Re: Send a Vandal to Jail

[dsad63 0]

Ok; here's my situation. Over the course of the last 6 months, vandals have been harrassing my family. My vehicle has been keyed numerous times, my hubcaps stolen, my house egged and the screen to my bedroom cut, ect.. Not suprisingly, the cops have been little help. The thing that's making the whole thing difficult to figure out is that I don't have ANY sort of ongoing relationship with my neighbors whatsoever. Over the course of the 2 years I have lived at my house, I have only spoken to neighbors twice. The first time was related to a neighbor who tried to put a fence on my property (was as nice as possible, and it never seemed to get contentious) and another time to tell some teenagers to stop riding their bikes through my lawn. As to lying-in-wait, I can't risk getting into a situation in which I get arrested for assault because I'm a State designated advocate for vulnerable elderly people and a conviction could cost me my job.

 

So, as a complete novice, I need some input on some decent IR cameras (my frontyard is small and poorly lit) I might use to catch whoever is doing this. My goal is not to use the cameras as a deterent. My budget, not including the PCI card that I have already purchased (DigiCam) is $1,000.00. Whatever I buy, I want to make sure it will do the job first and foemost. I'm open to the idea of adding more cameras later.

 

Dave

[rory 0]

Hi

 

Whats the distance from where you can mount the camera to the vehicle?

 

Is there any light at all, or pitch dark?

 

Rory

[dsad63 0]

Thanks for the quick response. The nearest place that I could mount a camera would above a crescent window about 15 feet above my driveway. The distance from the camera to my car would be <10 feet. If I was to mount a camera there, I would be able to monitor access to both sides of my vehicle and driveway. However, there aren't any eaves to hide it and mounting a camera at that location would be very visible from the street. As for lighting, the area is never pitch black. I have a crappy motion light which illuminates about half of my driveway. When the light is off, it approaches that level. However, someone on my street always seems to have a porchlight on. Also, as the nature of what's been happening has been so overt (some of it has happened in broad daylight), I think I would be wise to consider a more "sturdy" camera.

 

Another thing that seems to make catching whoever is doing this to me challenging is that my house serves as a point of access between my street and a court behind my house. Kids pass through, and if they were so inclined they would have wonderful, dark, hiding places on either side of my house (no lights there). Hence, i need a camera/s that will work well at night. If i can find what I need, and get them up discreetly, I think I'll catch them quickly. This has been going on soooo long that they must be feeling very secure and smug.

 

Thanks,

Dave

[rory 0]

Sounds like you may wanta vandal dome, Day Night, or just BW, though you said Day time is also of interest and color in the day is nice.

 

For Infrared you will need a BW or Day Night, which switches to BW. One with an auto/mech IR Cut Filter is better as far as color goes, it turns on the IR Filter in the day so you get vivid color without any IR from Sunlight, etc, and turns it off at night to pick up IR. These are called "true" day night cameras.

 

As for infrared Illuinators you can add these on seperately, dont think you would need more than the ExtremeCCTV UF100, with a 30% beam, use 730nm and it will light it up even better. The higher the nanometers (more invisible) the less performance you get from the IR,so the lower you go, such as 730nm, you will get better performance (730nm is similar to the glow from a traffic light). Ofcourse with something like the UF500 it will just flood the whole area out for a couple hundred feet so using more invisible IR wont degrade the performace as much, but i think thats overkill for your distances, and maybe "too much" infrared. Also, having any reflective areas such as walls, bush, etc, will really make it alot better also.

 

http://www.extremecctv.com/categories/

 

Fixed Lens:

http://www.extremecctv.com/products/index.cfm?img=19

 

Varifocal Lens - auto Mech Filter

http://www.extremecctv.com/products/index.cfm?img=20

 

UF100

http://www.extremecctv.com/products/index.cfm?img=7

 

UF500

http://www.extremecctv.com/products/index.cfm?img=6

 

Also, a Less expensive alternative of a "true" day night dome would be the Sanyo, which also has an auto IR Cut Filter and switchs to BW at night.

 

Rory

[dsad63 0]

Anybody had any experiences (good or bad) with either the Nuvico Vandalproof Dome,

 

http://www.surveillance-video.com/nuomvahireda1.html,

 

or the Provideo CVC-7706DNV?

 

http://www.spytown.com/spcvcodaweca.html

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[VST_Man 1]

I've got 2 7706's up and running. Work great. But, there is a new one I've tried from CCTV Imports, Covington. The B9100EX gives the same picture, has the same specs (including mechanical filter) and is $60 cheaper and I like the lense adjustment dials on the outside, rear outside pannel for access to the dip switches. Nice features. If I had to spend the money twice I'd buy the 9100's. CCTV Imports is also in the Huricanne devestation path so if you can spend your money there, they need it.

[dsad63 0]

Thanks for the tip VST. At this point, cost is very important to me. More important though is value for the money. Actually, purchasing 3-4 good cameras + PCI Card + installation (I'm new to all this) is really gonna eliminate alot of financial flexibility I would have had otherwise. HOWEVER, I am so pissed at this point that I might just throw all of that out the window just to get these guys. For me, it's just not acceptable to let someone come onto the land that took me 30 years to get and impose their will on me.

 

As for camera styles, I think that some day/night color bullets w/IR would probably best suit my needs (from a capture standpoint). Yet based on the bravado of the vandals, it is in the realm of possibility that I could one day come home to discover that they have been laid to waste. That's why I've been looking at some day/night domes w/IR. Still, I seem to get the impression that in the price range I'm looking (about 350.00 per camera) bullets generally perform better.

 

Dave

[CCTV_Guy 0]

de Sade,

 

May I make a suggestion and then back on outta here? would a b&w camera suffice?

 

The reason I ask is that the Watec 902H (and its successor) is a very small camera(like, 1-inch cube not counting lens), yes b&w only, but it has two important attributes .... it performs very well in very low light levels AND the manufacturer claims it operates in the covert range of IR.

 

I think the covert range is important in your application because you're looking for bad guys, and nothing will betray a camera's presence like the red glow from conventional IR LEDs (assuming sufficient number and power). Consequently, if bad guys see that glow, they just wear a mask over the face, walk up to the camera and smack it with a baseball bat, or worse, take it home to guard their place! Operating the camera in conventional lighting or the covert range of IR eliminates that red glow. Bad guys never know they're in the spotlight.

 

(of course, if bad guys sever the cable to take the camera, some servers can be triggered by the loss of video and execute a script which sets off an alarm, activates a voice-dialer, or takes other action, but that's another story)

 

Now, as I recall, the cost per camera will put you right at your upper limit, and the cost of a lens (you must purchase lens separately) may put you slightly over your proposed limit. AND, it does not come with illuminators - those would be additional cost. The alternative is to go with conventional lighting - this camera really doesn't need much light as you can see from the specs( http://www.wateccameras.com/genwac/specs/gw902h.htm )

 

I happen to have a 902H here, and my home is surrounded by covert IR. If you're interested I might be able to take the 902h home with me and connect it to the internet so that you can see how it operates at night (to be honest, I've never seen it operate at night - I'm taking the manufacturer's word that it's responsive to covert IR).

 

We installed a similar model watec camera up in Alaska for a local manufacturer: they had this one-inch cube WATEC camera attached to a 20,000 mm lens. Yes, 20,000 - that's not a typo. The lens was the size of a small wastebasket, with this one-inch camera attached. Regrettably, it was watching a bird nest 3/4 of a mile away, over water, but the clouds were such that the client was never able to use the camera and subsequently took it down.

 

Anyway, in your case, I would suggest that the IR, should you choose to use IR, should not be the only covert attribute of your system. The camera housing and placement should be covert as well .... Instead of just putting a big ol' dome cam on the front or side o' the house, why not install a camera-equipped bird house or planter? Stick the camera in a flashlight housing in the car, or in the eye of a lawn ornament. Perhaps you can place your camera at a neighbor's home, in the bed of a truck parked across the street, or on a telephone pole ... anywhere away from the area they'll strike. Get creative.

 

Once you decide where you'll place the camera, then measure the distance to the area of coverage. Using the desired field of view data (range to target, field-of-view height and width), consult any one of a million lens calculators found on the internet ( http://www.thermosight.com/LensCalculations.htm for example, or Google on "lens calculator") to select the appropriate lens (rather than buying a pre-packaged camera/lens combo which determines the range and field-of-view for you).

 

One last comment if I may ... if you do decide to go with a discrete lens, i.e. one you select rather than a prepackaged camera system, try to find a lens that will not go out of focus when using IR illumination. Many will, but there are a few that are unaffected by the change between conventional lighting and IR light. They remain in focus either way.

 

 

And get a recording that'll "catch their best side" and really impress the jury!

 

Good Luck.

 

bill