Newbie! best dome cameras for the job...?

[rorrie_m 0]

Hi,

Looking to up security at home, was just looking for some help.

 

I have 2 unused telegraph poles at home (just with security lightening on now), and i want to place dome cameras on top that will be able to cover 360 degrees.

 

Not looking to spend huge amounts, just need a camera that will be able to do day and night well (and switch between the 2 fast, so they can deal with the security lights come on)

 

Don't know much about these cameras....but do any mave motion sensors and move to areas where movement is occuring?

 

Any other advice will be great! thanks!

 

Rorrie

[bike_rider 0]

What you are asking for is a Pan-Tilt-Zoom, PTZ, camera. They usually mount to the side (pendant style), not on top of a pole.

 

They can be tied to alarm inputs that trigger motino to a pre-defined spot.

 

Good ones are around $2,000+

 

Still interested?

[rorrie_m 0]

wow as much as that! not looking to spend that much money...

 

i've seen some ptz cameras for a couple hundered pounds...are they generally rubbish?

 

also, can, they be mounted on top of pole?

 

to be honest, looking at spending around $500 tops for each camera, the main task is to cover a specific area...but would prefer a camera that can capture more...

 

do i have any options?

 

thanks

[evelynskyvision 0]

Are you looking for PTZ camera?The economy high speed dome camera are sell around $600 +.

[rorrie_m 0]

do i have any other decent alternatives?

 

i need to cover an area shaped like a bow tie (if the camera was in the centre knot!) for one area, and a large angle for the other

 

i suppose 2 normal cameras and a very wide angled camera could suffice...

[bike_rider 0]

PTZ are not always the right solution.

 

You haven't told us more about your need and your complete solution. How big is the area? How's the lighting? Is activity in the area normal? What exactly are you hoping to get on camera? Just activity? License plates - I hope not , faces good enough for identification?

 

How are you recording video?

 

If you've decided that you need video, the value of whatever you are covering must be more than a few thousand dollars, so why is your budget so low?

 

I'm putting in a PTZ in an area to see if I can cover what I estimated I would need 4-6 fixed cameras to do. In my case, there is little concurrent activity (so rarely more than one person or group in the coverage area at one time). I can accept that not everything will be captured, so if the camera misses something because it was looking somewhere else, I can accept that risk. Can you?

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for or against anything, I'm just offering up things you need to consider to get a solution that could work for you.

 

Lots of people start with 2 cheap cameras and quickly discover that they are not getting anything useful. Hopefully you can skip that step.

[rorrie_m 0]

well, its for my family home, we live in between 2 farms, at the moment we have 1 bullet camera looking over our gate parlour phone (so we have a dvr with 4 inputs).

 

my mother will be living in the house alone now, and we want a camera that can cover the front and side of the house as well as the garage (there is a unused telegraph pole that if a ptz would be able to capture the lot)

 

and there is another pole that a ptz would capture the back and other side of the house and the cottage on our land.

 

I don't want to spend a great deal...mainly because it will make it feel like there is a serious problem (which there is not, its mainly for peace of mind) but at the same time i don't want something that will be useless if it is ever needed.

[bike_rider 0]

Hi rorrie-M,

 

OK, now we are getting somewhere. Are you looking to monitor activity or are you looking to be able to ID somebody?

 

The less expensive solution maybe to pair cameras in each location (the bow tie would need 2 pairs of course). But then, your 4 camera DVR is overwhlemed.

 

Use one wider angle to cover a general area and then one zoom to cover gate or driveway entrances. The first one shows you what's going on, the second one shows you who - provided they pass through the narrow area covered by the zoomed in camera.

 

If you want to ID people, figure that your camera needs to be focused on an area about 3-4 meters wide.

 

The obvious question I forgot to ask is, you do already have a monitored alarm systtem, right?

[rorrie_m 0]

yep already have a monitored alarm system, all areas that will be covered by cctv, are all ready covered by securtity lighting...so my concern that if its at night when movement turns the lights on will the cameras be able to switch from night to day quickly?

 

so really the use of the cctv, is as a deterant (as there will be signs ect..) and also so my mum can check who is at the gate, or if the security lighting come on she can check what caused them to turn on...for instance a deer.

 

but as i said, if a person trips it, it would be a pain if it was useless footage!!

 

thanks for your help so far guys.!

 

Rorrie

[bike_rider 0]

Cameras that switch from Color to B&W night mode do so in less than a second. Really is it just a blink.

 

I'd say that for your budget, you are probably best off to put up some wide coverage cameras and then one or two to cover gates/entrances.

[rorrie_m 0]

3 wide angle cameras could do it...and that would mean that we could stay on the old dvr.

 

any sugestions of makes? also what is the widest angle i could get while keeping quality and remaining in budget.

 

thanks for all the help guys!

[bike_rider 0]

3 wide angle cameras could do it...and that would mean that we could stay on the old dvr.

 

any sugestions of makes? also what is the widest angle i could get while keeping quality and remaining in budget.

 

thanks for all the help guys!

 

This one's easy.

 

Generally, you get what you pay for. Really cheap cameras are bad and really expensive cameras have cool high end features. Color is nice, but B&W sees better in low light and is higher res. B&W is also much cheaper than a true day and night camera.

 

Box cameras give better image quality than bullets, but require that you put them in an enclosure. Weather proof bullets are common, but they usually don't have a very long zoom. They become very conspicuous at that point.

 

For a bullet, I'm happy with the value of Nuvico bullets. Not the cheapest, not the best.

 

I think you are in the UK, so you need to look at what you can get and then maybe post a few model numbers. Then we can give feedback on specific specs.

 

 

Remember that wide angle will not let you ID anyone.