Home CCTV camera

Hi guys, hoping for some advice on which camera to buy.

I am looking for dome camera which can be mounted externally on the wall outside my house, pointing down at the front drive.

I have come across this,
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180614268228

But I have next to no idea what to look for when purchasing a CCTV camera, such as brand, lens, quality etc - so any help would be great. I would also like to get a DVR card for my PC to record anything when motion is detected.

I dont have a high budget, as this will only be for home use.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Adam

It's not weatherproof so will need to be eaves mounted or similar. Other than that, it should work ok, but I don't use analogue cameras and can't advise. Don't expect the IR led's to be overly useful at any sort of range, IME they often bleed into the lens or just run out of puff at about 5m.

However, if your aim is mostly to record (including motion) and watch on the computer, I think you would be better with an IP camera. They have a lot of benefits and the only drawback is price, but this is dropping a lot. If you do record, I recommend recording twice - once 24/7 and once on motion. Motion is not 100% reliable and sometimes you need more info.

On ip cams, I'd recommend the Panasonic BL-C230 which is a fair match for your analogue pic. If you don't need pan/tilt there are cheaper ones (Y-Cam, but the colour on those is poor). Much cheaper than the Axis range but I've found it 100% reliable stuck up a lamp post for the past 20 months.

i install/supply similar cameras, however i dont supply the 420line with VF lens but the eyeball domes i supply are water/weather proof and do have the seperate ring in the front glass to stop the IR bleeding back into the lens.

ok for you home its going to be ok however i would go for a larger number of lines 540 or 600lines would be ample for home security. DVR cards are great for low budget recording however, its a system hog and really need a seperate computer for it, then the cost of a new computer you might as well buy a digital recorder.

you need a recorder that does D1 (4cif) 6 frames a second albeit with the cameras setup correctly you can use CIF at 25frames a second. i do agree that recording 24hours is better than just motion detection as you miss the first second or so of activity, like me i record 24hours with MD alarming. now if your not on a budget go for the medium range analogue recorders which do 25 FPS at D1 and that matched with the 540 or 600 line cameras will be good. now you can go higher in line number too but most people dont like the prices. IP cameras are still newish and the price is high yet the quality is good to but the price of a dedicated NVR is crippling.

i hope this helps

Couple of points there about the ip cameras;

Motion detection can be setup to record a bunch of frames ahead of the trigger frame(s) too, not just from the movement onwards - depends on the software. I use zoneminder on five servers recording about 35 cameras on four sites. It is free and will do this for any amount of time before the event depending on what buffers you specify.

You don't need a dedicated NVR or black box, you can use any computer (motion detection is qute cpu heavy on high fps and multiple streams, but a single camera is not going to stretch any modern pc). Zoneminder needs linux which puts a lot of people off, but there are free (albiet basic) software programs for Windows as well which will do recording, sorting and some do motion recording too.

I think for this instance of a home user with one camera (although I bet they'll add another when they realise how useful it is!), if the OP does want to go down the IP route, he should be able to use his existing PC as long as he doesn't mind it being left on all the time.

There's good reasons to use both IP and analogue though, I just don't use analogue because I needed flexibility and multiple direct accesses.

BTW OP, is a usb webcam looking out through the window not doable? Not what you'd call professional grade, but at £20 it's cheaper.

Hi guys, thanks for the replies, very helpful!

I would like to avoid IP cameras, mainly due to the cost. I don't think using a USB webcam would cut it enough to be honest, and really would like to go for the type of camera I linked to in my original post.

Can anyone link me to a better, more recommended one? Maybe one you have used yourself in any installs etc.

I definitely want to use my current PC for recording, even if it is 24/7 instead of motion detect - as I have just finished building this system, its high end so it should manage it easily.

Cheers,
Adam

I was going to do a self install too and use a DVR card for the PC. But I needed a CCTV system urgently so had a get a guy to put one together. I paid £400 for parts and labour to have it all installed:-

I got 2 of these cameras

http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/products/Twilight-FLD-%2d-High-Resolution-540-TVL-Vandal-IR-Dome.html

and this DVR

http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/product...-USB-%2d-Internet-&-Mobile-Phone-Ready!!.html

I have a DVR card but have not got around to using it. One of the reasons is that it is less hassle to just use a dedicated DVR, as they cost around £125 and use around 25W. A decent PC would cost double and use approx double this wattage minimum. So it makes sense to use a dedicated DVR.

Hi Sarah, thanks for posting!

Do you have any pictures of camera footage? Just to see the quality.

Also, which DVR card did you get? As I will definitely be using one, as I have a custom build high end system which is on 24/7 anyway.

Cheers,
Adam