In message , Adrian C
writes
Hi,

Owing to ongoing hassle with the next door nutty neighbour (we've just
had trees entirely in both our front and back garden vandalised by him)
I'm looking to splash about £300-400 on four cameras and a hard drive
based recorder. Police can't take any action otherwise ;-(

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/290438777726

Looks interesting - the domes will mount under the eaves of the roof,
though I've heard comments that 1/3" is a better bet than 1/4" for the
cameras.



A few thoughts, as you have said 1/3" would be better, not essential
though. 420 lines is adequate if you have a close up enough picture.
That is where my main concern would come with the cameras mentioned
here, they only have 3.6mm lenses and as such will give you a wide over
view of whatever you are looking at and may not give you enough detail
to positively recognise someone. You will recognise them because you
know them, but the image you get will be like some of the rather poor
shots you sometimes see on the TV news from shop CCTV's. A way around
this maybe to use a couple of these cameras for an overview of the front
and back garden and then either place one very close to where you expect
problems or look for a separate higher spec' camera and lens for the
detailed shot. The DVR looks to accept 1VPk to Pk of video so that
almost any camera will interface to it.

Not all IR LED's are invisible to the human eye so your neighbour may
well spot them, could be good as a deterrent, but awkward if it's
hidden in a bush and they can get to it.

Setting up those cameras can be fun too! A small handheld monitor that
you can take up the ladder with you is the best way, but failing that a
very patient person at the other end of a mobile phone or radio is a
must. Play with them indoors first and make a note, tipex mark or
similar on the front, as to where the top of the picture is. They are
literally a metal sphere held behind the cover and are "interesting" to
physically set up.

Before setting them up take a look at the site at night with all
possible lighting on and try to find locations where any lights, flood
etc. are behind the camera if they are on your property and if they are
not under your control then try and set the camera so it cannot see them
at night as they will cause the auto iris to close and reduce the
sensitivity of the camera. Or they will cause flaring on the image,
neither of which are good.

All in all the kit that you link to looks to be a good start and should
give you reasonable results, don't expect BBC quality though! :-)

Hope some of that made sense?


Best of luck with your problem.
Have fun........


--
Bill