cctv and street lighting

[jonm01]

I hoped for some expert advice on cctv: I want to install a good quality camera at the front of the house, with the intention of it viewing the front roadway and two parked cars, but including any area of the house frontage that comes into the path. The road lies beyond a narrow garden, which probably spans 4 metres, then another couple of metres or so of pavement beyond this. I am wondering if there is a camera that would work at night utilising the sodium street light positioned directly outside, and quite bright, or is street lighting not suitable ? Would a camera with an integral infra red light source work? Might there be a specific camera that would be applicable? Thanks for any advice.

 

[EightyTwo]

Let me get this right - you want to watch a couple of cars parked in the street outside your house, about 6m away and under a sodium street lamp?

What do you want to see? Do you want to know when one of the cars has gone or do you want to be able to read the tatoo on the wrist of the toe-rag who's dragging a key along the side?

For the former, a 1970s 1/2" tube camera would do and for the latter, you'll a 10+ megapixel, silly money camera.

Infra red allows you to "see in the dark" but you won't get any colour information and people look like they're wearing white suits. Grass and trees look like they're covered in frost. I think that it's unlikely that you'll need IR but, if you buy a day/night camera, you can always add an IR illuminator at a later date. The sodium street lights will look just the same in colour, with everything looking yellow and reds looking brown. A day/night camera can switch to monochrome (black and white) at night and give you a better picture. The sodium light will still mess with the "colours" but you'll get better contrast and more detail.

A zoom lens will give you a choice of angles and allow you to change the amount of front garden that you can see. Remember to set the picture up so that the cars are at the top of the screen and fill the width of the picture - there is no point in having a wide ange picture with two 1" cars at the top!!

 

[jonm01]

Thanks for that eightytwo. My aim is to have some visible, ( but discreet), cctv prescence outside the house, and to obtain a reasonable image, though I appreciate obtaining detail is more difficult. (There has been one random incident of damage to a wing mirror.) The street light is immediately next to the parking area, so this is well lit. From your explanation, a day/night camera would work at night using the street lighting ? An additional advantage of the camera is that it would see the entrance gate and approach to the front door as well. I would aim to have hard drive recorder as well. I wondered if there is any suggestion of a specific, mid price range, day night camera ? Thanks again.