GrayMan,

What do you think about these cameras? I took a quick peak at the spec sheet and it made my brain mad. Im not a tech guy about these things, more car stuff really.

http://www.vivint.com/products/catalog/pan-and-tilt-video-camera

Thanks

I've got a couple of questions on this subject.

First, I'm looking at a system that will use a few basic analog box cameras. No PTZ, no zooming, no need to view camera images in real time. Do these cameras use a common communication protocol? One source says I can even take a camera like this and connect it directly to my TV. IOW, can I take any decent DVR and connect any analog box camera and have it work, or are there proprietary elements that prevent this from working?

Second question. If the DVR has RJ45 connectors and the analog camera has BNC connectors, can I just connect a balun to the back of the camera and run Cat5 all the way to the DVR?

Thanks.
Steve

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11737059&whse=BC&topnav=&cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-itempageVerticalRight-_-PopularProductsInCategory&cm_vc=itempageVerticalRight|PopularProductsInCategory

What do you think about these?


Or this?

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11602522

There are lots of IR illuminator products out there. Which ones do you use/recommend?

I've searched with no luck. Link or store to buy those?

I'd do Cat6, and lots of it. Seriously... don't skimp. Spend the money. At least one run to every location you'd EVER conceivably want a camera. That's every corner of the house, right above your garage, above your front door, above your back door, above your side door, on each side of the house, and in every room you might want a camera (entryway, foyer, kitchen, garage, baby's room, etc). Terminate all of those runs in a central closet in the house (that will become your wiring closet). I'd also want a few runs of regular 120vAC to junction boxes under the eaves, for placement of either floodlights, or IR illuminators.

Ensure that the aforementioned closet has a solid door/frame, and has a vent in the top of the door (I might even recommend a fan with that vent), and either make the frame an inch or two too tall, or plane off an inch or so off the bottom of the door (if it's wood), just so air can flow underneath. You don't want all the switching equipment and CCTV storage to die from heat. Keep that door locked, so any smash-and-grab burglars will have to literally pry/chop their way into it if they want to steal your DVR.

The hard part is pulling the cable... and it's damned hard if you wait until after the house is built. Have them run the cable WHILE YOU"RE BUILDING.

You'll thank me later.

Correct. The illuminator is mounted in the center of the porch, and the camera at one end.

And ANY day/night camera should have an ICR (unless you're using a dual-imager camera like an Arecont, or Mobotix). If it's a "day/night" camera and it does NOT have an ICR, I wouldn't buy it. It's likely giving you "night vision" by slowing down the camera's shutter speed, which sucks for anything but a static scene.

I doubt it can be done for that price-point.

Here's why I say that.

Network cameras run at least in the $300+ range... and a good deal more for anything decent... especially weather-proof outdoor cameras. The most weatherproof cameras I've ever seen are the Mobotix line. The housings are almost entirely composite, all the screws are stainless, and they have no moving parts. They have those things mounted on mountaintops... here is a mobotix camera mounted on a 16,000-foot peak in Nepal, viewing Mt. Everest. It's run off a solar panel, and the temps there hit minus-30 Celsius... it's the highest webcam in the world.

The Acti cameras are also pretty weatherproof... but you're looking at $5-600 each for their outdoor domes, and you have to seal them. Your location says Florida; I don't see too many cheaper cameras holding up to a moist, salty, corrosive environment for any great length of time.

You also mentioned long-range... which means lenses. Cheaper cameras aren't going to have sufficient zoom, and most of them probably won't even have the option of changing lenses.

The good news is that you can probably cut down your number of cameras by using some higher-megapixel models, and placing them strategically.

Depends.

Analog cameras will give you video... but the question is whether they will give you USABLE video. If you choose your mounting locations well, and use the appropriate cameras and lenses, you might do fine with analog. Focus on choke-points, entry doors, driveway entrances, etc.

Broad area coverage with analog cameras is rarely good enough to ID anything, beyond "yeah, there was a guy walking around... and he drove a blue sedan. Can't tell you what make/model/etc... and the guy was probably blonde"

Megapixel stuff simply puts more pixels on the problem, and give you a higher-res image. Analog is limited by the NTSC video standard.... it will never get better/sharper. In short, you will have no upgrade room.

Then again, you're probably limited by your budget... so the sky is clearly not the limit.

Is there a good unbiased resource for selecting exterior cameras given known requirements such as distance, area of view, image quality?

Here is a decent networking-oriented primer for setting up IP cameras.

Discusses IP addresses, bandwidth concerns, codecs, etc.

Link

You could go Axis, Acti, Vivotek.... Axis probably has the most aesthetically-pleasing cameras in that lineup. Their M30-series cameras are a decent value for the money, though Acti has a good selection of budget 1MP domes that would likewise do the job. Acti also includes free NVR software with their cameras, whereas Axis does not.

You're also confusing DVR with NVR. Network cameras are capable of acting completely independent of any central recording device. You can literally install a single network cameras, insert an SD or micro-SD card (if the camera can accept one), and have that camera record internally, or email you alerts (or both). It literally needs nothing but a network connection and power (PoE supplies both through a standard network cable). Analog cameras are "dumb," and their networking capabilities (and recording ability) are dependent on the DVR.

NVR=Network Video Recorder
DVR=Digital Video Recorder

Let's take the example of viewing your hostel in Columbia from the US. In an analog system, you are only connecting to the DVR, not the individual camera; the DVR is the "brains" of any analog system. In an IP-based system, each camera has its own brain, and is an independent network device... so instead of connecting to a DVR in an analog system, an IP-based setup allow one to connect either to the NVR or the camera itself... or both. You can connect directly to an individual camera with a web browser for that specific camera's view, or you can connect to an NVR (recording streams from all your network cameras) and get multiple camera views at once.

In other words, if you have a system of network cameras, and they are each recording internally to an SD-card, you may not need an NVR at all. That's not to say it's a bad idea to have a central repository for all your video data... but it's not necessarily required. I recommend setting up both... so if a group of dirtbags steals your NVR, the cameras will still have their internal recordings as a backup.

An NVR Is just a PC or desktop computer that has software to gather/record the camera streams. Any computer (assuming it's powerful enough, and not a 15-year-old first-gen Pentium 75) can act as an NVR anywhere in your network. It could be your desktop computer in your office, an extra PC stuck in a back room, or a purpose-built rack-mount server in your wiring closet or server room.

Understand the difference?