Please Help With Outdoor Security Camera Need

[lancemcc]

Hello all. I have been reading these informative forums and was hoping some of you in the know about this subject could give me some sound advice.

My situation is that I am looking to purchase and install outdoor, low light, security cameras on my home. Unfortunately, for no reason whatsoever, our house has become a target for delinquent kids who've perpetrated vandalism on my home.

My goal is to film these kids in the act, in what most likely will be a lowlight situation, so that I can identify who they are and report them to their parents and the proper authorities.

I have researched a lot of cameras and am just having a really hard time deciding what to do. Lowlight sensitivity is critical. It is not black out at anytime by any means - there is a street light right across the street and many well lit homes in close proximity. The area I need coverage is probably only 60 feet wide and 20 to 30 feet in depth.

I have even contacted 2 companies that have quoted me around $1500 minimum. One said they would install 2 low light (.0002 lux) Analog cameras and wire them to a 250 Gig DVR and it would be around $1500.00 to $1800.00 installed.

The second company said they'd install a Digital, IP Camera - 2 megapixel - with 90 degree coverage ($800 less than the 4 lens / 180 degree version) and run cat5 to my existing network for around $1500.00 also.

I have those options or of course the option of purchasing the equipment myself and installing it myself. I have an existing wireless network, and a great outdoor place, actually under my gutter and out of direct rain, that also is right next to a standard power outlet.

So I have 2 questions. Should I take the chance at saving dough by purchasing a IP wirelss camera and hope that the lux and video quality is good enough to identify the culrprits? Or, should I spend the dough to have it done "right"?

Second, if I went Wireless IP - and this to me means I just plug it in for power and the data is sent via standard IP Wireless - would the video quality be degraded by not being hardwired like over PoE or Siamese? In this option, will the video still be good enough to indentify people at night? Under, say, above 50 luns / starlight, moonlight, and street lights?

Thank you for anyone who actually read all this, and thanks to those who can answer intelligently.

[marcbalcells]

Hello, low light conditions are no problem for nowadays cameras, I would suggest not to go megapixel since this cameras have a greater need of light than regular cameras.
The cheapest option is to get an analog camera with built-in infrarred leds then plug it to a DVR.
IR leds are only effective if objects are in between 1-10 meters
Wireless IP cameras won't degrade their quality just because they're wireless, if you have low signal you might get less frames per second but quality won't be degraded as it happens with analog wireless cameras.

Anyway if the only problem you have are vandalic kids I would suggest you first try with fake cameras and maybe extra lightning, that should scare them enough and it's definetly the cheapest solution