Looking for some advice on a home cctv system to look over my front & rear garden. My van is parked on the front & it was opened & I found contents of glove box & door pockets strewn about on Saturday morning.

I really can't afford to spend too much on it. I know some will say you get what you pay for & I totally agree but I am not flush with money now I have retired.

I have been looking at Swann & Hikvision & both get good & negative reviews online. I want it quite simple, 1 camera in front & 1 camera in the rear garden. Lots of cameras to choose from, heat sensing infra red 3MP 5MP 4K. Will need a hard drive to record it all on to. I am perfectly capable of installing it myself to save some money but at this moment I dont know what I need & best value for money.

Obviously it has to be worthwhile, if I fit a system & I cant make out detail from the footage then I may as well not bother. I may very well install a couple of LED floods (not too bright) as well to help with the night footage which may deter as well.

I am sure there are knowledgeable people out there that know whats good & bad in this area. Want it as cheap as possible tho.

depends on your budget but i bought one of these to keep an eye on the dog at home while im at work

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Clever-Dog-...2749.l2649

indoor use only but you can point the camera outside on a window sill, or mount it on the wall. Save to a micro SD card or set up a cloud storage.

IMO the images are crystal clear, its easy to set up and use, and great value for money

http://www.cleverdog.com.cn/camera/camera-wifi/spec-camera-wifi/

Cheers RogB, certainly on a budget that one. Not sure it would have the range in the dark to see my van clearly enough. Overhead camera would see most of my garden if fitted under the eaves of the house. Its only about 14m long by 15M wide.

ill have a check when i get home by moving mine into a window and capturing a still image in daylight and night time, Ill put the images on here for you to gauge if its any good for you.
like i say, value for money IMO but they need to do what you want or its not worth it even at such a low price.

You will need something with night vision and high enough resolution. If mounting outside, they will need to be waterproof or at least weather proof. Another thing to consider, wireless cameras unless the communicate through end to end encryption, can be easily hacked. You can likely get an entire system, computer and hard drive for a few bucks more as well.

Make sure to get some door/window decals as they also work as a deterrent and the motion sensor light will also help.

Last edited by MotionInc on 23rd Oct 2019 12:08 pm. Edited 1 time in total

Thanks for that information, I intend to put a hard wired system in, I really dont want the trouble of batteries need replacing every so many years.

Hi,

I went for a Swann 4 camera system last year. It was so easy to set up even for me. I have the app on my phone so I can check whats happening, and check recordings from anywhere. (I've only set up 3 of the cameras though).
The biggest problemwas running the cables into the house to somewhere where I could hide the hard drive away from any prying eyes.

The night vision is excellent, and the video is pin sharp. I did look at a cordless wi fi camera system, but they seem to be a problem with interference and outage. Updated- Waiting for a Scotland v England 6 Nations home win. 24th Feb 2018
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Is the video at night still in colour, I have seen some kits say its black & white at night but I really dont know the standard or what to expect at night.

That's an interesting question but I have not seen a colour camera through night vision.

Based on my diving experience colour starts to go as it gets darker, I cant remember the sequence but I think red goes first then yellow & so on. while diving in the darker places put on a torch & wow its brilliant colour again. I guess infra red type cameras may bring some of the colour back in the dark but I am only guessing.

Night time lighting is infra-red in such systems, which means the images will be black and white. You'd need full white floodlighting to get colour images at night. Of course, if the system is paired with PIR floodlighting you'd get colour images whilst the floods were on.

I thought that may well be the case, thanks for the info.

After reading about cctv on here, use the search. I ended up with the Swann HD I can have up to 8 camera's and 1tb of recording also the app on the phone works well. It is a simple plug and play, I've never had any problems with it.

I read some reviews on Swann systems as I had heard they were pretty good & they were mixed, some said rubbish dont bother but some said they were very good some said buy Hikvision as much better, dont know what to believe mate.

Is it best to have movement cameras or constant recording ??? I really dont know hence the post. seems to be different types for low light, dark & day but something is needed to cover all applications.