Daryl Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Im looking at getting some cameras set out around the outside of the house,as much to make Estelle feel safer,as to serve as a deterant and record any incidents. Seen some good kits in Maplin,in particular http://www.maplin.co.uk/complete-8ch-ne ... ame-589999 Can anyone advise as to what the best value for money system is,and where to buy it? Looking at 4 cameras,but like the idea of being able to expand if needed,hence the 8channel kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zugara Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Biggest issue I found was the cable length.....where do you hide it I also found that black and white cameras are far superior quality too colour ones, especially at night And as we well know, the police won't do anything with your CCTV in the event of a crime Usefull as a deterrent, but there will be spots, my friendly neighbour used to walk in backwards with his hoodie on, lay down, place nails under my tyres, get up then walk away When I caught t his idiot on my CCTV, the police looked at the footage, and said, You can't prove who it was, and you can't prove he put nails under your tyres...... So, there are ways around committing a crime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Don't bother with the wireless ones if you have a few neighbours with wifi. The wifi ones from maplins don't have much channel configuration so WILL interfere and cause loss of picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparksCW Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Don't know if you saw my thread but it has a lot of CCTV related stuff in it. We have £1300 each Mobotix cameras, and also a £250 Swann kit similar to the one you linked to. In all honesty, the Swann is great just make sure you get the cameras close up to what you are filming. The night vision is suprisingly good and at close range you'll get a good face shot. At a distance of more than 4 metres or so though you won't see anything of use. The Mobotix are unbeatable during the day but suffer at night. The police won't really do anything with the footage unless the law breaker gets out his/her ID and shows the camera So for the sake of a few hundred quid the Swann is a fairly good choice, you can always upgrade the actual cameras themselves at a later date if required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pathfinder123 Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Just installed a Kguard system from Maplin. It is a wired system of 4 cameras each comes with an 18m cable. Bit of a game to setup, but does the job. The cameras work well in the dark, but the daytime colours and resolution are poor. I will probably try replacing the cameras one by one with higher quality (more expensive) ones... S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisS Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 No one is going to like this. Just put up dummies and signs. Unless you are Tesco,Asda or a high street store no one will take any notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chesterfield Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Value for money is all relative is what Ive come to learn during my forray into cctv. Will a £200 maplin system do the job you need? Possibly, possibly not. It all depends what that job is. For example, if the job is watching casino tables for people being clever with chips etc, then high resolution high frame rate will be what you want. Which innevitably comes with high cost. If the job is basic home security and a deterrent, then yes it probably will do the job. At long distance if its only D1 resolution then you aren't going to get much by the way of facial recognition, but if thats not what you are after then it may be fine. As with all the systems though no matter what you spend, you will find the warning signs and the sight of what looks to be a camera does the majority of the work, you then also have to ask if having a cctv system makes the burglar type specifically target your house rather than avoid it. Afterall if you have CCTV then surely you have something inside worth protecting... That could be the train of thought of the crook just as easily as "Ill skip that one, they've got cameras". You can go up to very big money on cameras, but you dont always get what you pay for, and you always need to look at the spec. For example, a £1300 camera certainly has the price tag of an expensive setup, but from what I can see (using mobotix as an eample), comes with a lens that is minimum 22mm, which means it has to be sited fairly far back to cover a wide area, and although its 3 megapixel, siting it further back to fit a wider field of vision in, could be an inconvenience. You can get 5 megapixel outdoor vandal proof cameras with 6mm lenses for under £700. But (again imho) you are looking at the top end of "home" security when you start going down the ip camera route and looking at cameras of that price. As for night vision, you have two choices - cameras with in built IR, or lighting the subject area yourself. From my limited research ive found that cameras with built in IR are good enough for short distances and internal type scenarios, but if its your drive and the outdoors you want covering, then external lighting will always be better. You then have the choice of going with visible light (floodlights etc) or infrared floodlights. IR floodlights are expensive to buy, cheap to run, and dont annoy the neighbours - but also wont put off a pottential burglar, as they cant see they are lit up like a christmas tree. Normal floodlights are cheap to buy, but more expensive to run, could annoy your neighbours if left on all night, but will be a detarrent to a burgalr that doesnt want to be spotted. Another point. I thought it would be cool to have a PTZ (pan tilt zoom) camera. However unless you are going to employ a security guard, then the camera will only record what its pointed at. So if its not pointed in the right direction at the time of an event, its useless. So I went down the route of higher resolution cameras recording the whole area, meaning I can zoom in after the event and dont need to worry about the camera not being pointed in the right direction at the time of any movement. Im still not happy with the focus on one of my cameras, as its a manual focus and zoom job its hard to get right while up a ladder looking at an ipad. The remote zoom and focus cameras are a lot better imho. In short, you can spend as much or as little as you like, but results may vary. If you go the IP route, expect big price tags, and a bit of time setting up. Think about where you want to cover, and where you would gain entry if you were a burglar - would you walk up to the front door, or the back door? or a large window thats just a smash and grab away from your plasma tv etc etc.. Heres an example of one of mine on the front. Day and night and zoomed in AFTER recording. (this is the one im not too happy with the focus of) Night normal & zoomed: Day normal & Zoomed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparksCW Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 post... Great post but your driveway is awesome! I would be extremely childish and try riding my motorbike around that circle trying to get my knee down...... would inevitably end up in a hedge but at least you'd get it on video for you've been framed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 Cheers Chesterfield,thats a great post,thank you. Never knew you can get IR lamps to illuminate an area,thats a good bit of kit,and as you said,wont annoy the neighbors by coming on all the time,as we do have a cat,so thats a good idea. I need to consider what we have to spend on the system,and what we want to cover,and as said,would we be better off just sticking a dummy camera up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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