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Suggestions for inexpensive security camera setup

My friend asked me to look into recommending her a home security camera
setup. It is for outdoor use and must have night vision capabilities.
She requires about 4 cameras and wants to be able to record to an
independant recording console, not her computer.

I seen this setup at Costco, not sure if it has night vision capability
and seems a bit expensive...
http://www.costco.ca/en-CA/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=10287815&whse=&topnav=&cat=

We are in Canada. Any suggestions for an inexpensive setup that will
do the job?

TIA
 
EBAY!

Honestly, you can do a hell of a lot better on Ebay than you can at
Costco. Find you're self some decent cameras

Expect to pay anywhere between $80-$150 for a good one. Then get 4.
You can mix and match it does not matter. Get something that has 1/3"
CCD, a verifocal lens 4-9 mm and has at least 12 leds to illuminate in
total darkness. You shouldn't have a hard time finding one's like this
and they should fall right in that price range.

Find yourself some wire, they have it in selections of 10', 25', 50',
100' and 150' with both the power and video lines so hook up is a snap.
Just make sure everything is BNC connections only. RCA connections
have generally been for lower grade cameras anyway but I guess there
may be some decent ones with this connector, I don't know. I'd say
stick with BNC and you're gonna do alright.

Get power supply's. Best thing to do is make sure you get the right
transformers when you buy the camera. The camera should be 12V or 24V;
9V is crap, don't buy it.

You can get a good dvr for about $300 - $500 on ebay. 4 channel with
an 80gb Hd will be fine for about 2 to 3 days on constant recording
with pretty good quality. When choosing compression, try and stay away
from wavelet and don't get a pc based system. Get a stand-alone, it's
a lot more stable and can't be hacked into (well, almost can't) Most
of all, don't trade quality for quantity, it's better to spend a little
more to add an additional hard drive than to cut down your vid quality.


Also, when you're buying, try and buy the system from a vendor.
Vendors offer great deals and even more, they offer technical support
that is invaluable when you get into trouble. If you screw up royal or
just feel overwhelmed, don't worry, log onto an online referral service
or call up a local security company and tell them you need to contract
out one of their guys for a camera job. They can be pricey but you'd
have to do the same if you bought costco and couldn't install it. The
bottom line is, those proprietary systems are junk and don't offer the
quality you're gonna want. The pictures are crap and the recording is
usually pretty bad. For $800, you can do a lot better and even if you
have to spend closer to $1000; at least you'd get what you paid for.

There's a lot to installing a camera system but with a little internet
surfing and some bargains, you can piece together a very decent system
for about the same price as a store bought one. Hope this helps.
 
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