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questions reg. home security cameras

I would like to install four security cameras around the outside of my house, but I have some questions before I start buying equipment...

1) The cameras I looked at, all have 60' cables attached to them. I would have thought that the camera would have a 'stub' cable of 12 inches or so, and then a 60' extension....that way, if a camera fails, you can just switch out the camera itself without having to remove the entire run of cable and the RE-install the cable in addition to replacing the camera. Is this not how it's done? Are there cameras available with only a stub of a cable attached?

2) The 'far' end of the cables have two plugs in them: one (a BNC I think) for signal and the other for DC power supply. I know that all four of the signal plugs will plug into the DVR card in my computer, but how do I manage the four power-supply plugs? Is there some way to power all of the cameras without taking up four spaces in my power strip? Do some DVR cards have a 12V power jack next to each signal jack? I'm just trying to keep the cabling clean.

3) When looking at the completely installed camera, should I just see a cable leading from the camera into a hole in the wall, or does someone sell a wall-plate with a BNC connector and a DC power-supply jack, which would be mounted on the wall near the camera, and to which the camera is connected?

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

--Alex

Reply to
alex1138
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Reply to
CWatters

The reason that your're running into these inconsistancies is because you're looking at cheap garbage. When you start paying around $200.00 for a camera and around a $1000.00 for a DVR, you're just at the bottom of the pricing structure that installing dealers use. I'm sure if you look a little bit more you'll find some cheap cameras that don't have the long leads on them. It sounds as if you're presently looking at something you'd buy at Home Depot, Costco or Radio Shack for about $300.00 for the whole kit. Other than that cheap stuff, you can buy pretty much any kind of video equipment you want, on line. Look a little harder and expect to pay a little more, if you really want to see ...... what you want to see and if you want it to last for any appreciable time.

Trying to find a camera that will see what you want to see, takes a lot more explaining than anyone here would be willing to take the time to do. but here's some questions that you should be asking. Bullet camera, housed camera, dome camera? Which is best for your application? How high, how wide, how far away an area to you want to see? Varifocal or fixed lens? Do you want to see at low light levels? Will you have lighting at night? If not you may need infrared illuminators. Then you have to decide if you want a Day/night camera? ( color by day, black an white at night (for infrared enhanced picture)) Back light compensation? Or will just a low lux camera do? Do you need a heater for cold weather area? Auto iris for changing light conditions? For the power source, plugin transformers are cumbersome. Whats the current requierments of the camera and whats the distance away from the power supply and what's the size of the wire you should use? Why not use a multi output power supply? What are the problems associated with each of power sources 12/24VAC/ DC? and what do you do to avoid them? What type of video wire should you use?

On the DVR, .... I won't even begin to ask the questions that you'll need to answer before you buy one.

You don't know ...... what you don't know.

Reply to
Jim

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