Looking at home security camera DIY.

[mwian]

I am in the process of doing my homework about sourcing and installing a home security camera system.

I saw the HK vision camera website and I think that sort of camera is the sort I will use as a camera.

But I need more information than just choosing a camera.

One of my neighbours has a problem with people tampering with their car. The best place to watch the car is from my house. I need to watch the front of my house. The best place for watching if from my neighbours house. We can work together on this and we are on good talking terms. I expect I will have a camera watching the back of my house. If I am going to apply this process, I might as well cover everywhere and do it complete the first time.

I expect I will need 4 to 6 camera's between my neighbour and I. I could get away with 3 camera's at an absolute minimum.

I would prefer a camera sitting on the inside of a house observing from the window sill. Hopefully, if there is an auto focus, the window doesn't cause a problem. The camera can be plugged into the mains there.
I am going to go for a camera with some zoom and pan/tilt option. This way I can zoom into the area of the car to get a better/closer view.
I would like to record 24/7. Partly because I am putting the camera inside the house so motion sensors won't work. There are security lights above the car and whose should illuminate any person tampering with the car.
A second camera can be zoomed out to watch all of the neighbours front property.
A third cameras sits on the neighbours windowsill watching the front of my property.
A 4th camera on the window sill watching the back of my property.

Ideally, I want to keep the recording for at least a week, but a month sounds better. The recordings can loop and record over the previous recordings.

Ideally, if I could view the camera or recordings on my smart phone, that would be good, but if I have to compromise and use a monitor, that's a compromise I can accept.

I want to connect the camera's via wifi or wireless. Running a cable from a window sill to a recording box isn't going to be practical.
As an after thought, if each camera could have its own hard drive to save the recording to, this might be an idea, but being able to access the recording via a smart phone would be needed then.

Could someone point me in the direction of a camera kit that can do what I am describing?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[sparkymarka]

Camera will be rubbish looking through a window ...as is wireless ...I wouldn’t bother

 

[secureiam]

Firstly look at the ico website regarding viewing public spaces. (Police are not so bothered, but ICO is)

PTZ cameras expect complaints from neighbours you don't get on with, as potentially they can view into someone elses home (police are now interested).

The higher the camera, the more likely it is your viewing tops of peoples heads.
We don't recommend wifi camera's at all and you will need power for the camera regardless.

you can put storage cards in cameras, but if they are sat on your window sill, they will disappear when your broken into along with the evidence.

There are lots of threads on cameras.

motion recording is great for saving space, but ideal for wildlife rather than criminals.

 

[mwian]

Thanks both for the reply.

I live in a double story house. I am/was hoping to put the camera watching out of an upstairs window. Thinking through the process better, I could put the camera in an ornament to conceal that its a camera. I doubt anyone would break in to steal the camera and less so if they didn't know there was a camera. I suppose I might need to advertise a warning though.

I could use a fixed camera to avoid looking into my neighbours windows. They have frosted glass on the door and I have not really looked at the other windows. I don't want to attract complaints though. I read that you can blank our certain areas when recording. When I read that, I sub consciously believed that I could overcome the window situation.

I just measured the distance from the window to the neighbours car. Its about 45 meters. If the camera could connect to a recording box with 50m range, I think I am ok there. The window is about 4 meters up and the furthest part of the car 45 meters away. I would think I see enough of the person to recognise them, as long as I can zoom in to the image.

I will have to do some reading about recording a public space. I had not considered that as an implication. I wanted the recording(s) for security reasons. I expect Joe public might not want to be recorded. I suppose I have to consider them. I thought you could record in a public area without being in trouble with the law.

 

[mwian]

A reason for putting the camera on the window sill and looking out is, if my neighbour fell out with me, they could just unplug the camera and give it back to me. If I fit the camera to the outside of their house, its more of a mission to retrieve. I was thinking of having a wooden board with a few pins to keep the camera from moving from the way it was set, but easy enough to pick up and disconnect if needed.

 

[secureiam]

Apologies if this sounds like I am being rude, but it isn't intentional.

Cameras are stolen by those that break in, especially if they are easily to remove, especially of the think they maybe identified but I know nothing but seen it often enough to make an informed decision.

Do you have realistic budget, 45M is some distance to get an identifiable image. So PTZ but ptz on its own may not be the best solution.

The police have no issue as long as you don't view in someone's house, the ICO take a different view and they need to be satisfied as do the local council.

You fall out with your neighbour and gives you the camera back? unlikely?

have a look ipvm calculator and a ptz for your house to get an idea of what is possible.

 

[Sally2000]

securiam is being very polite, but you really must understand that you are being unrealistic.

You can't use a camera looking through a window if you expect good pictures.

A PTZ allows you to zoom in for recording, but it will have to stay zoomed in. So you will miss the wider picture. You can't use it to zoom in on playback. You can zoom in any recordings however they are made, but you will just have bigger pixels.

Read all the existing threads on this site and you will learn far more than you could by asking some of the same questions here.