jmccorm 0 Posted January 9, 2006 Home application, want one camera for driveway, one for porch, one wide angle for whole front yard (mounted on second story eves). Pole lighting over property (although the far area of the yard is a bit dark). Medium traffic along front of property. Recently installed a very good monitored alarm system. Want further deterrence (and evidence on anyone attempting or successful). Major problem: Thieves who pull right up into the driveway and think they're going to rob the house with nobody home. (Luckily, every time, someone HAS been home.) 90% likelyhood of daytime. Minor problem: Miscellaneous and rare mischief by pedestrians. Usually children walking to/from school. Usually nothing serious. Some things I've got covered, some things I'm still wondering about. The whole wiring and recording I've got under control. Its my choice in cameras that I'm a bit clueless on. * I understand calculating camera field of view. * I do not understand why I'd want a particular shaped camera (bullet vs dome, for example) * Do not know if I need a heater (normal lowest temperature for a year is 0F, -10F would be a record event). 100F highs are common in summer. As far as selection in a camera... * No IR, but low lux wanted for driveway and yard camera. * Porch is always sufficiently lighted. * Dont want super-high resolution, but don't low-res / blurry / blooming crap * Exception: wide-angle yard camera should be higher res? * Color is preferred during daytime, but willing to sacrifice for a major cost savings * Visible camera are fine (covert not needed) * Static mounted cameras * Standard wired video output * Want best bang for my buck I know... a bit vague, but a bit specific all at the same time. Can anyone give me some pointers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RVRBOY420007 0 Posted January 9, 2006 What dvr are you using?? Domes are better for outdoors because bullets can be redirected by falling branches or over thrown footballs frisbees or baseballs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jmccorm 0 Posted January 9, 2006 What dvr are you using?? Domes are better for outdoors because bullets can be redirected by falling branches or over thrown footballs frisbees or baseballs.Thanks for the tip on the bullets. I don't want to get too far off my intended topic, but I've fixed my eyes on Zoneminder. That failing, I'll hack MythTV into just recording 24x7 without all the special motion sensing features. I'm rather fearless in this aspect of it because I'm a UNIX systems administrator. Rolling my own solution under Linux is actually preferable, in my own unique case, than a black box. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jmccorm 0 Posted January 10, 2006 I'm starting to lean towards this camera. It is a mini-bullet with good specs, color, low-lux, wide operational temperature: CVC-637EX http://www.csi-speco.com/cart/products/productDetails.asp?prodID=568 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted January 10, 2006 Ignore the specs, its not low light, it used to be, but they changed it a while ago, it requires alot of light. It IS high res and wide angle though (1/3"), and a very discreet camera. Rory PS. if they read this post and they have changed it back to low light Exview, then they need to reimburse us that purchased 20 units after using the original low light version which actually was an Exview camera, since the 20 units we got after that were not low light at all, and their tech support even told me via email they changed it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted January 10, 2006 Best to use some color cameras only in highly lit areas, and then BW in low light areas. There is a huge price difference. There are IR Day Night cameras but unless you spend the dollars the day image will be washed out color for lack of an IR cut Filter. Color high res is 470-480TVL, Color Mid Res is 400-420TVL, Color low res is 330-380 TVL. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
