i have been looking on ebay for a 4 ch outdoor security camera systen for my place, i've looked at so many systems its just becoming a blur
i'd like to cover my driveway, and the perimeter of my garage, day and night. i'll need a system with a dvr and internet monitoring, so i can see whats going on even when i'm away.
from your past experiences with this stuff, what brands, how many gb, how many tvl, etc.
there are lots of 4 ch systems out there for anly a couple hundred bucks, are any of them any good?
thanks
1. Define your intent - This will dictate your over all budget.
2. Perform and complete a risk analysis and security audit of your premises. Camera's are great for capturing events after the fact. It does not prevent a person from damaging, harming, or breaching a persons property.
3. What is your expectation in terms of video quality? This will determine your over all budget and what can be captured.
4. Decide if you wish to stay with Analog cameras, or a IP based camera. Analog camera are at the present 700+ TVL and use RG59 cabling and requires power and ground to operate. IP camera's come in Analog and Digital form. Analog IP camera require power and ground as well. Some will allow you to power the camera using the Ethernet cable.
This is called POE *Power Over Ethernet*
In the recent past there was not set standard for POE in the video security field. So the power requirement could vary from maker to maker. So you can expect to see IP based POE camera's requiring 12 DC, 24 DC, 48 DC, 50+ DC
There are alos 24 VAC systems . . . With the advent of standardization the collective agreement standard is ONVIF.
This means that if you see the ONVIF logo it will conform and adhere to the minimum video security standards of video, networking, and power requirements.
If you see a statement of POE af this means it will use the standard 48 DC power. If you see it state POE at, this is a high power 54+ DC and is intended to power high power PTZ camera's *Pan-Tilt-Zoom*
The best thing about POE IP based (Ethernet) camera's is that it requires only one cable. This will reduce over all costs and fishing of wire. As power, video, and sometimes PTZ functions can be sent and received via one cable.
Sometimes audio is also sent via this method. This depends on the maker and some have separate RCA outputs in doing so.
5. Camera's: This is a very brief, yet NOT encompassing description of what you will see.
1A. Analog - They are cheap and can help the average guy capture almost anything at a Burger King budget. Don't waste your money on any camera that provides less than 550 TVL. 700 TVL camera's can be had for cheap these days and you have the choice of IR (Infra Red) which runs on the 850 nM wave length.
This means the red LED at night can be seen, and does attract bugs etc. But, does offer great night vision. Cheaper camera's do not use good optics and this is what you pay for besides the good lens.
You can not expect a camera that costs $49.00 to provide you with $1200 video capture. This isn't being realistic nor is it even remotely possible.
Many analog as well as other IP based camera's use mechanical filters to allow night vision. They do not use IR LEDS to see at night so there is no *Give Away* as to if a camera is on site, or working assuming its placement and size, type, style is well placed.
A typically the professionals shy away from all in one IR camera's are they often times give off artifacts which are hard to resolve.
Case in point the *Halo* effect, or the famous red eye, in this case the eyes and face would be white. There is always a *Hot Spot* when a IR camera is in use.
This is why many demanding users prefer to use IR sensitive camera's and install independent IR LED lighting. This avoids the bugs at the camera, allows a higher power IR source which can light up a larger area of view of the protected area.
It will also reduce the HALO, and saturation of the focus grounds.
You have several choices for camera's fixed lens, and vari-focal lens. The latter allows you to adjust the zoom and focus of the camera to suit your protected area.
READ THIS: You will get up on a ladder. You will look down and around from that ladder. You will document what you can see from that vantage point.
You will repeat this same process in the dead of night. With a flash light and with out. This will give you a real world view of what you will see. This also depends a lot upon the camera and it goes with out saying the quality of such.
So, unless you know what FOV *Field Of View* the protected area is required you have choices of fixed lens 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, etc. Most people opt for the varifocal because it allows them to narrow or broaden the field of view.
This is the area you can see from close to far, narrow to wide. I am very much generalizing at this point as this is not what it is. But, I am trying to drive a point here in laymens terms.
2B. IP MegaPixel camera's: Despite popular belief not all industries move forward quickly. You will see this in the security industry when it comes to digital IP mega pixel camera.
They are pretty much 15 years behind all other sectors. What does this mean to you??
Anything above 2 mega pixels will cost you a lot of cash. There are several makers who produce low dollar units. Try them, you never know what you may get, some are OK, some are alright, some are even incredible given the price point.
You will not see a 8, 10, 12 mega pixel camera priced at $100-200.00 as you would see for point and shoot camera. As I told you they are producing low volumes, low demand, and have no real reason to make it cheaper as its a pretty fixed market.
If you decide to go mega pixel (well worth the cost btw) it will allow you to see more detail. Remember that thing about expectation and what you wanted to protect??
This is what will drive your costs . . .
You want to see someones face?? That will costs you . . . You want to ID a license plate?? Yes, that will costs you . . .
IP mega Pixel camera's will give you that opportunity and remember. If this is only a hobby for you. Then, sometimes more is better.
ie. Buy a whole lot of cheap camera's and mount them ever where you want protection. Just keep in mind the reality is your video will be low, and wont provide any meaningful information to you. Besides I see an object, it looks red?
Is that Bob, or is that Fred??
In the digital area you normally see 720P and 1080P camera's. If it says 1098P most if not all camera's can me dumbed down to record at 720P.
6. DVR's: This leads to the different types of Digital Video Recorders. I will only hit some of the key points as it could take 15 pages to document what to look for etc, and the pro's and con's of each.
Remember that cost thing??
If you go analog for cameras then what you see on EBAY will cost very little. They do come in 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32 channel systems. Get more channels so you're not restricted in the future to grow your system.
They all have Internet capability, if you so happen to see one that does not have Ethernet capability then you're looking at 1980 tech being sold to morons. They all use hard drives to store your video, storage is cheap and you can normally save big by buying a DVR with out the hard drive.
One thing to keep in mind is that some DVR's will only allow so much expansion. So if it says you can only have 1TB of storage. Whether it be two 500 Gb drives etc. You want to see how many SATA connectors are present.
As you may not be able to record 99999999999999 years of stuff if it only has two HD (Hard Drive) plugs. Some systems will also state how large a drive can be. So if you say well Bobby Blue, I have two SATA plugs I will just hook up two 2-3 TB drives to this thing, so now I will have 4-6 TB of storage!
Wrong . . . The OS (Operating System) will dictate what the max storage a system can accept. The Linux OS kernal will accept only what it is designed to accept.
Remember that cost thing?? Yes, it keeps coming up . . .
You want more recording time? It requires more space, space costs money, this is physical space, as well as OS space the system will allow.
Many people get away by placing the DVR into lower resolution modes. The trade off is either space, quality, or a combination of the two.
Almost all DVR's use a recording compression called H.264 . . .
This is important as the older standards which I wont name here as it takes way to long. Will allow you to record your image at high resolution, while allowing to stream, view, at low bandwidth.
Why is this important?? Well because if you intend to watch something that is 700 TVL, 720P, 1080P, and its at full res, it could take minutes to see that video.
If you have a low priced Internet, with bandwidth caps . . . This will cost you to view, stream, etc on your phone, at work, etc. Using H.264 video compression will allow you to view this video highly compressed. While NOT affecting the quality of the video.
Teken . . .
