses comes at ~1000 SEK (~130 usd) which leaves a little more for better cameras. Interesting... Anybody know what they charge per-channel to add cameras to that license?

Whoops... missed it. You did say M12. I was talking about the D12. I'm not sure what lens options they allow for the M12.

Four lenses: D22, D43, D65, and D135. (or the "N" versions for the B&W night sensors) I'm using all four of those for various things... and if you deploy them properly, they work very well. Depending on how far away from the camera you are, and how wide the driveway is, a 135 or 65 might be a good choice to cover that area. http://www.mobotix.com/eng_US/Products/Lens-Options/Tabla-de-Objetivos If you reference the handy table above, you'll see that the 135 sensor has an FOV width of roughly 13 feet at a distance of 50 feet (the table is in meters, so 13 feet is just a SWAG). That might cover a single-lane driveway (of 12 feet in width) perfectly. A car is only going to be 6-7 feet wide.

I'm afraid I have no idea what you're asking.

The M12's come with a fixed, pre-focused lens that's actually GLUED into the casing. There's no "focusing" anything... and they don't have an auto-back-focus feature like the Panos (and in fairness, probably don't need it). The D12's (the Dome version) do have focusable lenses... you just rotate them in or out a bit. This is a good thing, because the dome itself can change your focus a little bit, so what looks a bit out-of-focus with the dome OFF, looks in-focus with the dome ON (I'd estimate it's about 1/8 to 1/16 of a lens-turn difference). As for the heater, there are no moving parts in a Mobotix camera... I've never required a heater in mine (some Mobotix cameras get mounted in some pretty severe-duty locations without freezing). I know you're thinking of the M12, but you might consider the D12 instead. Changing modules/lenses in the field is a nice option, just in case the view isn't QUITE what you wanted (though the ability to use a standard 35mm SLR camera/lens combo to choose the FOV is very helpful). And at 50 feet, you're going to want more of a telephoto-type lens. Get out your 35mm digital camera to check FOV before you even THINK about buying anything.

Here's a 484S I just pulled out of a cupboard in my garage about five minutes ago: Here is the stock lens... you can hopefully read the specs on the side: Here is a replacement lens, same specs: This is one of the 15-50mm lenses you mentioned above, installed on that camera: All of these lenses are 1/3" CS-mount, D/N, varifocal lenses, and all of them fit nicely on that camera. Panasonic must have a glitch on their website, or we're talking about a different camera. BTW, those 484S's are some of the best analog cameras out there for severe backlighting.

Pretty sure that's wrong. All of my 484S domes came with a standard varifocal lens: PLZ 29/27, which is a 2.9-8mm. They can take a 2.2mm wide-angle, and a 15-50 also, but those are not the normal stock lens.

Don't know if this will help you or not. Acti just came out with their H.264-enabled IP cams... and they are supposedly WDR. I have no experience with these newer models (all of mine are the older, non-H.264 cams), but the older ones produce a nice 1.3 megapixel pic @ 8fps, and are fairly economical compared to some other IP cams. Maybe they'd let you demo one... couldn't hurt to ask.

Ummm... sorry about that. I'm also very happy with the Mobotix night images. I like the D12 domes, since you have the option of any number of different lens configurations with the dual-imagers inside. I'm using a couple of cameras with wide-angle day imagers, and narrow-FOV night imagers to zoom in on specific illuminated areas. The mobotix cameras are extremely full-featured, and do a nice job.

The other posters are correct. Your cameras are day-only cams, and have an IR filter in place. They have trouble properly rendering color without that filter. You'll probably find that your cameras can see a TINY bit of light if you point them directly at the IR sources (those filters are not 100% efficient), but it won't be what you're wanting. Go true day-night with an ICR (IR-cut filter), or B&W only.

Why do you want such a high frame-rate? I think the max I'm using on any of my cameras is 6-8FPS... and that's been more than enough for my application. Are you working in an area where a certain FPS is required by policy or law? The human eye often can't tell much difference between 15 and 30 FPS ************* Edit ************** You're also looking at 15-20 Mbps EACH for that kind of datastream. You're going to need a serious gigabit backbone if you plan on hanging more than a couple of those off a standard switch.

Fair enough... then I apologize for misconstruing your remarks. We don't have to carry on this discussion further... I'm simply responding to a perceived attitude, and an implied insult that I thought I'd detected. I'm glad to be wrong about that.

It's that way on many of the Mobotix models. The higher the resolution, the lower the frame-rate... you have to look at the specific specs to really see where the best trade-off will be.

Well... do you think the non-dealers in this forum appreciate being obliquely called a bunch of freeloading thieves? It's your business, run it how you want... but I think you can understand if people look askance at somebody popping into a thread like this, created directly for the comparison of images from various cameras... posting some pics, and then refusing to say any more about them. Seriously... what's the point of doing something like that? That's not only wasting the site host's bandwidth, it's contrary to the purpose of the thread, in addition to displaying a "nyah, nyah! I know something you don't know!" attitude... and that's pretty gratuitous in a thread where other people have been up-front about what they've tried. And when you weigh in with a "screw those people who are trying to educate themselves... this should be a closed forum" attitude, how do you expect people to react? You say you're a friendly guy, but the resentment practically drips from your keyboard. Look... I'm not trying to bust anybody's balls... the business world is tough. I'm in an industry that's about to be completely taken over by the friggin' government (ask me how happy I am about THAT... ). Try running a business under those conditions... at least most of you have some kind of autonomy, and are able to work for yourselves. Blah... don't get me started.

Serious question: if this forum isn't for information sharing, then why are all of us here? You can find pretty pictures anywhere on the 'net. Photobucket... Flickr... In my opinion, if you're going to participate, that's a two-way street. It's not enforced, of course... so you can take... and not give anything back... but there's a name for people like that. CCTV isn't my specialty, or my business. I'm a physician. People pay me for my clinical judgment and expertise... not necessarily for raw knowledge. While I frequently know a great deal more than they do (though that's not always the case), I'm not the holder of the "secrets of the temple." What I am is an experienced clinician. I don't get paid to simply regurgitate what I learned in a medical textbook; those can be found on Google. What they pay me for is my experience, expertise, understanding, and clinical judgment about what is actually happening, and what is best for a patient on a case-by-case basis. Medicine is changing... people frequently bring me printouts from Google about what they think they have/need. Sometimes they're right... often they're not... but the information is out there... and thinking you can ignore it is a fallacy. In addition to the self-diagnosers, I also find myself competing against the faster/cheaper philosophy... quickie-clinics, nurse practitioners, independent-practice PAs. Those folks don't have my training or experience. They don't know what I know... but they do serve a segment of the population that doesn't necessary need (or want) my skills. I also get the people who think I'm a thief or quack. They mega-dose on vitamins, or hang out at the herb-and-crystal store. They're convinced that I'm trying to kill or poison them... until they actually poison themselves with some crap their "witch doctor" whipped up... then I step in with modern medicine and fix them. They don't even necessarily need me for my prescription pad... the same antibiotics you'd get in a pharmacy are available from farm supply stores, over the border in Mexico, and from aquarium supply houses. *shrug* It is what it is. How many customers do you really think you're going to lose by posting something here? You're never going to beat the price of the cheapo DIY system-in-a-box at Costco... and the person who buys that crap gets exactly what they paid for. And as for helping a "competitor," I'd argue that you're actually helping a customer... and perhaps gaining additional customers once they see what you can do. That person will also tell others, by word-of-mouth, and the 'net. I did my IP-based system myself... some if it with equipment purchased from members of this forum. My first alarm/security system was analog, and professionally installed. They did a nice job, and I've referred multiple friends and neighbors to that company, because they did good work. They weren't able to do what I eventually decided to do, so I DIY'd it (nobody in my area does Mobotix, so it's not like I took money out of somebody's pocket by doing so). Hell... half of the security companies I contacted for my initial bids didn't return my calls... and of those that did, half of those didn't even show up. Where the professional earns his money may not necessarily be in the sale of physical product, whether physician or CCTV integrator. We're in a global marketplace, and there are enough internet wholesalers, Hong-Kong outlets, etc out there that your supply chain (and its attendant markup) isn't as protected as it used to be. So what else do you have? Your experience. Joe-regular-guy may know to buy a bunch of ExtremeCCTV stuff... but that's the easy part... any joker with a credit card can buy something off Ebay. BUT... he has no blooming idea how to install it, or which camera is going to look best here-or-there, or how to get that siamese cable from the second floor to the basement DVR, etc. People are always going to DIY... and maybe their results will suck. OTOH, maybe it's good enough for them. But I suppose this could be converted to a closed forum... just to avoid those "smart" customers. ***************** Edit ******************** Seems to be a lot of resentment floating around here... what gives?

And what's the point of that? I agree completely. But for some reason he doesn't like to reveal the cameras he uses.... Then he's wasting everybody's time.

And what's the point of that?