Best Security Camera?
- Thread starter flyguy
- Start date
Digger - just that cheap cameras are a sore spot with me. I've been out bid by people selling cr@p too many times. Cheap cameras give the CCTV business a bad rap and underscore the quality that is really out there!
jeffx - $100 for 6 "high quality cameras"? Sounds like a good buy. I sell my cheap CMOS pinhole cameras for more than that! As I said early in this thread, you get what you pay for in CCTV. You won't get a $200 or $300 camera for $50. If you pay $16 for a varifocal camera, be happy if it turns on. I wish you luck. I don't know what models you got, but if they work at all for that price, you did fine.
Digger - Vicon has some decent mid-range cameras. That's all I've ever seen first hand.
jeffx - $100 for 6 "high quality cameras"? Sounds like a good buy. I sell my cheap CMOS pinhole cameras for more than that! As I said early in this thread, you get what you pay for in CCTV. You won't get a $200 or $300 camera for $50. If you pay $16 for a varifocal camera, be happy if it turns on. I wish you luck. I don't know what models you got, but if they work at all for that price, you did fine.
Digger - Vicon has some decent mid-range cameras. That's all I've ever seen first hand.
ver0776
Active Member
It gets a little confusing about the Quality thing because there is cheap because of quality and cheap because of features.
We need a pricing guide on what to expect to pay for all the catagories of cameras.
CCD or CMOS
B&W or Color
Indoor or OutDoor
Day Night
Auto Iris
Vari-Focus
Sound
IR LEDs
Lens choices
Wireless
etc...
I am very happy with my $70 Day/Night outdoor cameras. But that is because I accept the default lens, limited IR range and no focusing. There is no problem with cheap cameras bought with the proper features.
I agree that if you see a vari-focal, day/night with 50 LEDs, CCD in a weatherproof house for $70, then something is wrong and you are about to get ripped off. However, I see many cameras for $250-$350 that offer few or no more features than my $70 Swanns, except maybe a few more LEDs and I think that is a rip off too. I also bought a $130 Swann camera and the $70 one looks identical on my DVR...
Since it is so hard to compare these things over the internet, I think a lot of CCTV companies are getting way larger margins than they should. I want to buy these things at a commodity level. We need a website like TomsHardware.com that actually reviews these cameras side-by-side in different conditions so we can get a better idea if the quality differences match the pricing differences.
You also have to consider your DVR, because it is a waste to get a super nice camera if the DVR is downsampling it and/or compressing the hell out of the footage...
It will all get better... A year ago, places like MicroCenter had like 2 cameras, now they stock a whole section with multiple brands and different types. So as something becomes more common, so do the reviews and specs and prices...
Vaughn
We need a pricing guide on what to expect to pay for all the catagories of cameras.
CCD or CMOS
B&W or Color
Indoor or OutDoor
Day Night
Auto Iris
Vari-Focus
Sound
IR LEDs
Lens choices
Wireless
etc...
I am very happy with my $70 Day/Night outdoor cameras. But that is because I accept the default lens, limited IR range and no focusing. There is no problem with cheap cameras bought with the proper features.
I agree that if you see a vari-focal, day/night with 50 LEDs, CCD in a weatherproof house for $70, then something is wrong and you are about to get ripped off. However, I see many cameras for $250-$350 that offer few or no more features than my $70 Swanns, except maybe a few more LEDs and I think that is a rip off too. I also bought a $130 Swann camera and the $70 one looks identical on my DVR...
Since it is so hard to compare these things over the internet, I think a lot of CCTV companies are getting way larger margins than they should. I want to buy these things at a commodity level. We need a website like TomsHardware.com that actually reviews these cameras side-by-side in different conditions so we can get a better idea if the quality differences match the pricing differences.
You also have to consider your DVR, because it is a waste to get a super nice camera if the DVR is downsampling it and/or compressing the hell out of the footage...
It will all get better... A year ago, places like MicroCenter had like 2 cameras, now they stock a whole section with multiple brands and different types. So as something becomes more common, so do the reviews and specs and prices...
Vaughn
BraveSirRobbin
Moderator
Vaughn:
This is a great point and one I would be happy to peruse. Couple of problems. The main one is getting the cameras themselves.
CocoonTech.com is growing in recognition in the HA/Security industry, but the simple matter of getting vendors to provide cameras to us is a daunting task. That plus the fact that image quality is a very subjective opinion. I have found via posts here that one persons "high quality image" opinion varies very differently from another’s.
I also tried proposing that we have a Friday Night Chat video feed theme. Everyone would post (in advance) specifications of their cameras, then have them available during our Friday night chat session where they can post the feed links and talk about these various cameras with others.
This failed miserably as I was the only one who participated.
So, I am open to suggestions, but also be aware that CocoonTech has NO monetary funds and can't just go out and purchase a half dozen cameras for review.
Regards,
BSR
This is a great point and one I would be happy to peruse. Couple of problems. The main one is getting the cameras themselves.
CocoonTech.com is growing in recognition in the HA/Security industry, but the simple matter of getting vendors to provide cameras to us is a daunting task. That plus the fact that image quality is a very subjective opinion. I have found via posts here that one persons "high quality image" opinion varies very differently from another’s.
I also tried proposing that we have a Friday Night Chat video feed theme. Everyone would post (in advance) specifications of their cameras, then have them available during our Friday night chat session where they can post the feed links and talk about these various cameras with others.
This failed miserably as I was the only one who participated.
So, I am open to suggestions, but also be aware that CocoonTech has NO monetary funds and can't just go out and purchase a half dozen cameras for review.
Regards,
BSR
ver0776
Active Member
BSR,
I don't think it is the responsibility of CocoonTech to do the reviews. It is a business model in itself and just needs someone to make it. I have already bought a couple URLs for the task, but like everything else, I dream about it and have 0 time to invest in it.
I was going to do it myself because I have about 11 models of cameras to start with. My idea was to mount them all to a board so they are looking at the exact same object at the exact same time so lighting and other variables are eliminated. So side-by-side pictures could be compared and this would be done indoors and outdoors, maybe like 6 different senerios.
Companies like Swann will provide some specs on one camera, and different ones on another, so even compairing cameras from the same company while standing in the store is difficult. So standardizing what stats are important and researching the missing data on the packaging would be an important service too.
Now all my cameras are mounted though, so I am in the same boat as you/cocoon and I would have to invest a bunch of money to do it. I could buy cameras, take pictures and then return them, but then lighting and other issues are re-introduced then. So I guess we can just hope that one of the CCTV companies (or Smarthome or AO even) would offer the reviews as a value added service, although it does not fit their business models either.
If my web skills were better (I haven't even got a damn site for vCrib coded yet) I would be all over it, despite the cost. So all I can say is if someone wanted to do it, I would help and even donate a couple cameras, and even the URL... But they are on their own for the site design.
Vaughn
I don't think it is the responsibility of CocoonTech to do the reviews. It is a business model in itself and just needs someone to make it. I have already bought a couple URLs for the task, but like everything else, I dream about it and have 0 time to invest in it.
I was going to do it myself because I have about 11 models of cameras to start with. My idea was to mount them all to a board so they are looking at the exact same object at the exact same time so lighting and other variables are eliminated. So side-by-side pictures could be compared and this would be done indoors and outdoors, maybe like 6 different senerios.
Companies like Swann will provide some specs on one camera, and different ones on another, so even compairing cameras from the same company while standing in the store is difficult. So standardizing what stats are important and researching the missing data on the packaging would be an important service too.
Now all my cameras are mounted though, so I am in the same boat as you/cocoon and I would have to invest a bunch of money to do it. I could buy cameras, take pictures and then return them, but then lighting and other issues are re-introduced then. So I guess we can just hope that one of the CCTV companies (or Smarthome or AO even) would offer the reviews as a value added service, although it does not fit their business models either.
If my web skills were better (I haven't even got a damn site for vCrib coded yet) I would be all over it, despite the cost. So all I can say is if someone wanted to do it, I would help and even donate a couple cameras, and even the URL... But they are on their own for the site design.
Vaughn
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