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Which is the right camera for the job?

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I will be doing a job in the near future where vandalism is a problem. The outside of the building needs to be monitored via cctv. The budget is tight as usual. It is a small building about 30 feet by 20 feet. The only options for mounting the cameras is on the outside walls of the building. I originally wanted to use bullet cameras with ir, but it's just not an option because they will get destroyed, or messed with. My next thought was a vandal proof dome that can be mounted on a wall, but that option is out also because it will not be able to point in the direction I need it mounted on a wall. As far as I know, there are no dome cameras that can be wall mounted and point sideways like a bullet camera. So that brings me to my question: How can I solve this problem? If I had an unlimited budget it would be more feasible, but with only about $150 to spend per camera, what can I do? Ultimately I would like to have a vandal proof, weatherproof, color, wall mountable ir day/night dome cam that can point sideways. If anyone has any sugestions, please let me know. Thanks.

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Your gonna be pressed to find something with a $150 budget! Is the $150 your spending limit or your customers?

 

Also, sometimes IR doesn't do the trick. You can always suggest that the customer install some sort of lighting on the exterior of the building, this will help light up the area so that theives can't do what they do as easily but also help the cameras out!

 

How far off the ground will the cameras be mounted?

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Most decent Domes these days have a 360 degree Gimble so you can point the camera in any direction, but generally that is not found in the budget domes. But I would not use any Domes with internal IR myself.

 

Some domes that have it:

WizKid, Extreme, Nuvico, and some other OEM Korean Domes.

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ya you can get several different brands of domes that have a 3 axis mounting. I actually just did a job where we mounted 6 V.P.D on the wall and they all looked down the walls side. That is definitly your answer

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Man 150 dollars a camera............................................I would have to excuse myself before I laughed right there in front of them.

All joking aside that is pretty cheap. I would re approach them and explain to them that they can either pay for it now or pay twice as much later. If they go cheap on a camera (especially outdoor/vandalproof) then they cant expect a whole lot out of it. Man you cant even get a system at sams club for that cheap. And that is as cheap as they come.

My advice:

Re approach and educate them on what they would get or not get for 150 a camera. I personally would walk away from that job.

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I personally would walk away from that job.

 

Sometimes this is something you just have to do, even if your short on jobs for the moment. Budget jobs like this can come back and nip you in the butt, especially if you try to warranty any of the equipment!

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exactly what securitymonster said. I really dont even bother with people that are not willing to pay for the service they will want you to provide later. Lets just say for conversation you marked your cameras all the way to 100%. And you were able to net after the whole system is installed 1,500.

Do you know how fast you can eat that up in troubleshooting some strange problem 6 months down the road? And after taxes and overhead......man those cheap jobs are not even remotly worth it to me. (numbers were just pulled out of the air and were no way an estimated profit)

What i will do before I even go any farther than the first phone call is tell them they can expect between 1600 and 2200 average per camera for the entire system. If they cant afford that I wont bother.

But then again that is only the way I personally do it. And I dont want you to think that is what you should necessarilly do. Those jobs may work for you. That is just want I personally would do in that situation.

 

 

You Get What You Pay For.

That goes for you and the end user.

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For $150 price tag, you won't get the IR capability, but the CAM 95 (new cam line) from Mace, will get you a high resolution , 525 line varifocal armor dome with .5 lux

 

I've used this camera on numerous jobs lately and the clients love the imagine quality.

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probably the same as the eclipse models, either way, he's talking retail pricing ...

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yeah you do get what you pay for.

 

but 2000 a camera? jesus christ! thats not cheap lol! i thought the us was the land of the cheap

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I think he is figuring in his labor and everything else in to the quotes per camera, not just the camera price.

 

Unless he is doing all high end jobs.

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no not just a camera. that is an average over the whole system.

Cameras, recorders, labor, accessories, and whatever else.

So If they say they are looking for about 10 cameras then they have a figure in their mind of how much it may cost.

We install mace cameras but in no way is that all we install. Most people are willing to pay for maces higher end cameras. But if they will pay for panasonic, extreme, pelco, then we install it. It's all about what they are willing to pay for.

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Does anyone use these?

 

http://www.digitalwatchguard.com/securitycameras/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=328&idproduct=1206

 

It seems like a good idea when you need to mount a dome cam on an outdoor wall and see directly along the wall. I think in another post someone mentioned some domes can see in that direction, but just how far?

 

Are you trying to have the dome stare straight down a wall?

 

They are not going to see straight down, at least not that I know of.

Edited by Guest

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Does anyone use these?

 

http://www.digitalwatchguard.com/securitycameras/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=328&idproduct=1206

 

It seems like a good idea when you need to mount a dome cam on an outdoor wall and see directly along the wall. I think in another post someone mentioned some domes can see in that direction, but just how far?

 

Wall Mounts like that come with certain Brands, like GE, Ganz, etc.

But if you buy a wall mount dome, with the 360 degree gimble, then they will see down the wall without this. The wall mounts like this, I only ever used them for Cosmetic reasons.

 

Also, you can get the budget domes or other Domes that dont have that 360 gimble, to see sideways too, means some bending of the camera's mount inside the housing, but it is doable.

 

Isaac yah know i was just kiddin

$2k a system is inexpensive actually ... i dont work for less that $6k

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I would like the camera to be mounted on a wall and be able to "see" all the way to the left or right of the wall, not down.

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I would like the camera to be mounted on a wall and be able to "see" all the way to the left or right of the wall, not down.

 

Oh, same problem though. I am looking at the Ganz right now and it looks like it might be able to do that, but not sure yet. But again these are expensive cameras.

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Yeah. I don't think so. Since the Dome cover itself is not purely clear because it has the ring around the dome to attach to the base I don't see how it can point straight sideways, up or down.

 

Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

 

You could create a shim to angle the camera out a little to accomplish this though. You would need to cut wood at a angle and paint it to help it blend with the camera, but it would work if you did it right. The angle of the wood, would have to be just right.

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The Ganz is still going to be way over his budget. Panasonic's Wide Dynamic Day Night dome is actually one of the least expensive True Day Night Domes on the market.

 

He can just buy a Cheap Color/IR Vandal Dome from like Eclipse or Mace, then bend the camera base to physically adjust it in that direction ... bang goes any warranty and the image wont be great, but hey, thats what you will get for that price range ...

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Well if this is that same $150 dollar budget for a day/night camera, yeah, forget it.

 

If the camera is going to be used outside around the clock then your best hope would be the cheapest dome you can find that can operate in a fairly well lit area, but for $150 you have one real challenge on your hands.

 

Like it was mentioned before you probably should speek to these people again and let them know the lmitations. People who are usually that cheap are usually the ones that end up being your biggest service calls so you end up losing money any way.

 

I am just speaking from personal experience as a businessman.

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$2k a system is inexpensive actually

 

no i agree with that. was under impression he was saying 2k per cam lol

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$2k a system is inexpensive actually

 

no i agree with that. was under impression he was saying 2k per cam lol

 

thats what I thought too ..

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