I’m thinking about putting up some security cameras on the outside of my house. Systems are becoming cheaper, more capable and more widely available. Of course that means there’s tons of crap out there.
Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?
I have a spare PC I could use with the system, or pick up a synology box or something like that, or get one with a DVR, it doesn’t really matter.
I’d probably like to have 3-4 exterior cameras. Wireless would be great, but not mandatory.
I would like really high quality cameras, re-living someone smashing a window is only helpful if you can identify the person or grab a license plate off the street.
I don’t have a budget in mind but I’d like to minimize costs as much as is possible while still getting a good system.
I do a lot of walk throughs and estimates. First, you need to check out where you can put them. 1/2 the benefit of cameras is just them being visible as a deterrent for someone smashing the windows and other factors like lighting is key since you need decent light to get facial details for someone. A basic Mobotix day/night camera runs about $1,400 and have built in storage and management on the camera itself. Also can copy files to a storage server so you have all the backups and delete at will so you don’t really need a PC running all the time to keep the recordings which is a huge help for some people. They come with different lenses too that have about 90 degrees of coverage.
To read a plate at night, you are looking for about $2,000 per camera and is only black and white. It is designed purely for plate capture. At night, the lights from the brake lights and stuff wash out the plate so it takes special lenses and camera to really make out a plate enough if you are lucky and the idiot parks a car close by.
I have good light on both sides (and can increase it). I feel like I have decent mounting points to get both directions as well. Places that will be visible, but not within easy reach for someone to snag.
The mobotix stuff seems pretty high-end; is there a specific camera or systems I should be looking at?
This is my friends hardware store. I consult, he sources all the hardware. Haha. He is online and can get into more specific stuff with you since every environment, requirement, and setup is different.