Recommendations please for night surveillance camera

[tysonn 0]

Hoping one of you chaps in the know can please advise me.I have a friend that runs a garage.Hes lately been getting grief off a guy that also has a garage because hes recently added a breakdown truck to his business and his rival isnt happy about losing some business.

He has a 4 camera cctv setup that includes an outdoor one(truck is parked outside the garage overnight)and this week the truck was vandalised.Although his camera has picked it up and my mate can see its the rival the image isnt good enough for the police to do anything.Existing cameras are just the usual quality that come with a basic setup.Hes asked me to find out what he will need to do the job.As its primarily for night vision I dont suppose colour is important but he needs something good enough to give a decent image of the perpetrator(maybe good enough to get their face)and possibly the number plate of his vehicle.Hes not tied to adding it to his existing system and could go wireless or wired.Any recommendations/pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mick

[Kawboy12R 0]

I'm assuming that your friend has an analog cctv system? If he's got a narrow driveway, position a camera so that it takes a nice closeup of everybody coming in. Zoomed in closer than you think is useful for wide surveillance. The other wideangle cheapo yard cams are good enough to tell what he did, you just want one clear photo of his face to show who did it. That's the money cam. If it's too hard to place one there or it's too far from easy mounting on a building, always park the truck in the same place near the building and mount, say, one of these with a close shot of the truck in it. Try and place it so that a dusk-to-dawn or other security lighting is shining in the same direction the camera is so that it helps the most. You probably won't get plates at night (especially using IR and without special tweaking to capture JUST the plates), but you've got a much better chance of catching a good night-time face shot at distances greater than 10' with the Samsung than any cheap wideangle camera.

[tysonn 0]

Thanks for that I'll have a look at it.His garage is in a busy rural street and although theres parking all down the street sometimes he cant get closer than maybe four or five cars distance from his garage entrance to park the truck up for the night.I realise that this rules out being able to point his camera at a specific area to get a face or number plate pic.BTW the street has street lights.

[Kawboy12R 0]

Tricky for good shots at a distance when you don't know where he'll be parking. It's more expensive, but maybe two or three cameras pointed at the spots he usually parks? Try one of the Samsungs and play with it a bit and learn what it can do. If the max zoom is enough (probably won't be) for all possible parking positions then get more. If not, then you might need to look at cams with a 16mm fixed lens or a box camera in a housing with, say, a 5-50mm lens. You're talking significantly more money when you get into housings, extra lenses, labour, time, etc etc. You might be better off to recommend a PTZ if he wants to spend an extra few minutes every night going into the shop (or possibly remotely from home) and pointing it at his truck wherever it is parked. They're easy to find with lots of zoom and some have good low light and extra powerful IR for distance shots. I've had no use for a PTZ so I won't recommend an analog one, but I know Dahua makes a good 1080P network PTZ (runs from a computer or NVR instead of that analog DVR your friend has) with tons of zoom and IR for under $2000. Might find one for under $1500. You can find some demo videos on here.

 

Someone else on here might be able to recommend a decent analog PTZ in the $500-$700 range??? Seems to me I remember someone talking about a good one on here the other day in that price range.

[tysonn 0]

Thanks Kawboy for your help.I'll pass it all on to my mate.

Cheers

Mick