I always feel odd putting my country in as part of my location (you know us americans feel we're the center of the universe) but I have been browsing these forums long enough to know many of you are not from the USA (maybe even most of you).

It seems I missed this forum for my initial post/hello. I swear I looked for something in the way of an intro forum. My first is here viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19864

Anyway, I am an ex-accountant turned housedad, 2 kids, wife, house, dog... all that. I don't plan on turning this into a business but it seems interesting enough to maybe go hobby (I fell off my roof while putting up Christmas decorations a few years ago so I couldn't make it a business if I wanted to.). I'm a pretty handy fellow within my limitations. I have always loved "catching the bad guy".

Hmm, I guess I should have read some of the other intro threads to see what kinds of things to say so I guess I'll end it here for now.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Welcome!

I'm not from the U.S. either - I originally came from CT

You'll have to take that up with Torontonians - they're all convinced they're the center of the universe too!

Welcome aboard, from Vancouver, BC (on the Wet Coast)!

Hi, would like to share with you!

Welcome, from the Bahamas.

Yay, the replacement mirrors for my jeep came in yesterday. Now I just need to decide if I put them on now, before I install the cameras, or wait until after.

Cameras first... the mirrors will make tempting bait to finally capture the perps on film (metaphorically speaking).

I agree.

The only problem is, with the several comments I made about how little the police care and/or want to avoid paperwork for minor stuff, it will be just my luck they stop me for not having the mirrors (I believe driver's side is a must).

I can't do the cameras (the way I want to) until I get my tax return.

I suppose I can put the mirrors on and put a "free" sign on them. We all know noone takes anything marked "for free"!

Today was a nice day so I got out side to take some pictures. I took them in 640/480 to try to simulate a security camera.

The front picture has some possible locations marked. They are not the only locations, just the ones that seemed to make sense to me. The blue circle on the right just indicates the garden storage container I was thinking about using to hide the camera at location C. A (the peak) is a thought I had for a general view (possibly to replace B and D). I would probably give the best tamper resistant location.



This is the view from E (facing East I believe). The camera would probably be in a wooden box about 4 feet high attached to the fence post. I am not sure what kind of camera would be good to conceal in this fashion. The idea would be to get the front of oncoming cars and the rear of cars heading away. I suspect if I angle it more to the left, I can catch faces of anyone who comes into the driveway and sideshots of the cars.



The view from C (facing West I believe) is approximately what I would get if I put a camera over by the mailbox you can see in view E. It would be from a lower angle because my plan is to instal it inside the garden storage unit and cut a hole for it to see through (protected by plexiglass I think). Again, I am not sure if a bullet IR camera would work well looking through a hole.



Views D and B would be from under the eves of the roof in front. They could each be angled out into the driveway, down the road, or inbetween. Well D would get clipped by the fence at E.





The location usually has no light. The cars tend to average 50mph+. I'm not looking for Fort Knox stuff but I would like to have a good chance of catching the average vandal who is not actively trying to defeat the cameras.

Ok guys, hit me with some ideas (number of cameras, types, locations, etc.) and/or corrections please. I am sure I am making some bad assumptions somewhere.

I am trying to keep most of my stuff confined to one thread so I don't clutter the forum so please forgive me for responding to my own thread so much.

Regarding the cameras:

I am still leaning toward using a couple Samsung SIR 4160/4260 cameras. Besides the wide angle IR issue mentioned elsewhere (I have an email in to Samsung tech support. I'll let you know how that goes.), it seems as though they have many of the qualities you guys like about the Pan 484's but at about half the price (to me). Besides what we have seen so far, has anyone heard any more feedback for better or worse?

Even if they are not all they are cracked up to be, they should still be more than adequate for my needs, right?

In aid of keeping everything in one place, I'll reply to a couple things from your other post:



Ask yourself this: WHY do you want to catch license plates, especially of cars going by at 50+? They're not the ones that are doing the damage. If people are walking onto your property and removing bits of your Jeep, they're certainly not jumping out of those cars going 50+!

I'd concentrate more on focusing on the sidewalk - if they're walking up, it's likely they're either coming along the sidewalk, or parking along the sidewalk.



I'd say this is a good idea, and the only thing that needs to change is your parking habits. In short, pick a spot where you can nose-in or back-in your Jeep, then position your cameras to give a clear view down each side of it. Not only will that then give you good images of the Jeep itself, but should also give a good view of anyone approaching it from almost any direction. The only catch then is, you have to remember to always park in that orientation, in approximately the same space

In that case, you could put out some planters or something else innocuous to delineate your parking space without giving away that you're creating a choke-point for approaching would-be vandals.... in other words, make THEM come to YOU.

Thanks for the input again Soundy. I'll clarify for you.

The reason for trying to get plates is because most of the damage done to my property comes from items people throw from moving cars. Over the last 6 years, I have had to replace 3 vehicle windows, a mailbox, got many dents in my vehicles, and even had to bring my dog to the vet once because someone hit him with a rock (he's 180lbs bull mastiff so it just bruised him).

I also get a lot of litter on my property. If, in reviewing the videos, I see one or more people are consistently using my property as their personal dump, I can do something.

My son and I almost got run down by a speeder one day when I was getting him off the bus. Neither myself nor the bus driver could get the plate. He had no plate on the front and we were too busy counting fingers and toes after he went by to try to get the rear view.

Lastly, just to see anyone who may be taking an unusual interest in my kids (while outside) or property.

I suspect the fence has helped by making it so east bound drivers can't see who or what is in my driveway until they are on top of it.

The incident with the mirrors was the first time (that I know of) people came on to my property to do the damage.

I plan to put more cameras in eventually (one on each side and the rear) but because of my lack of funds I suspect I would be better off with a few mid range cameras right now to cover the high threat area than a bunch of low grade camers. That said, if you guys told me I'd need 2 $600 cameras to cover the road, I'd scrap the other 2 cameras in front for now and just make due with the 2 covering the road (I think I could angle then to get a decent shot of cars and faces.).

Because the majority of the damage comes from moving vehicles, I look at the road in front of my house as the "choke point". There are no sidewalks. Besides the unoccupied house across the street, the next closest house is over 200 feet away. There are no stores or other points of interest. Unless someone is actively trying to defeat the cameras, they will most likely drive past my house. If the people plan to get out of their vehicle, they will most likely do it close to my driveway (to be lazy and make get away easier). If they try to park far away they take a risk of looking suspicious walking along a high speed dangerous road at night and they increase the chance they can get caught if discovered. Because there is no sidewalk or point of interest, even people on bikes or on foot will have to use the road.

So that is my thinking in not so much of a nut shell.

I understand now!

Well... this is the tricky part: even in bright sunlight, you're not likely to catch plates going by at 50mph, at least not without very specialized cameras. After dark, there's no chance unless you have a flash attached. At this point, we're talking technology like is used in speed and red-light cameras - you'd need a camera aimed and focused at a specific point on the road, a tight flash beam aimed at the same point, and something to trigger both when the car hits that point.

The technology is out there, but I don't expect you'll find it for anywhere near your budget... would probably be cheaper to just let them bash the hell out of your Jeep, then go buy a new one

Lol Soundy,

I hear you and suspected as much. I guess the thing that confuzzles me are the video samples I have seen that were taken by cameras that seemed less capable than the ones I am looking at. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post the link. The camera picks up the plates pretty nicely... granted at much slower speeds but also for much less time than my application would have. Sounds like I'll either have to stay mid ranged and cross my fingers or take out a 2nd mortgage!

On another note, I got a call from Samsung Technical today (a few minutes ago). He said there is no issue with the wide angle IR on the 4160 and 4260. He said the "issue" I asked about (the bright center and dark outer edge) is common to all IR cameras. Doesn't sound right to me but I do have very limited experience. He did say their 425 or 737 with HLC would probably do better than the 4160 for capturing license plates because they have adjustable shutter speeds. I inquired about an evaluation sample (of the 4160 or 4260) to try out. He refered me to their local marketing company. If anyone is interested in more detail, just PM me or let me know if I can post the links.

Seems like it's time for me to just try SOMETHING and see how it goes.