How do I know if it’s a decent outdoor surveillance system?
CriMsoNMiSSinG asked:
I am looking into buying an outdoor surveillance system (with night vision) off of ebay or somewhere cheap. My question is- How will I know if it is worth the price or if it is just a piece of crap? There has been at least 6 vandalisms done to 3 of our cars within less than 2 months at my parents’ house, all happening at night time. I really don’t think it’s just a coincidence and I want to catch who is doing it. But I don’t know anything about surveillance systems and don’t have much money. So I don’t know which one to get.
Woah. $1,000 is way beyond my means. That’s an entire paycheck, and I don’t know if anyone else in my family would go in together with it. But why would I need 4 cameras? I saw ones on ebay for like $100 with 1 camera and craigslist for $250 with 4 cameras. They just hook up to your VCR for your recording.
It’s only for my driveway, so I would only need one camera. The only vandalism we have gotten is on our cars, nowhere else. And just need to identify a person in our driveway (2 cars wide by 3 cars long) so I don’t think color would matter… would it?
I am looking into buying an outdoor surveillance system (with night vision) off of ebay or somewhere cheap. My question is- How will I know if it is worth the price or if it is just a piece of crap? There has been at least 6 vandalisms done to 3 of our cars within less than 2 months at my parents’ house, all happening at night time. I really don’t think it’s just a coincidence and I want to catch who is doing it. But I don’t know anything about surveillance systems and don’t have much money. So I don’t know which one to get.
Woah. $1,000 is way beyond my means. That’s an entire paycheck, and I don’t know if anyone else in my family would go in together with it. But why would I need 4 cameras? I saw ones on ebay for like $100 with 1 camera and craigslist for $250 with 4 cameras. They just hook up to your VCR for your recording.
It’s only for my driveway, so I would only need one camera. The only vandalism we have gotten is on our cars, nowhere else. And just need to identify a person in our driveway (2 cars wide by 3 cars long) so I don’t think color would matter… would it?
November 28th, 2009 at 12:23 am |
I would start with a reputable retailer.
Fry’s Electronics and bhphotovideo will have “normal” pricing. If the eBay prices are way less, then expect “issues”.
From an analog camera, low-end consumer grade, nightvision, outdoor rated, wired, perspective, I would consider a 4-channel DVR from Lorex or Clover with a hard drive at about $450, and 4 outdoor rated high resolution cameras at about $125 each… Then what do you want to monitor with? If you connect to your existing TV, no more $. And the labor to install – I guess that would be you… Yes, reduce the price with lower resolution cameras or black and white only cameras.
From an IP network based, wireless, outdoor rated, camera… start at about $400 per camera and you would need to leave a computer on all the time for monitoring plus video uses lots of space, so if you want to record, then you will need another hard drive in (or connected to the computer)… and you will probably have to run power to wherever you have the camera installed (wireless means wireless video – it still needs power)…
So… in my opinion, start with a budget of about $1,000 and work your way up with better resolution video, features, network connections, power, etc… anything less than that is probably a waste.