CCTV Costs?

[DMike]

I have a DIY system with Dahua NVR and 8 POE cams. I chose the install locations carefully - not visible from the street but once approaching the front there is a sign indicating video surveilance (obligatory here) and by then you’ll notice that you are on camera crossfired from several angles.
Dahua and Hikvision are, to my best knowledge, the two main brands sharing the market, plus several rebranded ones. If buying from ebay, stick to trusted sellers and cams that have upgradable firmware. Bullet-type cams often have IR leds to illuminate the filmed area. This is probably the reason why moths and other insects like them so much. Might be good idea to pick up a NVR with more channels than you need and start saving by learning how to make the cabling yourself because, as Spectre hinted, it can become addicive...

[sp3ctre]

You don’t need 8mp… for cctv 4mp is more than enough. Check the ipcamtalk for the full explanation but more mp does nit necessarily mean a better image in low light (when you are likely to need cctv images).

[sp3ctre]

I have a DIY system with Dahua NVR and 8 POE cams. I chose the install locations carefully - not visible from the street but once approaching the front there is a sign indicating video surveilance (obligatory here) and by then you’ll notice that you are on camera crossfired from several angles.
Dahua and Hikvision are, to my best knowledge, the two main brands sharing the market, plus several rebranded ones. If buying from ebay, stick to trusted sellers and cams that have upgradable firmware. Bullet-type cams often have IR leds to illuminate the filmed area. This is probably the reason why moths and other insects like them so much. Might be good idea to pick up a NVR with more channels than you need and start saving by learning how to make the cabling yourself because, as Spectre hinted, it can become addicive...

To the point about ebay, you can get chinese dahua models from ebay and aliexpress but you can’t uograde the firmware and some if them are lower quality clones. If you want cheaper than you can get in the uk but genuine uk versions then there is a guy on ipcamtalk called “empiretechandy” who ships genuine dahuas from China. I have had 2 from him at good prices and they are spot on.

[ihadablackdog]

Yeah, been reading ipcamtalk, learning loads from this thread and there. Registered earlier so I can view the images.

I know how to terminate rj45.....just no way am I going up a ladder!

[exdos]

Seriously looking at the colorvu cameras....checked outside when I went for a pee this morning at 4am....street light off but it was already getting light. Deb said she looked earlier and it was dark but several other houses had outside lights on giving illumination. Our front door light is always on so that would be ok and with ambient light at the front I think they might be feasible. I know they have their own built in lights if needed.

I live in a rural location with no street lighting so my CCTV cameras operate from ambient light, only. For the sake of this reply, I've just checked that my cameras were recording in full colour 30 minutes after sunset last night and 30 minutes before sunrise this morning and during darkness the built-in Infra-Red lighting produces a decent B&W image. The usefulness of the system to record sufficiently accurate images so as to properly identify intruders does require properly located cameras of the correct magnification.

With the Hikvision system, each camera can be set to record continuously or, only when activated by movement, therefore, with some thought with regard to location of your cameras, you can continuously record from, say, just 2 or 3 cameras, and set the rest to record only when activated. The benefit of this is twofold: 1. the NVR can keep its recordings for a longer period of time before the images are over-written and 2. if you wish to review the recordings to identify the time when someone enters your property, it is easier to do so using activated recordings first, so that you can then find the intrusion on the continuous recordings. Having said that, with the Hikvision software, it is easy to detect movement in a specific area of a continuous recording.

If you also have external lighting activated by PIRs, the CCTV cameras will record in full colour whilst the lights are on. From personal experience, I would strongly recommend using 50w LED outside lights and make sure that they remain lit for at least 2 minutes after activation, because when they switch off, the recording on the CCTV goes dark for a couple of seconds whilst the camera adjusts from the lighting back to its own IR lighting and B&W recording.

As an aside, I've noticed that Hikvision cameras are used in many professional installations both in the UK and in the USA.

Hope this helps.

[ihadablackdog]

Thankyou. Helpful.

Yes, going to look at external lighting as well....guy over the road has a floodlight that comes on if I fart, and it’s extremely bright, so something similar on my side would work a treat.

I checked overnight, streetlights on at 01:15 but not 02:15 and it was quite dark around the cars, so floodlight covering those would be good.

The colorvu cameras has white led built in but I saw a review showing faces washed out if close to camera as the light was too bright, so light from an offset angle would be better? Although I think you can dim the camera one.

[exdos]

The colorvu cameras has white led built in but I saw a review showing faces washed out if close to camera as the light was too bright, so light from an offset angle would be better?

From my own experience of my own CCTV system used with external lighting and my knowledge of photography, you get the best imagery of faces where the light source comes from a different level than that of the cameras. So have your cameras and lighting at different levels to provide facial shadows.

You'll find that the night images from the bullet cameras located outdoors sometimes suffer from the presence of spiders' webs causing distortion of the image not present in daylight recordings. Likewise, dome cameras sometimes suffer from the presence of water droplets sitting on the outside of the dome at night too. So I would suggest that you locate your cameras so that you can easily clean them periodically either from an upstairs window or from ladders, possibly using a feather duster attached to a pole to extend your reach.

[sp3ctre]

That’s an added advantage of the ones that can use ambient lights, no infrared so no spiders (they are attracted to the light). Another option is separate infrared lamps.

[DMike]

To the point about ebay, you can get chinese dahua models from ebay and aliexpress but you can’t uograde the firmware and some if them are lower quality clones. If you want cheaper than you can get in the uk but genuine uk versions then there is a guy on ipcamtalk called “empiretechandy” who ships genuine dahuas from China. I have had 2 from him at good prices and they are spot on.

Good point, I’ve been mostly lucky by buying from five star ebayers and browsed the feedbacks too. Had one bad deal, though: A Dahua dome cam turned out to be just that, a camera under a dome, with absolutely no point or zoom funtionality.