Camera indoors looking out

[andyp 0]

I have a problem with an anti-social neighbour and would appreciate some advice on CCTV and wonder if anyone can help.

The neighbour throws things at my house at night. I want to CCTV him but want a system that he doesn't know is there. Ideally something that films through a window, if this is the case the room the camera will be put in can be pitch black. I also have a security light at the back of my house which lights up the back alley way. The back of my house faces the back of his and we both have very small back yards with walls that wouldn't obstruct the view, and a narrow alley in between. I guess his house can't be much more than 20ft from mine.

I could put a camera outside facing his house but there could be legal issues as he has kids.

So can a camera film through a window enough to capture someone misbehaving probably at night? I have no problem fitting IR outside if necessary.

 

Cheers in advance

[Kawboy12R 0]

You can film through a window at night, but you CANNOT have IR LEDs on the camera. Reflection off the glass will blind the camera. The trouble is that most inexpensive IR cameras that can see IR almost always have IR but you can't turn it off. Offhand, I can't think of an inexpensive network camera that allows you to turn off the built-in IR without disassembling it. You might use a true Hikvision or Swann/Lorex (rebranded Hik mini-bullet readily available at Costco) and leave it in day mode (disables the IR LEDs but also leaves it blind to external IR illuminators) if you've got lots of white light outdoors. That'd let you use a laptop or desktop for an NVR, saving you from buying a DVR to record an analog camera like a CNB VCM-24VF, which is a very versatile low-light analog camera that sees IR just fine but doesn't have onboard IR. They're great for use with external illuminators like this one with 940nm LEDs (little to zero red glow). I've got the more powerful brother to that one and I can see zero glow in near-dark conditions, making them perfect for covert illumination.

 

That being said though, visible cameras that prevent problems are better than hidden ones that may or may not show someone doing damage.

[andyp 0]

Thanks for the reply, I'll have a think about it.

[Patrick_the_Star 0]

I got the same problem with my neighbor, he is always throwing garbage at my car. I surfed the internet and find a solution which suits me, maybe my advise will also help you. I bought a simple usb camera and instaled it on my window, than I just downloaded the program, which is called Xeoma and run it in a trial version. When I found out that everyrhing is ok, just bought 1 camera license.

Here is the link to this soft: http://felenasoft.com/xeoma/en/features/ Hope this will help you with you problem.

[Q2U 0]

Maybe you could try using a camera which has the ability to manually set it's IR to off and then utilize an exterior motion activated light. Mount the light high so that it floods the camera's field of view with light and so that it does not shine on the window. And clean your windows good.