Soundy

Nope - the two are completely different things. Camera-based autofocus (as opposed to lens-based) is actually auto-backfocus, where the camera physically moves the sensor closer to or farther from the lens. It tends to work quite well in most cameras that have it. The lens's iris is there to control the amount of light the lens passes. With a DC-drive lens, the camera controls the iris based on the light level detected. While this does have an effect (or side-effect) on the depth of focus, it DOES NOT directly control or adjust the focus. Only necessary if it's a TDN/ICR camera.

These things tend to be designed to hold monster CRT monitors, so there's a lot of space inside that's just not needed anymore. Something like this works better now:

This is interesting... we don't have foxes around here (that I've ever seen) but I have caught coyotes wandering through a couple times on my home cameras.

The lens will probably have an iris (aka aperture) adjustment, then... look for a ring on it marked with "O" and "C" at two different points. Or just play with the rings on it - you should find that one of them makes the picture darker and brighter: this is the iris. Try dialing it down in the daytime for proper exposure, then see if the camera doesn't compensate and brighten it up at night. Can you provide close-up photos of the camera and lens? Make a make and model number of the lens?

It was hard to find any info on this camera online, but I did find some articles on hacking it to add manual exposure control (mostly by people using it for astrophotography). Does the lens have a wire than connects to the camera body? If so, is there an adjustment on the camera (probably a small recessed dial) labelled "DC LEVEL" or just "LEVEL" or something similar?

$500-$600 is actually pretty minimal for a good *analog* PTZ... to get a brand-name 720p IP PTZ for that sounds like a screamin' deal to me.

Hard to say for sure what the cause is without more information, but the symptoms sound like simple over-exposure... are you using the same lens on the new one as the old one? Have you duplicated all the settings from the old one to the new one?

Matter of fact, all the A11s we've ever got in have come with the back-box, and yes, I have installed them outdoors on a wall in direct weather.

I've seen desks like that too... none of it appears to be specific to "surveillance" use, although the layout itself seems oriented toward it. I wouldn't say it's COMPLETELY custom... more like, a modular system with a customized layout.

Not familiar with the brand at all. Someone else here may be. The camera used for the picture above is this one: http://www.3xlogic.com/prod/1617/vsx-2mp-vd-2-megapixel-indooroutdoor-vandal-dome-daynight-ip-camera That's pushing the lower end of the scale... you might find some "okay" 1-1.3MP cams for that. That will depend somewhat on the software used. Avigilon is popular here for being able to run on minimal hardware. Something that combines the VMS (Video Management System) software into it will require more power. Correct.

Pretty clean job on the siding there, nicely done!

I have no issues with that. Fit RG59 (siamese) in a 1/2" crack between 2 beams above a camera today, joining the camera connections. Had to bend it almost completely to fit it snug and works like a champ - in fact we have it run between the cracks of the iron beams where they meet the ceiling, cant even see it. It can be heavy to pull especially when dealing with dozens of wires, but at least its strong cable - cat5 just seems so flimsy. IMO cat5 or better yet UTP multipair is best suited for multiple building apps and long runs. Plus, you can't use twist-on BNCs with UTP, so that's a non-starter right there.

Customer Awareness monitor is pretty common in retail... we used to use a lot of 21" Sony CRTs on VERY hefty ceiling mounts... most of them are now 19" LCDs.

Meaning the site is a scam and you obviously haven't paid attention to the rest of the thread.

See, now I KNOW you're trolling - you know as well as anyone that you can't power 1.65A worth of cameras over a single 24AWG pair. Hell, you'd have trouble powering all that over a single 18/2. I also know we've discussed the VPS units around here before and you should be perfectly aware of what type of device they are. Stop confusing the OP with your trolling. Trolling? I asked a question. You asked a BS question you already knew the answer to. You do whatever makes you happy.

3 pairs are needed? I would only have 1 pair free. See, now I KNOW you're trolling - you know as well as anyone that you can't power 1.65A worth of cameras over a single 24AWG pair. Hell, you'd have trouble powering all that over a single 18/2. I also know we've discussed the VPS units around here before and you should be perfectly aware of what type of device they are. Stop confusing the OP with your trolling. Don't have the exact numbers handy, but offhand I think the MSRP is between $3k-$4k depending on total framerate you want (60fps over 16 channels, right up to 960fps across 32 channels), how much drive space you want it shipped with, what form factor you choose (cube/tower/wall-mount/rack-mount), and what additional modules you enable. It's worked with every camera I've tried on it... the only ones that have needed "massaging" to work properly are various Arecont models. Their list of supported cameras is extensive. BTW, the "Pro" and "DRX" designations only refer to the type of capture device - "Pro" is a hardware-compression card (HIKvision, I think); DRX is a ComArt-based software compression card. With the hybrid, even with a 16-channel card, the software still supports up to 32 channels, allowing up to 16 additional IP cameras. If you're going straight NVR, you don't need either; pricing would be different as well, as IP cameras are licensed per-camera, so you only need to purchase as many channels as you have cameras, and you're not paying for the capture card. Exact numbers for different configurations would be questions for your sales rep...

Well, you can always get boxes like LG's "Smart TV Upgrader"... same idea as an AppleTV. They go for <$100 and work on the same basic principle: plug into the network (or connect via WiFi) and run browser, streaming, services like Netflix, etc. on any HDMI-capable display. From the sounds of the size of this place though, they could just sell off the North Wing and have enough spare change to buy all new TVs

Welcome aboard! My wife's originally from That Toddlin' Town!

Hmmm, whole house is wired for network you say? Easy solution: appropriate IP camera in the baby's room, upgrade all TVs to "Smart TVs"... TV's browser then just access the camera via the network. Easy-peasy! (And down the road, once they figure out that iPads are actually cool, they can view the camera from their iPads too... or smart phones.)

Well, you'd probably want to look at a dome camera, to keep it unobtrusive and resistant to tampering... most dome cameras, analog or network, come with vari-focal lenses, meaning you can adjust the focal length and thus the field of view. One of the IP domes we use regularly comes with a 2.9-12mm lens - at the 2.9mm end, it covers almost a 90-degree angle. This is an example of this camera on about a 7'6" (2.3m) ceiling: So something like that in the corner of the room would show you pretty much the entire room. 2MP refers to the resolution: 2 megapixel (1600x1200) - regular analog video maxes out at about 720x480, or 0.3MP. For your needs, it's probably a good trade-off between resolution, and bandwidth (there are cameras commercially available up to 29MP, but that would be a HUGE hit on your network). H.264 is one of the encoding and compression methods used and tends to have the least impact on the network (Motion-JPEG and MPEG-4 are the most common others). Correct: you would use an NVR - network video recorder - in its simplest form, just software that receives the video stream and writes it to disk. Some cameras can also send their video directly to shared network storage; some even record the video internally, meaning you only need to access the camera when you want to view the video.

Your labs would probably be fine with one camera for the whole room - put it in a corner above the door with a wide shot to cover the whole room, and you're set. Use something in a ~2MP H.264 network camera and you should be able to safely run them all over your existing network (nominally looking at no more than 2-3Mbps per camera; use VBR and you'll only get significant traffic when there's activity - I'd hardwire them in though, rather than go wireless). For the library, you might want 2-3 cameras - it depends on the layout and what areas you want to protect, whether there are tall book shelves blocking views, etc. Standard tight shot on the door, like you'll commonly see in retail, might be a good start, then an overview of the checkout counter.

Why do you do this? Just put all the computers on the same subnet, share the printer on its machine, and the others should all find it automatically (especially if they're running Windows 7).

See comparisons here: http://www.nellyssurplusguide.com/lenscomparison.html