Security camera for the house

[HelpIneedSecurity 0]

I would like to install a security camera at my home. One of the reasons is my house is shaped like a big L with the garage in front and the two window that actually face the street are bedroom windows. The second reason is there has been some break-ins lately in our neighborhood and I would like to deter (big camera pointed down my walk way) or help capture the image of some neighborhood thug breaking in. Having the ability to look out the front yard, street, and approaching walk way would really be great so high res would be nice. I have found this camera:

[edit by mod - store link removed]

I thought it looked pretty cool from the amateur specs that I can read and the price looked attractive. Does this look like a good camera to be mounted outside my house? If not could you suggest some replacements? The monitor that I would be plugging into would be a 32" HD flat panel if it matters.

As for the capture an image of a thug I was hoping to use a PCI DVR card I have a PC plugged into the 32" flat panel. I am only really interested in putting up 1-3 cameras max so I was hoping this would work. Will a PCI DVR card record enough high res images so I could identify some one? Can anyone suggest one or a few that might work and be reasonably priced ($75)?

 

Sorry for all the Knob questions but I have found that forms like this usually have the best information.

[Soundy 1]

I dunno... the specs on that camera LOOK good... but at <$90, in an industry where "you get what you pay for" really does apply most of the time... that seems like it falls more into the "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" category.

 

But, if it serves the purpose of a deterrent...

[rory 0]

Sorry had to remove the store link, but here are the specs

It IS a good price for the SPECS, im wondering if that is shipped from the US or Taiwan though.

Though who knows if any of the specs are correct, could be marketing hype.

 

1/3” 600TVL High Resolution Rugged Day & Night Outdoor CCD IR Color Camera

 

• 600 TVL with full motion True Day/Night plus color images in low light without ghosting

• Excellent High-Res. technology 600 TV lines of Horizontal resolution

• Lens: 4-9 mm/Million Pixs Auto Iris Lens

• True Day/Night feature with IR cut removable module

• The infrared project distance is 60 meters (200 ft)

• Built-in powerful IR LED illuminator

• Weatherproof (IP66 standard)

• Socket Plug (one of following types):

[Soundy 1]

It's WAY too good for the price. Megapixel IR lens? Really? 60m throw out of 18-20 LEDs (as shown in the picture - I still have the link open in another tab)? Looking at it again this morning, this DEFINITELY seems to fall into the "too good to be true" category - it's almost like they just copied various top-end specs into their copy.

[rory 0]

Yeah that site is a little iffy. It looks like a generic store front application. However I checked the domain and its been around since 2005.

[Henry-f 0]

Don't think for a minute that the camera will have a "range" of 60 metres. Even if the infra red illumination was good for 60 metres (which it won't be) a 9mm lens is going to be of little use much over 7-10 metres assuming you want to be able to capture enough detail to identify someone.

 

As has quite rightly been pointed out CCTV is an industry where you generally get what you pay for. In common with others on this forum we are constantly comparing different products with a view to carrying them in stock and there seems very little relationship between all the headline numbers and what you actually get out in the test field.

 

The most important thing you need to decide is exactly what you want to be able to record in terms of detail level and area covered. This will dictate the lens you need on your camera and this is, in my mind, the most important thing to get right. Be aware that as detail increases the angle of view (ie the area covered) will decrease. There is no such thing as a wide angle camera that will film high detail at longer distances. One aspect of some cameras you might be use though is the fact that with a good lens subjects remain in focus for a large part of the camera's view. In other words things are in focus from 5 metres to infinity so although you may not have a wide angle of view you can still cover a decent area in a straight line along the line of sight of the camera.

 

The difference between 450TVL and 550TVL is negligible compared to the increased detail captured by using the right lens. In reality you won't know exactly the right focal length until you get a camera installed so where possible go for a camera with a zoom lens. The are referred to as vari-focal cameras because unlike your SLR stills camera you need to adjust both zoom and focus.

 

 

with regards the recording your footage we are no massive fans of using a computer. Once your bought a decent video capture card and software you will be a good way towards buying a budget stand alone CCTV DVR recorder. Make sure you get one that records in D1 resolution rather than 1/2 D1 (field) or 1/4 D1 (CIF) and make sure you're looking at the recording resolution rather than the display resolution. The other thing to keep in mind is that the hard drive in your computer isn't designed to run 24 hours a day. Neither is it designed to constantly fill up and record over it's entire memory. It is designed to run for 8 hours or so in a day and to churn small sections of it's memory at a time. You will normally find the computer's performance suffers with the extra load as well.

 

I hope that helps you along a bit. Any questions post back and myself or other on here will be able to help further.

 

Henry