Need surveillance Recommendations

[Lindgren 0]

I am an electrician who just wired a restaurant and have been hired to do the low voltage. This is all simple stuff; however, finding the right equipment for our needs is where I run into problems as I have no idea about quality of cameras, compatibility, etc...

We originally were going to install a DVR8-2600 8 channel with PRO-580 cameras :

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=202692725&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=202692725&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D27X-_-202692725

 

The owner changed his mind and wants a little more quality in the cameras, and the ability to zoom in.

 

So I need suggestions (links preferred) on cameras and dvr setup that has:

Quality cams (hopefully coax hookup for profit margin purposes...)

Zoom capabilities

Remote viewing from the owners cell phone

decent storage space

night vision

 

A bonus feature would be cameras that rotate?

 

Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated as I would like to finish up with this project cause he is a big waste of my time.

Thanks

Lindgren

[Soundy 1]

We originally were going to install a DVR8-2600 8 channel with PRO-580 cameras :

Cheap junk.

 

The owner changed his mind and wants a little more quality in the cameras, and the ability to zoom in

A bonus feature would be cameras that rotate?

The owner needs a reality check - this ain't the movies.

 

If you want an optical zoom, someone needs to be sitting watching the cameras to initiate the zoom at the time of an event. Otherwise, all you can do is digital zoom, which is essentially taking the image into software, clipping an area, and blowing it up: things get bigger, but you don't gain any clarity.

 

Plus, with a fixed camera, optical zoom will ONLY zoom in on the middle of the frame... if you need detailed video of a certain area (say, a cash drawer), you're better to just have a camera permanently zoomed on that area.

 

For real-time zoom to be of any practical use, it needs to be part of a pan-tilt-zoom camera... right there you're increasing the price of that camera 3-4 times, and again, it's of limited value unless there's someone sitting there driving it. It will only record what it's aimed at; if it's pointing in the wrong direction, then what's outside the area it sees isn't recorded.

 

So. The only viable option if you want to record a wide area and zoom in after the fact is to go to HD cameras of some sort. See some examples here of recording high-res and zooming in after: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&start=501

 

Quality cams (hopefully coax hookup for profit margin purposes...)

Is there existing coax? If not, consider Cat5 with baluns for analog video: the cable is cheaper, easier to work with, and more versatile for future expansion.

 

This is a quality analog camera at an excellent price: CNB VCM-24VF - extremely versatile and out-performs many cameras costing 2-3 times as much.

 

night vision

Overrated. And a misnomer. "Night vision" cameras are generally cheap cameras with poor low-light performance, that make up for that by adding cheap IR LEDs - think of an LED flashlight shining on the subject but with IR instead of white light.

 

Get cameras with good low-light performance (see above) and be done with it.

[jxk716 0]

Throw in an Appolo DVR and you'll be good to go!

[LittleScoobyMaster 0]

We originally were going to install a DVR8-2600 8 channel with PRO-580 cameras :

Cheap junk.

 

The owner changed his mind and wants a little more quality in the cameras, and the ability to zoom in

A bonus feature would be cameras that rotate?

The owner needs a reality check - this ain't the movies.

 

If you want an optical zoom, someone needs to be sitting watching the cameras to initiate the zoom at the time of an event. Otherwise, all you can do is digital zoom, which is essentially taking the image into software, clipping an area, and blowing it up: things get bigger, but you don't gain any clarity.

 

Plus, with a fixed camera, optical zoom will ONLY zoom in on the middle of the frame... if you need detailed video of a certain area (say, a cash drawer), you're better to just have a camera permanently zoomed on that area.

 

For real-time zoom to be of any practical use, it needs to be part of a pan-tilt-zoom camera... right there you're increasing the price of that camera 3-4 times, and again, it's of limited value unless there's someone sitting there driving it. It will only record what it's aimed at; if it's pointing in the wrong direction, then what's outside the area it sees isn't recorded.

 

So. The only viable option if you want to record a wide area and zoom in after the fact is to go to HD cameras of some sort. See some examples here of recording high-res and zooming in after: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&start=501

 

Quality cams (hopefully coax hookup for profit margin purposes...)

Is there existing coax? If not, consider Cat5 with baluns for analog video: the cable is cheaper, easier to work with, and more versatile for future expansion.

 

This is a quality analog camera at an excellent price: CNB VCM-24VF - extremely versatile and out-performs many cameras costing 2-3 times as much.

 

night vision

Overrated. And a misnomer. "Night vision" cameras are generally cheap cameras with poor low-light performance, that make up for that by adding cheap IR LEDs - think of an LED flashlight shining on the subject but with IR instead of white light.

 

Get cameras with good low-light performance (see above) and be done with it.

 

 

Your raining on this guys parade....Rain Rain Rain....

 

It's ok Lindgren. The rain will let up soon, hopefully.

 

[shockwave199 0]

Consider Soundy's advice and sure enough....

 

[nDAlk90 0]

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”