Home security cameras

MarkW7 · 3 Sep 2009 at 23:28

Hey,

Long story short, some asshats have tried to break into my house.

Just curious how much some home security cameras would cost to buy / fit and maintain.

Outside i'd need 2 to cover the basics or 4 to cover all areas, they'd need to work in the dark and i assume give me 24hr footage - How much storage would i need?!

SwedishChef · 4 Sep 2009 at 07:54

Sorry, no helpful info from me but I am interested in whatever people suggest as It's something I've fancied looking into.

Just a thought though, how will you secure the PC doing the CCTV recording? It'd be a bit silly if they broke in anyway then took the PC with the recording on it.

Do you have an alarm already?

Schizo · 4 Sep 2009 at 08:00

to stop them stealing the pc to which you record on you put it in the loft.

there is someone on here that recently set up a cctv and cost about £150 i think.

have a search for it.

mollymoo · 4 Sep 2009 at 08:05

They are out there ranging from £85 - £400 at screwfix (sorry ocuk if thats considered a competitor ). There is one for £391 that has two night cameras though it isn't wireless, it also has a 160gb hard drive for recording onto

Schizo · 4 Sep 2009 at 08:10

ive found the thread about the cctv.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17993196&highlight=cctv

WJA96 · 4 Sep 2009 at 08:12

You can get Swann units that just plug into a video or DVD recorder or you can go for something IP based in which case the brand-name to look for is Axis.

You can get a basic IP camera with IR illumination for about £40, but it is of limited usefulness. Expect to pay £100 for one that tilts and swivels. Expect to pay another £100 for the IP68 casing to mount the camera in to keep it weatherproof.

And you can double that again if you want a decent optical zoom.

The massive advantage of IP cameras is that you can stream to a remote location (remote NAS device or online storage) and the off-the-shelf security package that BT offer has this, but the rest of it is a bit basic.

When I built my new house, we decided we wanted high security so we got a company in and a 17 camera setup with continuous sweep and motion following, including power over ethernet and an independent power source for the cameras and the network was just shy of £12,000, although the infrastructure (secondary mains supply, laying cables in the drive etc. was almost half of that). Even so, doing it properly isn't cheap. And only the two entry cameras have high quality zoom lenses. All the others are digital zoom only. They all record to the security company's server in Manchester and I can log-in and watch the cat from anywhere with browser access.

Don't forget you have the data protection and surveillance aspects to think of. You must put up signs to warn people they are being surveilled and if experience at our previous house is anything to go by, not a day will go by without someone knocking on your door and asking to view the footage around the time their car/bike/plasma TV was nicked

Oh well - at least ours never got nicked, so maybe I'm doing something right.

MarkW7 · 4 Sep 2009 at 12:52

schizo220168 said:
there is someone on here that recently set up a cctv and cost about £150 i think.

mollymoo said:
They are out there ranging from £85 - £400

WJA96 said:
Whole post, too big to quote

Thank you, around £100 is fine but is that only for one camera? I am also looking into buying a 9bay NAS so that were the recording will be stored.

It needs to be able to recognise faces from around 100+ metres and record good footage in the dark.

It wouldn't really need swivel / turning access as it'll just be monitoring the front and back of the house although this would be nice, does it move when it detects motion or is it manual?

thanks for all input

WJA96 · 4 Sep 2009 at 13:12

MarkW7 said:
It needs to be able to recognise faces from around 100+ metres and record good footage in the dark.

OK - take your digital camera and stand someone 100m away and then take their picture. You will be able to see their face quite clearly. Try the same thing with the camera set at 640x480 and you'll be abse to see a person, but I doubt you'll get their face very clearly.

Now try that in the dark. We have two Axis 223VE units on the front and back gates and they were £1000 each including the weather/vandal proof mountings and they don't even move. They are 1600x1200 at 25fps though and that's the sort of resolution you'll need to get positive visual ID at 100m. That's a long way away.

You're looking at a REALLY good camera for what you want. There is no way you'll get anything for outdoor use that tilts/swivels/zooms for £100 and is any good.

MarkW7 said:
It wouldn't really need swivel / turning access as it'll just be monitoring the front and back of the house although this would be nice, does it move when it detects motion or is it manual?

Most will follow a set swivel and tilt pattern and will then rotate towards and follow movement, but it's a software setting that can be turned off.

MarkW7 · 4 Sep 2009 at 13:21

Ah, i don't have a digital camera

At this very moment i have a USB webcam hooked up to my PC so i can watch live footage of the front garden, i can see people coming in and out of the path but the quality is horrible it only shows the outline, bland shapes.
But hey, it was only £5 off the bay.

If the swivel is more, then scrap that as it isn't really needed.

I can get away with 2 cameras, one front and one back.

I'm assuming wireless cameras are a lot more expensive? As i want them to record to a NAS and the Coax camera cannot do this?

Am i looking for dome cameras or the normal type, or does it matter?

WJA96 · 4 Sep 2009 at 14:02

MarkW7 said:
Ah, i don't have a digital camera

At this very moment i have a USB webcam hooked up to my PC so i can watch live footage of the front garden, i can see people coming in and out of the path but the quality is horrible it only shows the outline, bland shapes.
But hey, it was only £5 off the bay.

That's probably running 640x480 and that's the kind of quality you're looking at at night.

MarkW7 said:
I'm assuming wireless cameras are a lot more expensive? As i want them to record to a NAS and the Coax camera cannot do this?

When you say Coax do you mean coax or Cat5 network cable? If you mean Cat5 then yes, they will record directly to NAS if you have software to do it.

Have a look at http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webcam_communications/video_security_systems/devices/4324&cl=gb,en as a complete system but that's £280 for one camera (not an especially good camera) and add-on cameras are another £230. These are weatherproof, but not vandal resistant.

I think if you really are budgetting a couple of hundred, then you're not going to get a satisfactory solution. The CCTV cameras they use on the streets are about £4000 each.

MarkW7 said:
Am i looking for dome cameras or the normal type, or does it matter?

If you need tilt/swivel then you'll need a dome, otherwise you're just looking at a normal camera.

MarkW7 · 4 Sep 2009 at 14:02

Heres the 'Security web cams' i have at the moment. (print screen)

Actual .jpg's taken via program.

As you can see, terrible.

WJA96 · 4 Sep 2009 at 14:04

Yes, that's about as good as you'll get for £100.

MarkW7 · 4 Sep 2009 at 14:22

so a £100 security camera will give me the same as that £5 webcam?

WJA96 · 4 Sep 2009 at 14:24

MarkW7 said:
so a £100 security camera will give me the same as that £5 webcam?

Yep, except it will be networked and it'll tilt and swivel indoors.

MarkW7 · 4 Sep 2009 at 14:26

That's bad

How much more is a wireless camera compared to a standard network one? Could you upload some images of your cameras?