For residential use - who has what and how well do you like, what would you do different if doing again, number of cameras. Thinking about installing starting to hear about some problems in the hood. Do you use in conjunction with alarm system or as stand alone. Best way to monitor. Just looking for tips and tricks.

 

Cant tell you everything I have here but if you want a good inexpensive start just get a Lorex system until you decide what you really want.
They are easy to install, easy to access from the internet and come with a fairly large capacity hard drive storage unit.
When I get time I will try and remember what I didnt like about them (like being unable to use the night IR cameras if you mount them inside looking through a window because the IR light glares back).
You will have to decide if you can hide the recording unit well enough in your house or record to an offsite location (bit of a pain to do right).
Another good thing with the Lorex is that when you do finally install the perfect (and usually expensive) system, the bad guys will focus on the Lorex.

My Brother lives closer to the police than I do and is quite happy with his Lorex camera system and ADT alarm system.
~

 

You can use a camera with infrared illuminators on it anywhere you can use a flashlight. Have you ever shined a flashlight through a window to see what was outside?

The fix is plain camera inside, infrared sources outside.

 

Paging Jim Lane, Paging Jim Lane...........

 

Don't buy the complete systems, the cameras are shoddy at best.

Lorex and a few others sell DIY kits (I got mine from Newegg) and then just start comparing cameras .... water resistance, distance the IR lights up at night (most are under 30ft/10m so really look at the specs) and get a bigger hard drive.

The system I setup has the ability to record from 16 cameras, cameras can see out to 100 feet at night, the nicer camera I have for the front door uses the ambient lighting and provides a great nighttime picture, I can stream it over the internet to a smartphone, and has both USB and CD-R capabilities to provide video to the local law enforcement. This feature is really the best part since we did get a drunk driver on video that tore up our front lawn (and 5 of our neighbors) and the police were able to get the vehicle make/model and license plate very easily from it.



-Kris

 

That was the problem with that Lorex system I bought. It was a lot cheaper to buy the 8 color IR cameras as a group. Wound up having to open the cameras up and rip out the IR lights.

For the price it was a great set up since I didnt know what I wanted at first. Plus I was able to use their wires when I upgraded. That thin coax with power isnt cheap if you buy it by itself.

Now I have some wireless cameras hidden in the woods but I have to swap the rechargable batteries out.

 

You really need to do your homework on this. What do you want to see? How much detail and at what distance? There are so many different options and with cameras you get what you pay for. In some applications the less expensive cameras will do as much as you want or need while in other applications you may need a high quality high resolution camera. A DVR that works with both analog and digital cameras will allow you to use lower cost analog cameras where they will work and higher resolution 2 or 3 megapixel IP cameras in places you want as much detail as possible.
Depending on the type of camera will determine the type of cabling needed and the power source. IP cameras can be powered through the ethernet cable if you use a power injector or POE switch. Analog cameras will need an 18/2 cable for power and RG-59 or RG-6 for the video. You can purchase a siamese cable with both the power leads and coax built into a single cable. The other option for both analog and IP is to plug the camera's power transformer directly into an outlet but this has to be very close to the camera location.

For night vision there are a couple options. Most use IR lighting and this can range from a short distance of 20 to 30' as mentioned to over 100' depending on the IR source used or on the camera. If you have some night lighting so it is not toal darkness there is a camera that can actually stay color and see quite well with out IR. If using IR the camera will change to B/W during low light conditions.

 

Another option is to wire with CAT5 cable, and use a balun on each end to convert the video to 100 ohm ballanced feed. Use one pair for video, one for audio, and the other 2 for power. 24V works for longer distances than 12V.

It's quite a bit cheaper than siamese coax, but I don't think it's good for as long a run.

Real long runs, I go IP and fiber optics.