Cheap Simple Survalance Kit

[Case]

Spotted the Kit (http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060716/cheap-simple-home-surveillance-kit/#more-1559)on the front page and was wondering if any one knew the lowlight capabulities on the cameras reason being is because it would be neat to make a paintball network of deployable cameras on the battle feild for recon and a few gun mounted ones in my squad to peer around things put te reciver in a bag on a battery and rig up a HUD or a handheld TV like unit.. but id also want to use this in the dark it would be a must... so low light is very important..

and BTW i can get it about 100 to 150 cheaper smarthoem is a RIP OFF

[Case]

Minimum Illumination: 1.5 Lux/F1.5

thats not great... wodner if it will work with other comeras like IR wireless cameras...

and check it out the companythat makes it has a handheld reciver too... neat :)

http://www.securitymaninc.com/gif/product/sm-713/SM-713.gif

But i dont see a low light IR camera that is less than 12v so it would be higher battery consumption and weight would be a issue

[hulkster]

While the LUX numbers may be "accurate", my guess is the image quality really goes to pot as you approach that number ... at least that my experience with my grass webcam. (http://www.watching-grass-grow.com) Low-light is fundamentally tough to do.

[Case]

Well it depends on the quality of the sensor i have a real nice Axis IP Cam and the lowlight is great theres a considerable amoutn of noise but quality is still good. While the sensor in my old intel webcam is even better

[SpyReview]

The spy cameras available are very poor with low light conditions. Additional light from filament light sources (v.s. flouresncent lights) will help with illumination due to the massive amount of IR light they throw out.

[ninikins]

You will need a lot of light to be able to come out with something good..

[Case]

IR cameras are IR based i can use IR illuminators and its not a problem... i have a giant IR spot actually...

[Case]

Problem with wireless cams like this any one can watch the feed

[TechnoMancer]

you can use pretty much any ccd device as far as i know as they are all sensitive to IR light. you just need a good ir source and it will produce a good black&white picture!!

[Case]

many cameras have a IR Filter on them hence why not all CCD Cameras are not sensitive to IR.

And depending on the CCD quality is how much IR light u need a moonlit night is enugh

[SpyReview]

Even the cheapest CCD cameras do work. You'll get the best effect from black and white cameras though.

[Case]

CCD sensors are sensitive to IR is true but its not possible to USE ANY CAMERA…. Some cameras have a fragile filter glued to the ccd that makes it impossible to remove without damaging.

And your also wrong on B&W cameras being better that’s not true it depends on the application and the camera your using. There’s a right tool for the job.

For an example of what im talking about here take a look at this http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=251630

Here you see a CCD digital camera and the user removes the IR filter that BLOCKS IR LIGHT FROM EVER GETTING TO THE CCD! Thiis s a color camera! Why a color camera bec it has a color pass filter that’s all… what the CCD see’s is based on the filter. More or less…

Iff you look at the Fir-I cameras from Unibrain here: http://www.unibrain.com/Products/VisionImg/Fire_i_BC.htm

You will see a firewire camera that comes in a IR Version, Color Version, B&W version and so on… all of them you can get without a IR filter but what’s the difference between the B&W and color? NOTHING they are in fact the identical camera and CCD one has a color pass filter and one has a B&W pass filter.


- Edit -

if you look at the features on the unibrain site you will see

Color Version Features
* CCD Sony ICX-098BQ with color RGB Bayer filter, 400 TV lines

Monochrome Version Features
* CCD Sony ICX-098BL without filter, 480 TV lines

as you can see same CCD and color vs B&W but still reads IR because it has no IR filter thats dependent on the lens you get as you can see from their lens chart...

The light transmission chart will be different with and with out the color pass filter so sometimes you will have some IR Loss in some spectrum's but this is dependent on the IR color spectrum you want to view and record hence why i say its very dependent on the application your using your cam for.
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---- Excuse the typos its a SOB to type all this out from my treo :) ----

[sunsetcliffs]

There is a baby monitoring camera what is the price...Have a look this with 4 wireless camera
They call it baby monitor (http://shopkami.com/component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.browse/category_id,18/Itemid,26/)
http://shopkami.com/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/4483df69d9e5a896cf726ae466d958d4.jpg

[keltinator]

You should get some cheap wireless webcams, an IR emitter, and some time-based recording software.

[corporatebee]

I've seen a whole lot of ir/pinhole cameras at spyreview.co.uk. A whole lot of 'so you wanna be a spy' type books too LOL.

[noxela]

I also want to buy a cheap surveillance system. I was trying to make some research on the net. I just want to share this from eFindOutTheTruth.com, Inc. It's a discreet smart Zippo style lighter as a digital camera capable of holding more then 100 pictures. This digital camera lighter is capable of capturing high-detailed images with a small file size of 640x480 pixels same as big resolution of 1280x960 pixels. USB Plug'n'Play. Web Camera: Send live video across the internet from your pc to friends and other spies. Quick Shots: Just flip this lighter, turn it on, take a picture and close the case. I'm not sure if this is good or not. Whoever used this right now, maybe you can give us some ideas if this is a good deal or not. Thanks

[chinawholesaleonline]

cool, we have this item.it works well!