Hi From Kent - Cctv Advice

[Guest matopia]

Hi fellow forum masters.

I just registered on this forum in the hope that I can learn from others, get advice, and some much needed help etc.

I am looking to purchase (soon but after some serious research & advice & reviews) a CCTV x 2 + PC software to watch over my house (front towards road) and my car, as I have been vandalised twice in a month (once to the house and now to my new car). The police keep asking if there was any photo/video footage, so I am thinking CCTV is the answer now.

I want the cameras (x2) to be linked to a dedicated network/Web PC so I can monitor the cameras from anywhere (work, home etc). Camera 1 must have night vision camera with 30m to 50m range. Preferably a high resolution of > 400 (TVL = ?). I have the PC's/web/lan already, so only after cameras, cabling, PSU.

I look forward to chatting to anyone who can help and offer constructive advice that will ultimately result in me purchasing a CCTV kit by the end of January 2006.

Happy New Year everyone.

.

Mike

[Guest]

What about the specs for camera 2, and a budget?

To get a decent night vision setup to work at 50m you need plenty of

[Guest matopia]

What about the specs for camera 2, and a budget?

To get a decent night vision setup to work at 50m you need plenty of

[Guest matopia]

I live in a terraced house, the road (10m wide) is roughly 4m from my front door. (2m of steps down to a 2m wide pavement). My car is normally parked opposite my door (4m's away) or across the road on the pavement (+-14m away).

Vandals/local kids/thugs/hoodigans are currently breaking things on my car, (mirrors, glass, wipers, tyres etc). I have also recently had a rock thrown through my front window of my terraced house, so I am looking for a camera(s) that can monitor my car from my house and possibly monitor the outside of my property to the road and/or across the road.

Budget := I am willing to spend up to 250GBP on 1x good camera, which I hope can have all the bells and whistles to be used outside for daytime and night time use. The 2nd camera doesn't really matter for now, if it is needed, then fine. I was thinking it could be used from within the house through the window or possibly outside, just at another location, or hidden, although the front of my house is only 4m wide, so positioning is a bit limited.

My plan was to use a dedicated PC (Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, Large HD to be bought as the need arises, LAN, Web, Static IP address). - I have looked at DVR's but can't really see the advantage over a PC. - I also plan on using Security Software such as Geovison or the likes. Any advice here is welcome.

So, any suggestions on a possible make and model for camera 1, or a possible solution for the above problem.

Mike

Well I have spent most of the afternoon reading loads of topics on this forum and have come to the decision that I do not need to go the PC route. Much to my surprise, I definitely think a DVR with LAN support is the answer, so I will be shopping for one of them soon.

Which still leaves me with the camera to get, but which one?

I have looked at a couple but only one stands out so far and that is the CC70CSHRX-4IR Colour-IR with 50m range.

What is the difference between 12mm lense and 4mm lense? Which is the best option to get?

This is the only camera so far that I have like (the sound of), unless anyone can recommend something better or more suitable for my type of surveilance.

,

Mike

[Guest matopia]

Geovision is not just software you need the hardware to go with it.

TBH geovision card could let you down due to compatibility problems with your motherboard, they are very tempermental and often stop recording when you need them to record most, or crash and corrupt all the recordings made on the harddrive 5 mins after recording the info you need.

In short there are not that many RELIABLE ways of doing it without either using a decent DVR or good old tape.

[Guest matopia]

You can be let down with the results with these ir led type cameras. They see 50m alright but a dot 50m away is not exactly useful.

Expect to get 10m of usefull picture from this sort of camera and you wont be dissapointed.

To decent pics you need use a wide angle ir lamp positioned under the camera, but you need to spend money.

Pete

So, are you saying the cameras that offer 10m or 20m range are a waste of time if a 50m camera is only going to get 1/5th the actual range.

So these cameras that have built in IR, are not so great, and you saying I really need a seperate IR lamp.

Of course my next thought is this type of camera/IR will be quite visible to the public walking by? My worry is that it will become a target for the vandal who is already prepared to damage my property.

As I do not own a camera at the moment, so don't know the answer to my next question, does CCTV act as a deterrent to the would be vandal?

Mike

[WatchdogSecurity]

Sounds like you have had similar problems to me. On my house i have 2 X cameras, comprising of Dennard Camera Housings with Baxall Day Night Cameras watching driveway and back garden, (Day night cameras, are Colours / Mono and they flip to mono when the lux level becomes to low, which then is useful for the IR Lamps, as colour cameras struggle with IR illumination)

The IR lamps are Have are Dennard IR883s 20 and 50 watt, these are very expensive if bought new, but youj can pick these up on ebay, may have a spare 1 or 2 myself, but you will need Photocell / psus for these. TRhese are professional bits of kit and will get you the illuminatrion you require.

I Have a Silent witness anti vandel dome on the front, which is watching the front of the property.

All in all it depends on what you want to spend. Glad your going down the DVR route.

Good luck with whatever you do..

Dean

[Guest rjbsec]

does CCTV act as a deterrent to the would be vandal?

My experience is that it does, provided it is not possible for the vandal to damage the camera without being seen. In one of my sites, an inner city school, I actually have cameras monitoring some of the cameras!

Larger visible units inside thermostatically controlled housings are a good deterrent and whilst infrared lighting is generally going to be best it is expensive and an alternative could be sensor controlled flood or ornamental lighting, which has the dual effect of allowing the camera to "see" and of discouraging the vandal by the light.

Anything much beyond 10 metres is unlikely to produce pleasing results in a non-professional installation IMO.

[xx badwolf xx]

Hi Mike

I would say that CCTv does work as a deterant as we have fit systems to many a customer with anti social problems. 95% of the time curing problems within the week

id have to agree with pete on thedvr front try someone like LJD we would normally sell the customer a 4 channel lite unit with cd-w

as for the cameras weuse Pecan PH60hlt for spec try this link

http://www.stortech.co.uk/cctv.asp?cat=16⊂=82

This willcover 10m with 4-8 mm verifocal lens or try the PH76 for alarger distance.

Regards mark

[Service Engineer]

From these types of Camera's:

You'll get this sort of quality picture:

Pic1 = Daytime ( A dull day)

Pic2 = Nightime with assistance of 70W sodium flood.

As you can see quality isn't too impressive. The 1st car is approx 9 meters away, the last car about 25 meters. The camera is the one on the left mounted at 5 meters.

Both the above cams are supposedly 420TVL, and supposedly sony chipped.