I need to buy surveillance cameras for my home. Which do you recommend?

1. Little Dog

   I have several analog surveillance cameras with built-in infrared emitters for night vision – they each can see about 40-50 feet when it is dark. They were $150 each. Swann and Lorex. They are connected to a multichannel-channel DVR. That is where the IP address is – not in the camera. The less expensive version DVR was $300 and you need to add a hard drive if you want to store the video. You connect the DVR to the network in you house. The DVR can send images to the DVR manufacturer’s web site where they can be accessed securely. Your other choice is to access your home network remotely and then access the DVR like you were local. You need a special Windows client to access the DVR locally – no Mac or *nix clients. The more expensive version $500+ uses an embeded Linux operating system and can be accessed by any computer locally (thorugh a browser) or remotely (assuming you allow remote access to the local area network).

   There are some systems that have you installing a card in a computer that allows multiple analog cameras to connect to the card – and hence the computer (and the computer is assigned the IP address and connected to the local area network). It is "best practice" to have the computer doing ONLY this video surveillance collection/distribution work – so if you don’t have a computer you can dedicate to this with an appropriate, available expansion slot for the multi-input video card, then you need to buy that… figure $500+at a minumum for the computer and a decent sized hard drive if you make the computer yourself; add in the multi-channel video card and a monitor for the computer. Plus the cameras.

   The other way you can do this is to get cameras that connect directly to the local area network. They have a built-in video server (and no storage – if you want storage, you need to have a computer set up to be the video recording device and it must be always on). These cameras can be accessed locally or remotely because thery each have their own IP address. The low end ones are $350. Any less and the video quality is terrible. Even the low end ones do not behave very well in low light (never mind no-light). The decent ones I looked at with pan-tilt-zoom start at about $2,000 each.

   So… what’s your budget?

   What is your skill set related to being a computer network administrator? Network security is very important when you do this stuff if you want remote connectivity to work properly… and I don’t like the idea of sending video to a third party so I can get to it.

   Budget a minimum of $1,200 for the cheapest, low-quality video, system… and you do the installation, run the cables, do the network admin, configure the server or DVR and set up the secure remote access. It goes up from here as you hire others to do quality work and get improved video quality.

   Fry’s Electronics and bhphotovideo are good sources.
2. r

   Well Candy I can tell you that Tigerdirect.com can offer you some nice options of surveillance cameras.

   http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=4442
3. Emily S.

   It sounds like you have a good understanding of what functions you need with your home surveillance unit and I know many must have the night visions functionality. I don’t know if you’ve already looked around, done a bit of research, have a brand name in mind, but I can back the use of this DIY home security camera unit, http://www.spytown.com/ssa0412hpir.html My parents have a few sets of these for their rental property. They work great, easy to install, and capture clear footage and is simple to view footage. That kits comes complete with the 4 camera mounts and it comes at a decent price if you compare it to other units. This kit could be exactly what you are looking for.

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