I'm thinking of using a webcam as a security camera. I was looking at the Creative Webcam Live Pro, which I believe comes with motion detection video capture software, does anyone know if the Logitech Quickcam 4000 Pro or the Philips Toucam Pro 2 have motion activated video capture? I've heard the Philips is best in low light conditions.
I'm currently using a Sony ExView 0.003 Lux mono CCD camera at the front of my house. it's ok for seeing what's going on and (if you already know who the person is) who's doing it but what it isn't good for is facial recognition and/or evidence collection, although someones gait is a surefire identifier.
given the above, I'd be doubtful if any CMOS 'web' cam would offer any sort of usable security value, especially in low light conditions i.e when people that give you security worries tend to operate and I've been unable to find any reference to the lowest Lux any of those webcams operate at. I'd guess they are for indoor/daylight use.
cameras that are good enough to collect evidence need to be supplemented with lighting, either invisible >940nm infrared or a whacking great P.I.R floodlight
hth, but if anyone 'knows' 'better', chip in don't wade in ;-)
RT
you can download motion detector software to use with any webcam from
search for "webcam motion"
LJ
In general, nearly all low-end webcams suck for low-light. However, combined with a PIR light, even a 5.99 webcam can be usable.
A couple of 2.99 hubs, a few cables, and you can end up with several cameras for under 30 quid.
You are probably looking at spending at least 50 quid to get something with usable low-light.
However,
(What's a lux?
Software can make a difference too. If your software can do averaging, then you can get much better images at night, at the expense of temporal resolution.
I have the creative nx pro cam. Go along to
The motion detector software isnt all its cracked up to be either..
webcam is a webcam
surveillance cam is a surveillance cam
right product for the right job...
joe,manchester
the geovision series of capture cards are excellent, imo, with loads of features such as email alert, telephone alert, object movement detection, event logging, time and date stamping, webserver (even view via PDA) SMS alerts (GPRS card/mobile phone required) remote administration, support for dynamic DNS, etc,etc.
the geovision 250/4 x VGA + 1 x audio can be had for around the £100 mark.
RT
Logitech does - but how much disc space will a webcam security system take up?
RT
I've used "supervision cam" before & it works well.
I have the creative nx pro cam. Go along to
The motion detector software isnt all its cracked up to be either..
webcam is a webcam
surveillance cam is a surveillance cam
right product for the right job...
joe,manchester
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