Home CCTV system

330d

Morning all,

Looking to get a CCTV system for my house. It will be a simple system, 4 exterior cameras and a recorder. 

I have done some research and it appears a POE system is the one to get as its better quality. I have looked at systems from a company called Swann and the price is around £1000.

Are there any other companies that are reccomended?

cymruchris

What budget do you want to set yourself? POE cameras are good in that you just have to run a single cable to each camera - and it's a standard network cable. The cameras themselves though are something to consider - would need to know a little more about what you're trying to achieve in terms of coverage (wide shots - or zoomed in on detail like a car, a gate or a door), existing lighting at night, and how long you might want to keep your images for (size of hard drive). Swann are a domestic brand - average for what they deliver - but likely better options available (depending on budget).

330d

Budget wise I am hoping for less than a £1000. But then again this is my first time investing in CCTV so it might be more.

In terms of coverage, I am not planning on any detail coverage. My plan was to have 3/4 cameras around the house. But picture quality is very important. I dont see the point in having CCTV if the quality is poor. This is why I was looking at the POE NVR systems as they run over ethernet.

In regards to other companies, is one option to buy camera's and recorder seperate? I have seen motorized POE dome cameras for less than £150. Three of these plus a recorder will be perfect!

cymruchris

Yes - If you're going to spend money - don't spend money to get something poor/average. (But you also don't need to spend an ABSOLUTE fortune either )
Is there street lighting around the house? How dark is dark when it comes to night time? (Oh and how technical are you on a scale of 1-10?)

330d

cymruchris said:

Yes - If you're going to spend money - don't spend money to get something poor/average. (But you also don't need to spend an ABSOLUTE fortune either )
Is there street lighting around the house? How dark is dark when it comes to night time? (Oh and how technical are you on a scale of 1-10?)

Good point about the lighting, there is almost zero Street lighting around the house.

I have done some research and the Reolink system looks to be good with very good reviews. Lots of options too.

I would say I am very technical, around 8/9.

Chickereeeee

I have done some research and the Reolink system looks to be good with very good reviews. Lots of options too.

I have a couple of Reolink cameras to play around with, and have had no problems with them. Quality seems good. For now, I am running them using just their local SD card memory, which records a week of activities. I was going to use my NAS for remote recording, but since found out I cannot use the external drive for this purpose, I do not really want to run it on the same (RAID) discs as I have my other stuff on. So a dedicated Reolink recorder looks in the cards.
(NB: the thing missing from the Reolink portfolio is  a small 'doorbell' camera.)

cymruchris

330d said:

cymruchris said:

Yes - If you're going to spend money - don't spend money to get something poor/average. (But you also don't need to spend an ABSOLUTE fortune either )
Is there street lighting around the house? How dark is dark when it comes to night time? (Oh and how technical are you on a scale of 1-10?)

Good point about the lighting, there is almost zero Street lighting around the house.

I have done some research and the Reolink system looks to be good with very good reviews. Lots of options too.

I would say I am very technical, around 8/9.

Thats good on the technical - so almost zero lighting at night will mean a decent infra red range - some cameras have really poor infra red - and are only useful if someone has their face up against the camera. The reolink range are certainly better than the Swann you mentioned but they are another of the exclusive brands that mean you have to use all of their stuff. Which is fine if you don’t mind using all of their stuff  

will you stick at 4 cameras - or do you think you’ll ever want to add more? Or even add cameras internally ? 

330d

Chickereeeee said:

I have done some research and the Reolink system looks to be good with very good reviews. Lots of options too.

I have a couple of Reolink cameras to play around with, and have had no problems with them. Quality seems good. For now, I am running them using just their local SD card memory, which records a week of activities. I was going to use my NAS for remote recording, but since found out I cannot use the external drive for this purpose, I do not really want to run it on the same (RAID) discs as I have my other stuff on. So a dedicated Reolink recorder looks in the cards.
(NB: the thing missing from the Reolink portfolio is  a small 'doorbell' camera.)

Thats very positive to hear about Reolink. 

And completely agree about the doorbell camera. Is it not possible to get a POE doorbell from another manufacturer and connect it to the Reolink recorder? Or does it have to be a Reolink?

330d

cymruchris said:

Thats good on the technical - so almost zero lighting at night will mean a decent infra red range - some cameras have really poor infra red - and are only useful if someone has their face up against the camera. The reolink range are certainly better than the Swann you mentioned but they are another of the exclusive brands that mean you have to use all of their stuff. Which is fine if you don’t mind using all of their stuff  

will you stick at 4 cameras - or do you think you’ll ever want to add more? Or even add cameras internally ? 

Agree. Although I do have PIR floodlights around my house to this should help with night time video quality. 

A good video here comparing the different Reolink cameras - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXDO0Nrz2xU

To me the 8MP is slightly better than the 12MP in daylight but the 12MP appears to be much better at night time. 

Even though the 12MP is only 4:3 output I may go for these due to its much superior night time quality. 

fenwick458

I recently bought 3 x  Hikvision ds-2cd2347g2-lu colorvu cameras for £125 each (they can see in the dark, unbelievable tech) and a 4TB NVR for £220. total was around £650 inc a few Ethernet cables & memory cards
from CCTVdirectonline.co.uk

cymruchris

So that's a no to more than 4 cameras?