Scumbags

[brewdexta]

Poor lighting lets so many cameras down. A good rule of thumb is you must be able to read a newspaper while stood in the area you wish to cover. If you can't then you need more light, be that Visible or IR. Just be aware a lot of IR light emit a dull red glow, thus giving away the fact you have covert CCTV.

Very true Dave, the IR isn't bad but there is a period of time before the IR kicks in where the quality goes down. I placed this camera mainly for motion detection as there are many areas that the camera covers that getting a good enough shot for ID will be challenging, there are too many ways in to my place to cover with beams alone. When I'm in the workshop and the wife and kids are I can't hear or see deliveries so I can link motion detection to a buzzer in the barn. I intend to stick a couple more cameras up so image quality/coverage should get better.

However none of this is any good if you don't get good ID of the person. Either because of distance or the height of the camera. So here is an almost foolproof way of making them look straight into a camera whether they know it's there are not....

You'll need to install a small sounder, preferable one that makes a whistle noise, it doesn't need to be loud, in fact just audible.

Place this as close to the camera as possible, with whatever type of trigger best suits the environment, to fire the sounder off.

I like this idea I haven't looked at the manual in detail however I believe there is a speaker output and I should be able to link this to motion detection using something like Zoneminder.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Shox Dr]

Andy, have you tried the new HD-SDI systems, supposed to be better than IP, I'm thinking about upgrading.

 

[brewdexta]

Correction - now the kids are in bed and its proper dark the IR is pretty poor, need some more IR illumination.

 

[brightspark]

Correction - now the kids are in bed and its proper dark the IR is pretty poor, need some more IR illumination.

i have low light cameras and infrared. i also use 400w pir floodlights that come on when someone is near the cameras 1st thing they do is look up at the light

 

[brewdexta]

Andy, have you tried the new HD-SDI systems, supposed to be better than IP, I'm thinking about upgrading.

Just had a quick butchers. The camera I bought is 1920 x 1080 and 30fps so equivalent of 1080 same as a HD-SDI resolution however not sure if I'm comparing apples to apples yet, will have to dig deeper. They will probably have similar sensors, its a decent Sony in the one I installed today and for just over 100 quid it isn't bad. The lens could be better but you can fit after market ones.

 

[brightspark]

Just had a quick butchers. The camera I bought is 1920 x 1080 and 30fps so equivalent of 1080 same as a HD-SDI resolution however not sure if I'm comparing apples to apples yet, will have to dig deeper. They will probably have similar sensors, its a decent Sony in the one I installed today and for just over 100 quid it isn't bad. The lens could be better but you can fit after market ones.

these are good lenzes http://www.dynamic-cctv.com/shop/Lenses.html

 

[ronan]

Are these the black and white or green cameras rather than the colour ones ? I messed about with security cameras a few years back when my late uncles house was empty, it was an old place on its own in the sticks so no street light or light from other houses. I found the colour cameras useless in the dark whereas the b+w with a small amount of ir were great.

 

[brightspark]

Are these the black and white or green cameras rather than the colour ones ? I messed about with security cameras a few years back when my late uncles house was empty, it was an old place on its own in the sticks so no street light or light from other houses. I found the colour cameras useless in the dark whereas the b+w with a small amount of ir were great.

buy a decent colour day and night camera. after dark it converts to black and white

 

[Shox Dr]

I use NiteDevils 0.0002lux, 600TVL it has to be poorly lit for them to go into IR.

 

[brewdexta]

these are good lenzes http://www.dynamic-cctv.com/shop/Lenses.html

Not sure they will fit in the case, but I have a spare large outdoor case, after an old camera barfed on an upgrade and turned into a brick and it cost more to send if back out of warranty than buy a new one.

 

[brewdexta]

Are these the black and white or green cameras rather than the colour ones ? I messed about with security cameras a few years back when my late uncles house was empty, it was an old place on its own in the sticks so no street light or light from other houses. I found the colour cameras useless in the dark whereas the b+w with a small amount of ir were great.

Hi Ronan, as Brightspark says, colour then B&W at night, except Shock Doctors that sound like you get colour if there's a full moon

 

[brewdexta]

I use NiteDevils 0.0002lux, 600TVL it has to be poorly lit for them to go into IR.

That is sensitive, the one I installed today is 0.05 lux so not in the same league.

 

[Shox Dr]

Hi Ronan, as Brightspark says, colour then B&W at night, except Shock Doctors that sound like you get colour if there's a full moon

That is sensitive, the one I installed today is 0.05 lux so not in the same league.

SystemQ sell them.

 

[brewdexta]

My first impression of HD-SDI is that its uncompressed over coax at 2.9Gb/s whereas similar resolution IP cameras (1080P) tend to use MPEG4/H.264 which uses compression and can be lossy/lossless and its typically about 2Mb/s bandwidth or less. So I think the HD-SDI sends data about every pixel at 30fps even if it doesn't change hence the high bit rate. Ultimately, if you want to save stuff to disk, a PC card or adapter will probably change it to one of the MPEG formats or similar to save space. So if they both use the same sensors and lenses then potentially the end result will be similar but there is loads of variables such as how much movement in the picture there is, hardware v software compression, what your saving to disk and at what quality etc.

I could be wrong but I think a 1080P camera either HD-SDI or IP using comparable components should provide similar quality for surveillance purposes unless there's a lot of movement. The HD-SDI cameras should be simpler so cheaper but you will probably need a capture card.

 

[Shox Dr]

The DVR I have is MPEG4 and H.264. Inputs are BNC. All channels 100fps in CIF compressed or not

Do you think HD cameras would work?

 

[brewdexta]

Hi Dave, I don't think it comes out of the camera as MPEG4/H.264 if the bit rate is 1.45Gb for 1080i or 2.9Gb for 1080P (that uses a dual coax link). Is your DVR analogue or digital input? I guess checking what your cameras output at the moment will help.