Surveillance camera advice.

What on earth is your reason ?

Burglars only use stolen cars you know.

........ Phil

be

Is there a common entry/exit where you can expect the car to be? Like a driveway or similar?

If so, you can aim the camera in this position, and aim your IR illumination at the same place. It won't pick up any other activity other than when the car is coming/going through this spot.

I have seen programmable cameras with a zoom function. They basically wander around zooming in and out in a semi random way, and when an external trigger is pressed (such as a card reader, or car detector circuit) they zoom in to a predetermined position. They would be your best bet but you are talking $$. The setup that I saw was done professionally by

"Heywood Jablome" "Phil Allison"

What folk forget is that cheap surveillance video has sooooo much less resolution than 35mm film.

......... Phil

Forget colour for nightime use. Especially if you are going to use IR illumination.

You can get cameras that operate as colour for daytime use then switch to B&W for use with IR at night. Decent ones can be expensive! (as in decent resolution with decent lens)

Is there anyway you can test the camera before you purchase ?

What video format are you going for ? cif 352 x288 similar to qvga

Need mpeg4 / H.264 with D1 to keep the bandwidth use low.

A list of most standard formats here

Looked at IP cameras at all ?

Not worth it with just one or two cameras but as soon as you add more, makes it a lot easier. Just hook them up to a network switch via cat5

Basically they stream video (mjpef, mpeg4) over a network then you view or record the video on your pc.

Current cameras use 1 - 8 Mbps depending on resolution and settings / format. Mpeg4 / H.264 has the lowest bandwidth.

Older products using mpeg2 or mjeg are usually a good bit cheaper.

Some cameras use power over ethernet as well. Also have video servers for use with analog cameras. The axis video servers are easy to setup and customise.

Axis are expensive but reliable.

Alex

Colour cameras are only slightly sensitive to infrared - and when they are, it's only the red pixels so the resolution is crap.

B&W will give the best resolution at low light or with IR illumination. As another poster said, you can selectively IR illuminate a section of interest.

surveillance

recording in LP

to read a car

dark.

big lens that can

car to be? Like a

your IR

other than when the

plate - they can be

sooooo much less

You would be an expert on this Philthy after you experience at your Lackey St. flat. BTW this guy isn't one of your neighbours as well is he?

TT

Thanks for the replies. The site involved in on a remote farm property. The owner has had around 9000L of fuel stolen. A shed around 20m from the fuel tank has mains power but no telephone line.

And there are 2 entrances an intruder could use to get to the fuel tank.

am still unsure which lens Jaycar sell would be suitable.

The B&W professional camera is 500x580 pixels, 380 lines. (QC-3310) The B&W camera with housing an IR is 510x492 pixels, 380 lines (QC-3285)

It may not be possible to read the number plate, but the camera would need to cover an area about 5m wide about 20m from the shed. Hopefully enough would be seen to be useful.

Can someone please tell me what length of cable could be used without signal loss starting to be a problem?

Thanking you, Russell Griffiths.

Russell,

Did you have a look here:

Thanks for the replies.

Forget it.

The fuel thieves will cover their plates up anyhow.

........... Phil

And old computer with spare pci slot and capture card (aldi?) Run linux and use motion(?) (takes a photo on % difference)

Take the Allthings tip. They show you how to calculate the lense you need. Alternatively, an old video camera might do the trick.

I built a circuit(came as a kit) which connected to a PIR(movement sensor) and to a VCR via the "Stop" and "Record" tracks (easy to do) so when movement was detected the VCR started recording for a set time(adjusted by changing one capacitor) and then back to stand-by until it sensed movement again. A 3 hour tape could last a very long time this way.

IR leds can be used with a timer perhaps and a BW camera. Not sure about a CMOS cameras resolution but they are better than they used to be.

I've used 30 metres of shielded audio cable for the camera without a problem. Not real sure on the distance for getting a clear picture of a plate though. Most shops sellng this sort of stuff should have one connected but remember the picture may be at night with IR.

Boozo.

As had been stated a few times you might be out of luck using a video camera with respect to resolution. How about a multi-mega pixel still digital camera that takes a few shots each time the gate is opened?

Is it safe to assume that the gate does not get too much traffic? A memory stick with a few hundred shots could take a few days to fill.

Mike

As had been stated a few times you might be out of luck using a video camera with respect to resolution. How about a multi-mega pixel still digital camera that takes a few shots each time the gate is opened?

Is it safe to assume that the gate does not get too much traffic? A memory stick with a few hundred shots could take a few days to fill.

Mike