Advice setting up system

[wildpete 0]

I was going to buy 2 cameras to start with. One needs to see an area about 150' away in total darkness about 25' wide and be able to identify an individual. The other needs to cover the area in front of the house and is lit with a flourescent security light. I was thinking of using an illuminator for the IR. Also planning on a 4 channel dedicated DVR. Will it be a problem running just 2 cameras on it as far as how it will look on the monitor? I have no prior experience setting a system up but am going to try and do it myself. Am I crazy? I figure the moneyI save on installation will go towards better equipment. My budget is around $2000. Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks.

[CameraGimp 0]

Hello wildpete,

 

The first bit is simple, you should be ok putting two cameras on a four camera system. As for the am I crazy question it is harder to say. I'm not an installer but I know a lot about cameras and would have no problem setting them up and often have when I've been called out to problem sites but what I would have problems with is selecting the right lens, and lamps or even the best place to site them. So I'd say you may be able to do the job yourself and use the saved money to buy better equipment but be careful as there is more to installing good CCTV, especially when working with IR, than getting the best equipment.

 

Have I as a techie just said something nice about installers? Time for a lie down me thinks.

[Kiwi 0]

Identifying an unknown individual appearing in a 25-foot wide scene sounds pretty optimistic to me. Total darkness makes it even harder unless you want to blow the whole budget on one camera.

 

Can you not restrict the location of the person to a narrower field?

 

Can you replace the fluorescent light in the second case with a halogen one to make it more useful with a monochrome or true day/night camera?

 

If you expect a reasonably-good playback image of the DVR you need to put in the highest-possible quality video. The lossy compression used in DVR's turns mediocre images into useless images.

[zmxtech 0]

For $2k you can have 4 cams a couple as overview and some ones zoomed in

say a 6-60mm lens, having the same scene on 2 cams works well one a color

other D/N or even a hi-res B&W. one will always get a good shot

 

z

[wildpete 0]

Thanks to everyone for the replys. Kiwi, yes I could reduce my fov width,down to half that would probably work. Would a 50mm lens work in that situation, for identification? I do know the individual but it has to be good enuogh for law enforcement to recognise. Also I could change my light source to halogen. I am thinking of using an illuminator so that I can use 950nm IR, maybe an extreme UF100. What are the issues associated with using the higher wavelenth IR? Also what is the best video compression format, JPEG or MPEG?

[zmxtech 0]

If it has to be totally covert use 950nm IR , but 850nm might be ok from a big distance, will be tricky to get the IR spot just right.

If you can do the IR at the scene it would be better. even better again to send

the picture via RF to your dvr. then you dont need fancy IR spots and cams

 

I tested a sanyo D/N vcc-4594P with a old computar 6-48mm lens and during the day it's fine but no good at night even with a IR spot

 

Dont forget to get IR rated lenses ! -and cams

 

Good companies will demo a setup for you -at night

 

Its going to cost to get something that works

 

z

[wildpete 0]

What about an extreme ex30? It's expensive but if it worked would be worth it. I could try and get a little closer but probably only to 100'.