Fellow clutchfans I'm looking for advice on buying a camera to record my front property line . Someone has broken into my gate twice. First time bike was stolen (buddies bike left in back, out of sight from front) , second time there was nothing taken. Both incidents occurred while i was out working ( no cars in driveway). Want a camera that isn't to hard to install, one preferably without a power source, and at least records for 24 hours. Any advice is greatly appreciated and rep will be plentiful for any help. Thanks in advance!
I don't have any experience with these but I came across this advertisement for them a while back and they seem to have some cool features. I don't know if this is what you had in mind, though. http://store.getpiper.com/
Search the site through google. This is probably the third or fourth thread on this (not trying to be a jerk, but that's how you'll get info more quickly)
^ He's right. I think this is the first time I'll disclose all this about personal usage, but here go some tips: They're all easy to install and most require only two screws to install the bracket, and then attaching the camera. This will be difficult unless it works with a very strong battery and even then you will find it's cumbersome to keep replacing it. I recommend constant power instead, and this can be easily connected to a power source inside the nearest AC outlet or with a hidden long extension cord. Think about having to climb that ladder or siding all the time... you don't want to do that. You don't want to record for 24 hours. You'd be recording nothing for hours and would have to look for the footage without knowing when something happened. You want MOTION DETECTION with 0 to 50% frame difference. With Motion Detection, it records only when changes in the contrast and colors of the previous frame happen. Right now I have a camera detecting motion which triggers an email to my cell phone via my SMS address, also recording on movement, and saving the previous 7 days or 1Gb of data, whichever happens first. It is attached to my garage and viewing my driveway. It is from D-Link and I can always access it LIVE on my phone, on the web, or on my PC at home. Then I have given authorization via secure web authentication to my family and a couple friends I trust, to check at any time, with its web interface. Also, you can use iSpy (free software) to manage multiple cameras. Hope that helps.
You have to carefully read and compare the features. The one I bought was just in the spur of the moment at Micro Center, and it's the night-vision and low-res DCS-932L with Wi-Fi. If you want high-res and oscillating and multi-angle, and all that jazz (I HATE THE JAZZ, FYI)... you're going to have to pay more than $100. EDIT: It's the same price on Amazon as it is in Micro Center. You won't save anything but the trip to the store... or pay more for shipping if no Prime. I didn't need all that, since I was just testing... but I kept it because it's decent. It has a microphone, too. I can hear my neighbor's dogs barking some times when I randomly check what is going on.
I used an old smartphone. It already has a video camera and WiFi. It was an LG Optimus V running IP Webcam. I used it to watch for the UPS/FedEx guy leaving packages. It already has a battery, but I plugged it into a wall charger so I never had to manually charge it. Later I set up a server to save data and it worked fine. I haven't used it recently because I just moved into a new place.
