Hey all! I have a dumb question about cameras. Before I ask the question and run for cover :oops: I am VERY familiar with the old addage "you get what you pay for". Found this out by buying a cheap dvr card from ebay... I know, i took that one on the chin, but gracefully chalk it up as a life lesson.
That being said, I am on an EXTREMELY limited budget and need to purchase one more camera for my home, as I am about to testify against my very crazy neighbor. I have 2 cams in the front yard, and one on the side yard, now all i need is one for the backyard. These are the 3 cams I have now.
[link removed by mod - contains pirated cards]
I am hooking them up to an Avermedia NV5000 thats coming in on Monday. I am ashamed to say the dvr card Im using now is cheap Tiawanese junk from ebay, thats why I got a "better" card coming. ( :( couldnt afford the mighty GEO!) That being said, are there any sub-$100 cams available that have a decent picture? I dont need to pick up liscence plate numbers or anything like that, just be able to see the person walking thru the yard. IR would be nice, but the ones I have sorta suck at night and I normally dont run the cameras while I am home. Only while I am at work.
Any ideas?
*runs for cover protecting head from verbal projectiles*
:)

OT--you got a funny home website!!! :lol:

Guys no links to web sites selling pirate cards pleeeaasee .. thanks.

To answer your question, yes and no, for a standard color bullet you can get it for that price, and give you a pretty decent quality, not high res and cant handle lighting too well but over all its not bad for the price. For IR cameras not really, they are sub standard at that price, and thats being nice to them. :lol:

See this post
http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4092#33236

And before all the other sales people jump on the bandwagon, please no links to "i can sell you this", just info and details please, PM them if you want to sell them something .. thanks

These have been popular for budget cameras in my neighborhood.



Image Device: 1/3" Sony CCD
Number of Pixels: 510 H x 492 V
Horizontal Resolution: 420 TV Lines
Minimum Illumination: 0.0 lux with IR
S/N Ratio: More than 48dB (AGC Off)
Load Impedance: 75 Ohms
Lens: Fixed 6.0mm
Power: DC 12V 250mA (IR On)
Construction: Weatherproof Aluminum Housing
Video Output: BNC

Oops! Sorry about that! I guess I didnt even look at their dvr cards. The link I attached was supposed to be the camera page where I bought them from. My most humble apologies! :oops:
Still interested in some suggests for budget cameras, though. While Im here, this question is sorta related to the budget camera question. I have found that a lot of budget cams are Sharp chips. Should I avoid these, or is it a preference thing? Ive read the Sony chipped cams are better, but never found a "real-life" side by side comparison. Thanks, and again, soooo sorry for the bad link!

Yep stay away from Sharp, you can still get a really inexpensive CCD Color 0.5 lux Bullet Camera for the price you want to pay .. see the image in the other post i linked to. They will all be 1/4" CCD though, would have to double or triple the price for a 1/3" CCD.

There are definitely some sub $100.00($95-$99 :) ) cameras that are very good. If your looking for an IR bullet type cam like sec. monst. posted, you should be able to find a decent one. Oh, and props for getting the Aver NV5000. Awesome DVR card, you will be very very satisfied. Make sure though you are using the new Version 5.5 software. Are you going to be using that card for 4 channels @120fps or 8 @15fps.

i will only be using 3 cameras to start with, but maybe my misses will let me add more later! shes the one determining the budget, so i better listen to her real good!

Amen to that!

OK, so heres the specs on those cameras Im using right now...

Product Details

• B&W 1/3" Sony Super HAD CCD
• 0 LUX, 12 LED IR Illuminators 10 Meter
• 420 Lines Resolution 250,000 Pixels
• 3.6 mm Fixed Board Lens Optional 4, 4.3, 6, 8, 12 or 16mm
• S/N Ratio More Than 50 dB
• AWB [Auto White Balance]
• BLC [Auto Back Light Compensation]
• 12 Volt DC 250 mA max (power supply sold seperately)
• Working Temp -10C~+40C
• Standard BNC Connector
• Includes mounting hardware.

Got these cams for $72, should I just go ahaead and order another one? I am also curious to see if the picture quality will be better on the NV5000 dvr card coming in today. Does the dvr card make a difference on picture/video quality?

The DVR card will effect the quality of the recording. And depending on what compression you use to record the video will determine how good of quality the playback video will be.

Maybe you should wait and see how the first camera performs with your DVR before ordering another one unless you have tested it in the situation you plan on using it in.

The NV5000 should give you very good results with any 420TVL, 1/3" Sony camera. Set it up at 640x480 and Mpeg-4 compression. Going from some off brand knock-off card to this DVR card will definately improve performance and quality.

What is your PC hardware setup for the DVR card?

If you want to see a demo of the NV5000 in action please visit:
http://www.ilinksurveillance.com/html/demo1.html and select the first demo link. All of the cameras are 420TVL, 1/3" Sony's except channels 1, 5, 10.

I am currently using a home build, with the following specs:
XP Home sp2
Abit NF7-S mobo
AMD XP3200 cpu
1.2 gig Mushkin pc3200 RAM
ATI 9800 pro 128mb
2x sata 80gig WD hdd's (1 for OS 1 for programs)
1x 30gig WD IDE hdd (for music, downloads, video, documents, pictures, ect)
3meg cable internet
very adequate cooling
19" LCD monitor

The CD that came with it is version 5.1. Is this the version your talking about? I went to avermedias site and they only have version 4.7 up there. Is there an alternate website or something Im missing? BTW, this is hands down the best and most informative forum for security stuff out there. Thanks to all of you guys here!

5.1 Should be OK to use. There is not much difference between the 2 except IP cam support and a few other features that you will probably never use. If you want you can visit our site and download the software from there.

Release Notes:
http://www.ilinksurveillance.com/downloads/NV5.5releasenotes.pdf

Software Version 5.5
http://www.ilinksurveillance.com/downloads/NDVRDSS550035.zip

Thanks,

I just checked Avermedia's site and they do have 5.5 on there. Click on application software to download 5.5.

http://www.aver.com/2005home/support/downloads/faq_nv1000nv3000nv5000.shtml

Make sure you uninstall 5.1 if you have installed it already. I would also suggest you read the FAQ's as well.

Thanks.

I'm interested as well, aver hasn't been that bad to me in the past but I have never used their DVR card.

ok, got the card in and wow! what a difference! I have a feeling I will be a happy camper with this card. The software is much much better than the other junk i was using. Now all i need to do is play around with it a while to figure it out! :lol:

You should definately consider it CollinsR. They have come along way and make some incredible DVR cards now.

Well, let me know if you have any questions about your new Geo-Killer :lol:

What is their software policy? Do they charge for upgrades?

How often do they come out with updates?

[quote:4aee923b31="oderus1671"]
I am currently using a home build, with the following specs:
XP Home sp2
Abit NF7-S mobo
AMD XP3200 cpu
1.2 gig Mushkin pc3200 RAM
ATI 9800 pro 128mb
2x sata 80gig WD hdd's (1 for OS 1 for programs)
1x 30gig WD IDE hdd (for music, downloads, video, documents, pictures, ect)
3meg cable internet
very adequate cooling
19" LCD monitor