Home security cameras

[shamp21]

Does anyone use home security cameras ? My car sets in the carport and I'm looking for a simple cheap but good security camera .. Any suggestions

[DenverTaco07]

I could help you maybe - I designed and run an enterprise level Avigilon security camera system, I'm not an expert in cameras but i have lots of experience.

So are you planning to put the camera inside a window to look at car port, are you wanting something outdoors on the carport or what? Are you looking to record, and for how long?

Things to consider for location of camera are power and network:

You can go WIFI, but you still need to power the camera. If you go wired, then you could get a POE (power over ethernet) camera (some systems sell you a POE switch or for 50 bucks you can find POE injector) and not worry about pulling power separately. so you have to determine where the camera will be installed. Also, when you are talking about consumer grade cameras, distance is a huge factor, so if you are placing a $200 camera inside a window and expect to see facial details of a car thief at 30 to 40 feet away...good luck!

So, lots of factors to think about.

I use a Foscam camera at home, it's not the greatest quality, kinda old (they sell better ones), but what I like about it is that it has built in DDNS allowing me to bypass having to go thru the manufacturers servers to remotely view the camera. Ok, so Samsung, they have security cameras, but to view them I would have to log into their website and blah blah blah, with the Foscam, it has a built in web page and built in DDNS, so when i'm at work I simply open browser and go to HTTPS://7839.myfoscam.org and this URL translates to my Home IP address, then you just port forward on your home router and Voila. Then on this camera, I can hit the record button and it records to my local PC at work.
The quality at distance is going to be an issue on consumer budget, unless you are willing to spend $500 just on a camera.

[MMC]

I have a Q-See analog system and you can record and view on a monitor, remote PC or smart phone. They offer different resolutions and night vision distance cameras. Quality is good but not pro quality at all.

[DenverTaco07]

get this NVR (Network Video Recorder), it has built in POE switch (this means the only cable you have to run is the ethernet (cat 5e or Cat 6).

http://foscam.us/catalog/product/vie...e/category/31/

the HD is not included, but I like that...just go and buy one from Newegg.com or Amazon...no problem.

and then lets' look for a camera....

maybe this one if you want to mount it to outside of your main house.

http://foscam.us/poe-ip-cameras/fosc...ip-camera.html

or just find an indoor POE camera from here

http://foscam.us/poe-ip-cameras.html/

the NVR should be agnostic to camera brand, as long as it's IP, but i can't guarantee that, so if you find another brand IP POE camera you want to use, then it should still work on that NVR.

[batman53201]

I have had a first alert camera system for about 5 years. they have an app that lets you see your cameras from your phone. get something with a big hard drive. cameras work great at night and are crystal clear. I bought an 8 camera system because the hard drive was bigger. I only use 4 cameras, so I have 4 spares in case I ever need to replace them, but so far, no issues.

[kmarshall2121]

monoprice.com

[Jay_LHD3]

I've used Foscam IP cameras with a Synology NVR at home and really believe you'll end up knowing more than you want to know to set one up right. Plus once I got over 3 cameras I had to set up a second network because my first network was taking a bandwidth beating. Nothing wrong with going this route but you could dump a lot a money before knowing it.

When I worked in one of our manufacturing facilities we used high end $1,000+ Bosch cameras and NVR systems using analog and IP cameras. I mention this because as some would know you just don't add cameras on the fly. You calculate out cost, disk space (how many days are you required to have on hand), switch routing, ...

We had a couple plant managers that wanted cameras on the fly to put in their driver waiting rooms and other nonessential spaces and went out and bought a couple Swann DVR systems that came with cameras for us to setup on the network and have maintenance install.

Like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Swann-Channel-...+camera+system

For the price, picture quality, ease of installation, and network setup I was impressed. Since moving I've given all my Foscam cameras away and will be adding one of these systems. This time I'm going simple!

[speedygonzales]

I put in another vote for Swann

I have used a Swann system for 4 years. Got mine at Wally world 8 channel DVR and 4 cameras for $350

Here's a 4 camera system for $199
Swann 4 camera system

Easy to install, get up and running and add smartphone monitoring.
It also allows you to select down to the pixel if you want, motion detection to send you a text message that something is going on. However, I will say this, outside is very hard to do that because just shadows can false alarm it.