bertram31.com

Can anyone recomend a brand or system? Dome or standard camera?

Recording will be by computer. Looking for something of good quality, color.

Too much out there to try and wade thru.

Uhmmmm........I have an interest in this post also. There is so much available out there.......


Harry

How many cameras? Interior or exterior or both? night imaging? How many daysof imaging will you be storing?

4 to 5 exterior cameras, storage length is just a matter of hard drive size, not sure on IR/NV cameras or not at this point.

Costco and BJ's usually have these at pretty competitive prices... Multiple cameras... The ones they sell are all pretty good units...

Looking for more of a high quality system than the Costco type. I've seen some of their systems used as engine room monitors and wasn't impressed with the picture quality.

I need good clarity close up and at a distance.

Bruce- have not forgotten you. THe kid I wanted to talk to was out until tomorrow. He has all the details on the cameras we have installed. Will you be storing on a pc or do you want a dedicated system? I will give you the info on our storage system as well.

As fae as lenght of time you can store, yes it is based on Hard drive size. It also becomes a funtion of realtime imaging vs freeze frame images. I like real time and we keep about 2 weeks of data from 9 cameras including IR for night time. I'll be able to post tomorrow.

I need good clarity close up and at a distance.

The complexity there becomes focal length.

Auto focus won't work because the camera doesn't know what the focal subject is.

Fixed focal length will only give sharpness at the fixed point of focus.

Remote focusing is good, but you have to be monitoring the capture in order to make adjustments.

Manual focus requires setting the focal length at the camera and becomes a fixed focal range until manually adjusted to a different range.

Only other option is more than one camera per surveillance zone, each with different focal ranges.

BTW, the best site I've found for surveillance equipment is http://www.surveillance-video.com/

Thanks for the link.

The clarity issue, the ability to zoom on a picture once stored to get some detail is what I'm concerned with. Which I guess would be also the stored pixel sized image which equates to large file sizes.

I've already seen a few systems that were good close up, but when trying to see something that was 50' away is was grainy at best.

Maybe a couple hundred bucks a camera is what I'll have to go with.

The camera would need to be 490 TVL at least to get into the hi res catagory...

Here's a 500 TVL that'll withstand a 12-gauge shotgun or 9mm pistol round: http://www.surveillance-video.com/ws9-50fir.html

About Resolution of CCTV systems

The resolution of CCTV system is usually measured by TV lines in the field. The vertical TV lines has maximum 350 TV lines in 525-line NTSC system and is not variable. But the horizontal TV lines, which is used as the parameter of picture quality, vary depending on the quality of camera, lens, transmission and monitor.

Camera Resolution
The industry of CCD video camera sensor uses pixels (picture elements) as its quality parameter. Medium resolution of B/W camera in EIA system is 510 horizontal pixels by 492 vertical pixels and is equivalent to 380 TV lines. High resolution is 768(H) x 492(V) pixels and equivalent to 570 TV lines. Color camera's medium resolution means 330TV lines and high resolution needs more than 460 TV lines.

Monitor Resolution
The monitors in NTSC system have 525 vertical scanning lines regardless of their size. The horizontal 700 TV lines of B/W monitors represents medium level and more than 900 TV lines means high resolution in EIA system. The color monitor's horizontal resolution of 300 TV lines means medium quality and that of more than 450 TV lines means high resolution.

To maximize the system's resolution, it is recommended to choose a monitor which has better resolution than that of the camera.

Pat, how the hell do you know so much about disparate fields like this?

Cliff Claven from Cheers is my Uncle....

NTSC parameters are analog and are outdated in terms of TV and whats available in security systems unless your buying a less expensive system in a box.

Digital is the only way to fly anymore.

It used to be hard to get a CRT set to have RCA type connectors for A/V.

The flat panel I just got for the office is a 1080, 120HZ refresh rate for fast action to deter blurring plus two computer inputs, 4 HDMI inputs and optical audio.

At 42" its the bomb for a computer monitor/tv/security monitor.

Chris is building me a new digital computer thats gonna drive that monitor for those functions. Of course 3 months from now it will be all outdated.

Wed I'm hitting the road for a week or so and will finish the system when I get back.

Thanks JS, I'll await your post. Can order the cameras and any periphials(sic) from the road.