Security Camera Recommendations

**LittleRedToyota** · November 9th, 2007, 03:10 PM

hey yinz...

my housemate and a couple of neighbors' cars have recently been vandalized. (three incidents in about 2 weeks...my housemate got hit twice. somehow i have been lucky and my truck did not get hit even though it was parked on the same street).

after the first incident (which involved 4 cars), everyone was kinda like, "oh well, crap happens...kids will be kids", but it's getting expensive and rather annoying to say the least.

so, my housemate and i have decided we should install a camera to record the street where we all park and try to catch the little twirps in the act.

anyone have any recommendations on brand, type, etc. of camera and/or recording media (hard drive based or DVD based or VHS based)?

my initial (uneducated) thoughts are that something that records to hard disk would be good since we could re-used the recording medium a gazillion times with no degradation in quality. i even have some old (windows-based) computers around we could hook the camera up to if that would work.

we would, of course, like to spend as little money as possible on the whole thing, but we do need it to provide clear images at night (streetlight lit street) from about 50 feet away.

i suppose it could be a video camera or just a series of still shots (one shot every few seconds).

i'm sure there are some people around here who know a lot about the subject, so...any recommendations or input?

thanks.

LittleRedSoFarNotVandalizedKnockOnWoodToyota

(p.s. if anyone has any used equipment you want to unload, lemme know.)

**Geezer** · November 9th, 2007, 05:06 PM

Sam's Club has packaged security systems with cameras, monitor & HD recorder - might be more pricey than you were looking for ($500 and up) but worth checking out to see how to put a system together.

**GRoPA** · November 9th, 2007, 05:22 PM

I saw this system in use at a convenience store and was very impressed with the night shots it took of the perps and their vehicle:

http://www.video-insight.com/Products/IP-Server.aspx

**WMG** · November 9th, 2007, 06:04 PM

I was in a guys house who had a black and white set up he said he got at wally world kinda cheap , I do not know how far it will be good for but the view of his driveway was very good considering he said wally world sells them cheap

**Atomic Dog** · November 9th, 2007, 06:45 PM

(can't remember if you are a mac guy too, so I'll throw it out)

I had a fantastic software program for the mac (that I deleted by accident and can't remember the name of) that used the iSight to take stills, stop motion, timed shots, and even as a security alarm.

Found something like it, but not quite as good... http://www.keywebx.com/keycamx.html

This isn't it but might work too (http://www.bensoftware.com/ss/)