any esthetic enclosures out there?

[sinbad 0]

Any ideaswhere/how to get a nicer external box cam enclosure?

need something that won't be so out there yet not hidden

TIA.

[CraigVM62 0]

Recently I have used the APW / EMI CCSH-10MAG housings. They are a bit shorter than many of the standard housings out there and have a pleasant contemporary design.

 

I like them not just for looks, but their is no problem with grounding issues since the housing and cam mounting system is non conductive.

 

Still a bit larger than needed when some of the smaller box cameras are used. Most of my installations are residential so housings are often mounted off of the home. On several occasions I have painted the housings / bracket to blend in with the home.

 

I have also installed a couple of cameras in custom made bird houses. Only problem is often you would get a Close Up of a bird looking in to see if there was any vacancy

[sinbad 0]

Thanks craig, I know this one. certainly better then the standard box.

 

did anyone experiment fitting a box cam in an external lightning enclosure?

[scorpion 0]

I have done it with bullet cams.

 

It was a great way to hide the cameras. If you came on the property, and you were looking for cameras you would lose your "night vision" if you looked at the lights. This project had them in a dog house, and birdhouses also.

 

Have you tried the boxes that the phone company, or the cable company uses?

 

For residential you can use those windmill that you see in the garden section. You know the kind with the cheesy fan on a truss tower.

The camera is not hidden per se, but it does get lost in the clutter.

 

I hear you on the birdhouses! I learned the hard way not to put the foot pegs on the houses! LOL! Nothing like a squirrel hanging on, and blocking the cam also!

 

I always wondered if you could build a fake cupola to put on top of a house to install some cams.

[sinbad 0]

This is for some very nice residence. I must come up with a solution that will keep the place nice. Cameras will be mounted 20ft above ground.

 

what I'm thinking is to fit a box camera inside one of these suckers:

 

I will need to use an upside-down interior bracket and to feed the wire nicely to the conduct. but I'm not sure how flexible my adjustments are going to be if I'm using 6-60mm lens with it. seems kinda tight there.

also will need to find a housing which has a sturdy bracket so the camera stays in it's place when the next hurricane hits us

[scorpion 0]

The first thing I thought of when I saw the picture of the lamp is that it is hung by a chain. I can see the camera swaying in the wind! I would get sea sick watching the video!

 

What will you do? Convert it to hollow threaded pipe? I was thinking of what they use on lamps to run the wire, and the socket screws to the threaded rod.

 

Do they have a wall mounted light in this version?

 

Will you take out the panes of glass? I was thinking of reflection.

 

This would give you the good looks, and the camera gets lost in the "clutter" as I call it.

[sinbad 0]

yep the hanging style won't work, however I found this wall mount:

 

 

doesn't look like I can feed the cables in the bracket but I think I should look more, it's out there...

I'm not sure about the reflection from the glass. thought I will use paint/dark tint to block the windows that are not in use just to hide the camera inside.

how does a good camera records through DIY dark tint?

 

this is getting fun. i'll end up with an external dome housing

[scorpion 0]

You should be able to run cable through it. How does the light bulb get its energy?

 

You may not be able to get rg 59 through it, but you can use smaller wire and then attache it behind the mount in the J box.

 

Look at how they do bullet camera, and mini cameras. They have regular wiring that come out of the housing with a BNC at the end.

 

In regards to tint on the glass. Think of your own home. At night when you look out your window what do you see?

 

I see my own reflection. I have to turn off my lights in order to see out.

Tint on the glass would work during daytime, but I think it would be a problem at night.

 

It depends on the color of the house but here is my idea. Paint the camera the color of the house. When you look at the light you see the black outline, and the camera would blend in with the house paint/color.

From the street you would not notice the camera. I would use a bullet since the box cam is not weather protected.

[CraigVM62 0]

Starting out as a residential electrical contractor, I can't begin to count how many thousands of exterior carriage lights I have had to install. For reasons that Scorpion mentioned, I can't see having good results. On a conventional carriage light as you posted a photo of, having the camera installed within the glass would suffer the reflection problem even without tinting. You would need the camera lens right up against the glass and sealed, much like you see on bullet cams with IR LED's around the lens. Or remove the glass

Also expect alot of images of bugs being attracted to the light. If your recording via video motion with your DVR, this can be a PITA

 

You mentioned a camera with a higher magnification lens. That would be a tight fit in all but the largest carriage fixtures. The few bullet cams I have seen with lenses up to 5-55mm are rather long and expensive.

Not alot of room in standard fixture boxes also, especialy after you have the electrical wires and wire nuts rolled back in.

There is good reason why the NEC keeps electrical and low voltage wiring from sharing the same junction box.

 

I was wondering why you want the camera to be so covert? Is this to catch someone in the act or avoid any camera theft or just not wanting to take away the cosmetics of the home?

[bigbuilding 0]

Just paint the best looking housing to match the exterior of your building.