questions reg. home security cameras

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I would like to install four security cameras around the outside of my
house, but I have some questions before I start buying equipment...

1) The cameras I looked at, all have 60' cables attached to them. I
would have thought that the camera would have a 'stub' cable of 12
inches or so, and then a 60' extension....that way, if a camera fails,
you can just switch out the camera itself without having to remove the
entire run of cable and the RE-install the cable in addition to
replacing the camera. Is this not how it's done? Are there cameras
available with only a stub of a cable attached?

2) The 'far' end of the cables have two plugs in them: one (a BNC I
think) for signal and the other for DC power supply. I know that all
four of the signal plugs will plug into the DVR card in my computer,
but how do I manage the four power-supply plugs? Is there some way to
power all of the cameras without taking up four spaces in my power
strip? Do some DVR cards have a 12V power jack next to each signal
jack? I'm just trying to keep the cabling clean.

3) When looking at the completely installed camera, should I just see
a cable leading from the camera into a hole in the wall, or does
someone sell a wall-plate with a BNC connector and a DC power-supply
jack, which would be mounted on the wall near the camera, and to which
the camera is connected?

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

--Alex

 

[Jim]

I would like to install four security cameras around the outside of my
house, but I have some questions before I start buying equipment...

1) The cameras I looked at, all have 60' cables attached to them. I
would have thought that the camera would have a 'stub' cable of 12
inches or so, and then a 60' extension....that way, if a camera fails,
you can just switch out the camera itself without having to remove the
entire run of cable and the RE-install the cable in addition to
replacing the camera. Is this not how it's done? Are there cameras
available with only a stub of a cable attached?

2) The 'far' end of the cables have two plugs in them: one (a BNC I
think) for signal and the other for DC power supply. I know that all
four of the signal plugs will plug into the DVR card in my computer,
but how do I manage the four power-supply plugs? Is there some way to
power all of the cameras without taking up four spaces in my power
strip? Do some DVR cards have a 12V power jack next to each signal
jack? I'm just trying to keep the cabling clean.

3) When looking at the completely installed camera, should I just see
a cable leading from the camera into a hole in the wall, or does
someone sell a wall-plate with a BNC connector and a DC power-supply
jack, which would be mounted on the wall near the camera, and to which
the camera is connected?

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

--Alex

The reason that your're running into these inconsistancies is because
you're looking at cheap garbage. When you start paying around $200.00
for a camera and around a $1000.00 for a DVR, you're just at the
bottom of the pricing structure that installing dealers use. I'm sure
if you look a little bit more you'll find some cheap cameras that
don't have the long leads on them. It sounds as if you're presently
looking at something you'd buy at Home Depot, Costco or Radio Shack
for about $300.00 for the whole kit. Other than that cheap stuff, you
can buy pretty much any kind of video equipment you want, on line.
Look a little harder and expect to pay a little more, if you really
want to see ...... what you want to see and if you want it to last for
any appreciable time.

Trying to find a camera that will see what you want to see, takes a
lot more explaining than anyone here would be willing to take the time
to do. but here's some questions that you should be asking. Bullet
camera, housed camera, dome camera? Which is best for your
application? How high, how wide, how far away an area to you want to
see? Varifocal or fixed lens? Do you want to see at low light levels?
Will you have lighting at night? If not you may need infrared
illuminators. Then you have to decide if you want a Day/night camera?
( color by day, black an white at night (for infrared enhanced
picture)) Back light compensation? Or will just a low lux camera do?
Do you need a heater for cold weather area? Auto iris for changing
light conditions? For the power source, plugin transformers are
cumbersome. Whats the current requierments of the camera and whats the
distance away from the power supply and what's the size of the wire
you should use? Why not use a multi output power supply? What are the
problems associated with each of power sources 12/24VAC/ DC? and what
do you do to avoid them? What type of video wire should you use?

On the DVR, .... I won't even begin to ask the questions that you'll
need to answer before you buy one.

You don't know ...... what you don't know.