Owing to ongoing hassle with the next door nutty neighbour (we've just had trees entirely in both our front and back garden vandalised by him) I'm looking to splash about £300-400 on four cameras and a hard drive based recorder. Police can't take any action otherwise ;-(
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interesting - the domes will mount under the eaves of the roof, though I've heard comments that 1/3" is a better bet than 1/4" for the cameras.
Only interested in wired systems.
Though looking at the above kit, I'm now wondering about D-I-Y rolling my own with a security DVR card, cameras and a server box. So if anyone has done that with cards similar to
Yes, it's an invasion of privacy, but not illegal for non-businesses.
from
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"Q: My neighbour has installed a CCTV camera and it is pointing towards my house/garden. Is this a breach of the Data Protection Act?
If your neighbour?s camera is installed on their residential property and being used for their own personal domestic use, they are unlikely to be breaching the Data Protection Act. This is because the use of CCTV cameras for domestic security purposes is exempt from the data protection principles. This applies when a person uses CCTV to protect their home from burglary, even if the camera overlooks the street or other areas near their home."
critcher said........................... the legality of their privacy being invaded would be tested in a court and has nothing to do with the data protection act.
If you email me I will give you some insight into the setup I used when I had a nutter next to me. The neighbours went as far as taking an injuction out about the recordings but the the recordings were allowed to be used in court when I was threatened with a knife as it did not cover their land. You just have to be carefull about what you record. Top tip, do not let your neighbours know about the cameras until they have put their foot in it. Covert is very good and audio is even better.
A few thoughts, as you have said 1/3" would be better, not essential though. 420 lines is adequate if you have a close up enough picture. That is where my main concern would come with the cameras mentioned here, they only have 3.6mm lenses and as such will give you a wide over view of whatever you are looking at and may not give you enough detail to positively recognise someone. You will recognise them because you know them, but the image you get will be like some of the rather poor shots you sometimes see on the TV news from shop CCTV's. A way around this maybe to use a couple of these cameras for an overview of the front and back garden and then either place one very close to where you expect problems or look for a separate higher spec' camera and lens for the detailed shot. The DVR looks to accept 1VPk to Pk of video so that almost any camera will interface to it.
Not all IR LED's are invisible to the human eye so your neighbour may well spot them, could be good as a deterrent, but awkward if it's hidden in a bush and they can get to it.
Setting up those cameras can be fun too! A small handheld monitor that you can take up the ladder with you is the best way, but failing that a very patient person at the other end of a mobile phone or radio is a must. Play with them indoors first and make a note, tipex mark or similar on the front, as to where the top of the picture is. They are literally a metal sphere held behind the cover and are "interesting" to physically set up.
Before setting them up take a look at the site at night with all possible lighting on and try to find locations where any lights, flood etc. are behind the camera if they are on your property and if they are not under your control then try and set the camera so it cannot see them at night as they will cause the auto iris to close and reduce the sensitivity of the camera. Or they will cause flaring on the image, neither of which are good.
All in all the kit that you link to looks to be a good start and should give you reasonable results, don't expect BBC quality though! :-)
Audio is VERY much better! Especially if you have a conversation with your neighbour within site of the cameras. I know a site where although it was very well covered by CCTV the security guards also wore radio mics so that any conversation with "people" at the gate was recorded along with the CCTV so that there was no argument over what the images portrayed.
What sort of technical specification is advisable? I should imagine that a blurry, smeary, B&W shot of some one, (who could be any body) only 1/4 height of the frame has less chance of being of use versus a sharp, defined, colour image even with the same sized figure.
How about the date/time stamping what are requirements for that?
Sorry to hear about your problems Adrian, are they on Tiscali? ;-) I agree with Adam about recording audio, more chance of getting something incriminating, and there is an irrational assumption that the public make about CCTV footage always being mute.
The recordings were date and time stamped. The camera that covers my front door gives a good face recording. I will soon be upgrading my CCTV and I am looking as spending over £1000 to get better pictures.
Most of the cost is on the recorder and I will add cameras when I have the money.
Then you will be wasting the money. IMO it would be better to go down the IP camera route, then the recorder has no bearing on the quality at all. Even if its an analogue recorder the quality difference between a £200 one and a £1000 is not a lot. Maybe you just want 32 channels?
based system for years now. Handy for recording anything captured to DVD and printing stills. One downside to my old DVR card is that it (apparently) uses video overlay and LogMeIn won't display the video when I log in remotely. In my humble opinion I reckon the quality of the cameras is the important thing. Most of my cameras aren't too good at seeing detail at a distance. I'm hoping for a recommendation for a good camera at a reasonable price. Maybe someone here might be able to help. Regards
Capture cards , unless you get free power forget it, box takes a fair amount of power and unless need some feature that full size PC offers it`s as stable as a blancmange, though if want go that way Zoneminder on a dedicated box offers lot of features
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are cheap as chips and have AV drives fitted, got an AV Tech similar to one you linked to with 500Gb WD AV drive for =A3160 on ebay,AV drive is guaranteed for 3 years of 24/7 operation, desktop drives overheat.
Have 2 with Sharp 1/4" ccds in them , theyr`re OK , one is a door viewer camera that people simply dont notice unless point it out to them, other is outdoor but compact with no IR ring, which alawys glow in dark surroundings.
Have a 460TVL 1/3" Sony Super HAD where the quality and sensitivity are a visible notch up from Sharp, stay in colour to very low light levels and excellent low light ability. Vari focal is handy that ones a 4-9mm adjsuted by screwdriver, down at 3.6 mm view angle is probably near 90 degrees.
Could also get board lenses and swap out lenses on other cams but its a faff.
Connections, either power and video (but no audio) so called `shotgun` cable which is expensive on long runs, or CAT5 Baluns easily go to 200m+, RJ45 socket to BNC , 2.1mm Power and if required Phono Audio, ebay or DX, cheapest found on exterior grade Cat 5 Kenable
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need a couple of this to that connectors to avoid chopping plugs, i.e. door viewer cam had video out on phono, Maplins do Phono/ F, to BNC/M in a plug.
Because people think they are good because they are "digital" ? They are just expensive and complicate matters. Nothing beats hardwiring with coax if you can manage it, failing that 600 ohm twisted pair will be more than adequate for any domestic situation.
A further thought to the OP is, if you can run all the system from one power point and fit a UPS to cover power loss. If your neighbour is a really devious son of an unmarried mother and realises what you have done he may wait until there is a power cut and then do something bad.
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