Message #10414

[yetion1]

As the police announce they will not be responding to your report of a minor crime they suggest an alternative of asking neighbours for help or installing a cctv camera. The vigilante groups I hope will now form are another subject. But the cctv is a good idea as long as you know a little of what you should look for.
If you are looking at installing cctv I hope these tips may help,
1.   Price is everything. A good 4 camera system will cost you about £120. All systems are fairly easy to wire up as they have standard plugs and automatic set up. If you have a little know how you can pick up recorders for £10 with missing hard drives that are easy to replace for a max of £30 depending on memory size.
2.   The recording device: The bigger the memory (how long you can record) the higher the price. Memory is shown in Mega Bytes and now Tera Bites. Cheap units are 250 MB, the latest units are over 1 TB. The bigger the memory the longer you can record for with more cameras.
3.   Cameras: There are thousands of cameras from £5 to £500. Camera quality is measured in pixels. The higher the pixels the better the picture. The better the picture the more memory used. A 600 pixel camera will meet most domestic needs. A 4 camera system with 600 pixel cameras using 500 MB recorder will record for about 2.5 months before recording over itself. Many cameras now have LED lights/ infrared. What this means is that when it gets dark the picture remains the same as if it was daylight. You will see many makes. The best tip is companies that use a Sony lense are usually the better quality
4.   Wireless systems: The idea of no cables is an easy option and will record something, but if you require detail in the picture these systems at a budget cost are best avoided.
5.   There are plenty of second hand units for sale on sites like E-Bay. The only down side is the LEDs on cameras have a life of about 3 to 6 years and start to fail.
Camera systems are a great tool to protect yourself and fight crime. It is one of those subjects that when something does happen your interest grows. The plus is that you can keep adding and changing any item to improve your system.