Acti KCM 5611, TCM-7111 or Mobotix D14

[Ripple 0]

I'm planning the first step in a home surveillance system. Here is some information for what I would like to initially accomplish with the first outdoor camera:

Record suspicous activity at the edge of our property and in the street (130 ft to far end of street, the area has low lighting from floodlight on house and street light nearby, field of view approximately 130 FT) and record activity on our property within the 130 ft depth

Need to be able to recognize person and car (day and night) at 130 ft. Most of the time this is at night.

Would like to be able to recognize the license plates of cars if possible at this distance at a reasonable price (~$500 to 1000)

Would be a "nice to have" if I could zoom to an area when I do see something strange (I can live with doing this off line via iMovie as long as the resolution in the source recording would enable this )

Camera would be mounted on the side of our house facing our driveway nearby to where the floodlights are located

 

I've been looking at the Acti KCM 5611, TCM-7811 or Mobotix D14 after reviewing posts on this forum. I would appreciate feedback on the optical ability of these cameras to recognize auto, person, read license plates at 130 FT, 120 FOV and low light conditions

 

I understand the tradeoffs with recording the video centrally vs de-central on the Motobix.

 

I appreciate your advice. Thank you!

[buellwinkle 0]

Get the ACTi KCM-5611 and put it on a patrol to zoom in & out to capture someone at 130'. At it's widest angle, 4.7mm if I remember correctly, the best you'll be able to ID someone is about 25'. You'll need to use a good amount zoom to ID someone at 130'. You may need suplemental lighting, but I would install the camera first, see if additional lighting is needed and add it in later. Getting an illumunator that can honestly do 130' is going to set you back some coin, more than the cost of the camera, so see if you can put IR illuminators closer to where you want to capture someone.

[Ripple 0]

Thank you! That sounds like a good approach to me.

 

Would the Mobotix D14 night lens (N32) offer better perfomance at that distance and lighting? .... I'd consider paying the extra money if it would be a better solution for this situation.

 

Thanks again.

[buellwinkle 0]

Thank you! That sounds like a good approach to me.

 

Would the Mobotix D14 night lens (N32) offer better perfomance at that distance and lighting? .... I'd consider paying the extra money if it would be a better solution for this situation.

 

Thanks again.

 

I like Mobotix, have many D14s installed in our community, but with the N32 lens and 1.22MP resolution, at best you can ID someone at 10-12'. Even with their longest lens, the N135 which we use in some locations, you may ID someone at 30'. Use the lens calculator here - http://cctvlenscalculator.com/ to figure out what lens focal length you need to ID someone. I would shoot for at least 100 pixels per foot to ID someone. It defaults to meters, you may want to change that on top to feet. enter in the lens, the resolution, the distance to object, the height of the camera.

[Ripple 0]

Thank you for all the info Buellwinkle. Much appreciated!