Outdoor surveillance cameras

[Robert_in_NY]

Hi guys, I have a problem. Since I bought my neighbors place I decided I will keep his small fruit stand going. However, the house isn't ready for me to be there 24/7 so I have a pay and take set up. I figure some people would take things without paying and accept that. But I also figure if people actually do pay for the majority of the items they take then I will make more money then letting the apples and tomatos fall to the ground and rot.

However, I do not trust my neighbor there and I want to put up cameras around the house, barn and stand (there is a small building next to the stand). Power is at every building but running wires would be annoying. So far I have only hand a quarter peck of apples and one tomato taken (which I do think the neighbor took ) but the stand has only been open two days He knows I don't live there so it wouldn't be out of line for him to help himself and not think twice.

So now, who makes a decent outdoor/indoor camera (I would prefer wireless) system. Ideally it would tie into my computer system instead of having another monitor. I would like to keep roughly 2 weeks of footage and the only camera that I would really want to film non stop would be the stand camera. The other cameras could be stills taken every couple seconds or what not (I don't know how these things really work). All in all I would want 4-5 cameras.

And do these systems have their own hard drive to store the footage on or would it store on my current system? Thanks.

 

[keving]

Robert,

Check these guys out http://www.webcamstore.com/ they have a variety of systems available for your needs. It's gonna cost at about 2K to get a good camera and DVR. I use a Sony camera and no DVR. I can zoom, pan, tilt the camera over the web. The camera plugs directly into my router (no computer necessary). I've used it for about 2 years and it works flawlessly! PM me if you would like to have a phone conversation on all the details.

Good luck!

 

[tommu56]

Robert_in_NY

What about a game cam it wont be on line but you can down load it to camera and it works on motion.

I was thinking of putting one near my gate at my cabin, but thinking is as far as I got so far.

tom

 

[Casco1]

I just purchased this setup for my summer place. I haven't put in yet, but I did quite a bit of research. I showed it to my friend, An electrician with security experience and he gave it an A+.


http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=364641&pCatg=5868

 

[Gadgetnut]

A couple thoughts... even wireless cameras will likely need a 120 volt power supply to keep them running for days. Do you have electricity at the stand? Do you have a secure building near the stand where you would keep the video receiver / hard drive?

For my purposes I decided that wireless cameras could not match the quality and reliability of a hard wired connection, so I trenched more than 1200 feet and laid conduit and now all my outbuildings are on the same network, which gives me great flexibility.

I think the above suggestions are good. I've been using several complete surveillance systems purchased at Costco for about $1300 each. The set includes a 17" flatscreen monitor with integrated DVR+hard drive and comes with four day night cameras. The cameras are described as "outdoor" but they recommend you keep them out of direct rainfall and I've installed mine under eaves. You can either use special extension cords with the cameras or for one of my longer runs I used inexpensive Cat5e (8 conductor communications) cable with video baluns on each end.

The good thing about these systems is that you can set them to record motion events only-- so when you want to review days of activity in the monitored areas, you can instantly jump to the motion events only. The system that I am using includes a remote viewing software client, which allows you to view live and recorded video over the internet from a Windows computer-- but again the receiver needs to be in a secure place with 120 volts electricity and a broadband internet connection.

If you happen to use Apple Macintosh computers, an affordable solution might be

http://www.bensoftware.com/ss/index.html

which uses your Macintosh computer to view and record web cam video.

 

[Willl]

Not just Mac, any PC can do the same.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Thanks guys, there is power at every building and running wires wouldn't be out of line as the stand is literally 20 feet from the house and the barn is 100 feet from the back of the house. From looking at the cost of wireless I have started leaning towards wired cameras. I like the idea of the ease of install with wireless since I already had power at these locations and wouldn't have had much else to do and I could move the camera easily if need be. But the complete sets you guys posted are more in line with my budget and look like simple enough systems to install.

I have a couple of Camtrakkers but they take only one photo and that doesn't do much for the stand as you need video to see if someone is stealing or not. Plus the Camtrakkers are too big and bulky.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. It gives me a few options to consider now.

 

[keving]

Thanks guys, there is power at every building and running wires wouldn't be out of line as the stand is literally 20 feet from the house and the barn is 100 feet from the back of the house. From looking at the cost of wireless I have started leaning towards wired cameras. I like the idea of the ease of install with wireless since I already had power at these locations and wouldn't have had much else to do and I could move the camera easily if need be. But the complete sets you guys posted are more in line with my budget and look like simple enough systems to install.

I have a couple of Camtrakkers but they take only one photo and that doesn't do much for the stand as you need video to see if someone is stealing or not. Plus the Camtrakkers are too big and bulky.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. It gives me a few options to consider now.

Let us know what solution you picked an how you like it. I'm probably going to expand in the near future.

 

[drssg]

I purchased this to monitor my barn. It supports wifi or ethernet connection into a router, and it comes with software to provide motion-sensitive recording to a PC. I think I paid about $700 for it.

My barn is about 100' from the house, and the wifi didn't work for me, so I ended up running ethernet to the barn. I rented a little "slicer" trencher that makes about a 1/2" slice in the ground and puts the wire maybe a foot deep. I'm sure it's better to get it buried deeper and in conduit, but I couldn't beat this approach for speed and minimizing ground disturbance. I bought a second network camera later, and paid about $100 less for a model without wifi.

 

[1bush2hog]

Does it matter if the neighbor knows you are filming him/her? Maybe a 'dummy' camera would suffice

How much profit do you really expect to loose? a cheap game camera, or dummy camera might be enough to deter the theft