Re: Beginners guide to choosing CCTV system and positioning cameras

[ian.bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Being a newbie into this myself recently here is what I have learnt.
My=20
needs were a little different to yours so this is simply a narrative of my=
=20
experiences.

1) The DVR. I bought this one
<http://www.iviewcameras.co.uk/IV_AVTECH_760ZCCTVSystemsdeals.htm>
from these guys. Delivery was prompt and they were helpful when I was=20
asking questions early on. As for the unit. It works and produces=20
recordings. I have not tried any of the features like motion sensing
etc.=20
My one overriding impression is the interface to it is abysmal. The=20
technology seems tens of years old and simply applied to modern=20
electronics. The instruction manual is not that great either. Things are a=
=20
little better through the Web interface but not much. I am still=20
struggling with it. At the same time I have managed to take some film so=20
not a complete loss. It's worth noting that they forgot to include some=20
connectors in the 'kit' but these were sent on to me promptly after just a=
=20
phone call. This was good ;-)

2) Cameras. I have several from various sources and the requirement for=20
the resulting pictures should dictate the ones you get not the price. I=20
have some 520 line ones from my on bike cam setup and these give a good=20
picture. Some others are 420 and 480 line. The 480 are colour and night=20
B&W as well. As long as you don't need great detail these are fine. I
have=
=20
been using them to track slugs on the vegetable garden and they are just=20
passable for this. I shot at 3fps (the slowest it would go as motion=20
sensing was not an option) and played back at either 16 or 32 speed.
Your=20
plants vanish quite quickly at that rate but the slugs are easy to
track.=20
I think there is a limit somewhere in the recording setup when better
and=20
flashier cameras will no longer help. It's worth checking the max TV lines=
=20
the recorder can support before it starts dropping info.

With cameras the cheaper they are the worse they are it seems particularly=
=20
around the less obvious areas e.g. coping with high contrast or=20
backlighting. With experience now the minimum I would use is 480 TV lines.=
=20
I cannot recommend any though as I simply don't know enough about it.

Hope this helps

Ian





Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxx>=20
Sent by: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
08/06/2007 17:51
Please respond to
ukha_d@xxxxxxx


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Re: [ukha_d] Beginners guide to choosing CCTV system and positioning=20
cameras






Dave -

not an answer, I'm afraid, but we're asking ourselves the same=20
questions !!

Chris


On 7 Jun 2007, at 09:20, Dave Ward wrote:

> I'm in the process of thinking about CCTV and wondered if anyone had
> come across any good resources for getting started and positioning=20
> cameras?
>
> I know a bit about cameras, but it's been a while since I looked at
> small CCTV  cameras, so I don't really know what the quality of the=20
> sub
> =A3100 cameras are now. Has anyone seen a decent CCTV camera
comparison
> site with sample images?
>
> Once I've worked the position of the cameras and how many I need I can
> think about what to connect them to.
>
>
>
> I want both recording remote viewing via mobile phone (via Web or=20
> Email)
> so my main choices as I see it are
>
> * Standalone DVR with network interface
>
>  I see the standalone system as potentially being the quickest
>  setup,  most reliable, and possibly the lowest running cost.
>
> * Commercial PC based Card e.g. Geovision
>
>  The Geovison I see as slightly more work to set up, I'd have to=20
> provide
>  a PC so minimum spec and power consumption are questions here.
>
> * Open Source PC based e.g. Zoneminder
>
>  Zoneminder is attractive because of cost although I'd donate to the
>  developer if I used it, and I'd have to buy a frame grabber.  It also
>  seems flexible, but potentially a nightmare to set up even with a CD
>  distro.
>
>
> Note: I'd sit the system on a UPS to help iron out mains glitches
>
>
> Does anyone have any positive (or negative) comments on the the use of
> the above systems ?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Dave



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