Help with camera silection

[Neal 0]

I am a DIY home owner that is having a lot of trouble with one of my neighbors. Under the request of my wife I have installed a home surveillance system; it is a PC based system with 4 cameras. I have two bullet IR day/night cameras and I am using two Sony camcorders equipped with Night shot as the other two cameras. The Sony camcorders are analog cameras, I need better quality video, I like the versatility of the camcorders so I am thinking of purchasing some digital Sony camcorders to replace the analog cameras I have now. Will the digital cameras increase the quality of the video or can I do better with some Pro series box cameras with good lenses? They will be mounted on some tripods so they can be adjusted. The camcorders offer auto focus and zoom which I use often but I have to set the camcorders to manual focus at night, for some reason the light at night screws up the auto focus feature. I am videoing in the range of 200’ to 400’ at different zoom levels. The cameras are mounted inside viewing out an open window. The DVR card is equivalent to the Kodicom 8 channel, 240 FPS card.

 

Will I see any gains with digital cameras going through the DVR card?

Will a high resolution box camera offer better quality video than a digital camcorder?

 

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[kensplace 0]

any idea what specs the current cams are? resolution?

 

Is the quality ok when viewed direct through a tv, or is it the same through a tv as when captured?

[Neal 0]

any idea what specs the current cams are? resolution?

 

Is the quality ok when viewed direct through a tv, or is it the same through a tv as when captured?

 

The specs on the Sony camcorders are:

4.5 mm (1/4 type) CCD

Approx. 3200,000 pixels

Effective: Approx. 200,000 pixels)

 

Lesn;

COmbined power zoom lens

filter diameter 37mm (1 7/16 in.)

20X (Optical), 460X (digital)

 

Focal Lenth;

3.6-72mm (5/32 - 2 7/8 in.)

Minimum Illunination;

0.4 lx (lux) (F 1.4)

0 lx (lux) (in the NightShot mode)

 

Video recording system;

2 rotary heads

Helical scanning

FM system

 

Neal

[Neal 0]

The quality is about the same on the TV and on the surviellance system.

quality is not bad, I am just looking to improve what I have.

 

Thanks Neal

[CollinR 0]

Buy one 500 tvl bullet and see before you spend any more $

 

What DVR and capture settings? less then 640x480 is less then ideal.

 

 

You are limited by the NTSC standards in the DVR capture card so an 8MP digital camcorder won't significantly out perform a hi res pro CCTV camera. Use it's firewire capability and you are in a different ballgame in another hemisphere, crazy difference.

 

 

Can you get a screen capture? Ctrl+Print Screen then paste in a photo editor.

[Neal 0]

Buy one 500 tvl bullet and see before you spend any more $

 

What DVR and capture settings? less then 640x480 is less then ideal.

 

 

You are limited by the NTSC standards in the DVR capture card so an 8MP digital camcorder won't significantly out perform a hi res pro CCTV camera. Use it's firewire capability and you are in a different ballgame in another hemisphere, crazy difference.

 

 

Can you get a screen capture? Ctrl+Print Screen then paste in a photo editor.

 

The DVR card is equivalent to the Kodicom 8 channel, 240 FPS card and the same software.

 

I have it set to the highest quality, it is set at 640 x 480.

 

I'll try and get a screen shot, card software takes over the comp so I am not sure if I can.

 

Thanks Neal

[Neal 0]

 

These were taken with my camera and than loaded to my comp.

They are pretty close to what they look like.

 

Neal