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Camera Systems

K

Kevin James

Active member
We are thinking about installing cameras at one of our car washes. With all the different types of systems does anyone have a system or a suggestion that they feel is best suited for the car wash? We are tired of being used as a door mat for the public, trash dumping, auto repair work in the bays at night, drug deals etc.
 
I have a Qsee system I purchased through Sams Club online. 16 ch. 1 tb hard drive around $800. good for general security, if you need tag id cameras I dont have that quality.
 
Here is a link to the Costco site.

http://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch...gId=-1&refine=&keyword=security+Camera+Systen

You can spend $999 for 16 cameras on up. everyone seems to be moving to HD cameras now. I have bought about 6 systems thru Costco getting extra cable and spare or extra Cameras thru Amazon.com. But lately I have elected to spend a little more and get a built in DVD burner. (even got one 32 Channel system.) Easy to make, store and send copies. Cheaper than Flash drives. Also lately I have played the video on my monitor, filmed that with my I Phone and then e-mailed it to myself and or insurance adjuster.

I am thinking the biggest value for you would be in deterrence. Once you put them up perhasp some strategic signs saying "Free Ride in Police Car" if filmed doing illegal activity.
 
Kevin James said:
We are thinking about installing cameras at one of our car washes. With all the different types of systems does anyone have a system or a suggestion that they feel is best suited for the car wash? We are tired of being used as a door mat for the public, trash dumping, auto repair work in the bays at night, drug deals etc.
Click to expand...

If you want to be able to capture license plates at night you most likely will need a HD camera and HD DVR. I had a good plate camera with standard DVR and could capture no more than 60% at night. Now I have HD and capture just about everything within the field of view.

I'm not a high tech person so I'm glad I have a supplier who is available to address problems and help with technical issues.

You will want to choose your battles when it comes to calling the police. My local officers are very helpful but I don't bother them for the little stuff.
 
I recently purchased a Sam's Club online Q-See 16 channel system to replace my 'bricked' DVR. The new cameras connected to the existing cabling so, the installation was quite simple. Nice system with lots of features... especially when compared to the "antique" 10 year old system it replaced.

Were I doing a new installation, I'd give serious consideration to the IP camera systems with Power Over Ethernet cabling. Custom length Cat5 cables are easier to build and fish thru walls.

Regarding in bay auto repair: why not turn off the lights when the meters are idle?
 
Cantbreak's suggestion for IP camera systems with Power Over Ethernet cabling makes sense for us. Does anyone know of the current best deal on a good license plate IP camera?

Most IP Cameras are also wireless capable so they are something to consider even for tough to cable areas. If it was streaming to the cloud ... it would make an opportunity to share with the local PD with the least amount of lost time to provide to them their specific requested footage. They often ask for footage at very inconvenient times which can grow to be a bit of a problem. It could be helpful if the software or future software would allow an operator to have nested passwords to protect portions of the footage that was not pertinent to their investigation if we got that far along.

mike walsh king koin of bismarck, nd
 
Essentially you have two ways to do this- budget and deluxe system.

Like all electronics, camera systems continue to evolve and get better. What you can buy today for 1K blows away a system that would have cost you 5X as much ten years ago.

Because of the forum posts here, I have begun to use the QSEE and generally like them. I used to run a computer based DVR that cost 2-3K. When it broke I bought a Qsee DVR and hooked it up to my existing cameras.They are so inexpensive I consider them "throw away" systems. If I get three years or more out of a DVR and it broke, I would just buy a new one and still be many dollars ahead of a higher end system. It provides reasonable quality video. The stock cameras that come with their system might even catch a tag if you mount it in a self serve bay where the car is parked or driving out slowly. You can purchase higher quality cameras with the proper lens and catch a tag if you have the right conditions: A narrow drive and something that slows the customer down.

I've got one warrant, and another investigation pending with the help of a 399.00 system. getting the the tag number was crucial in making the case to the police though. I don't get all tags, but probably 75% of them.

Costco runs sales on QSEE systems almost every other month on their website. They currently have a 16 channel DVR with eight cameras for 399.00 add a few more cameras with zoom lenses and you can still have a system for less than 1K that is better than any 5K system that was built five years ago It's only through today (12/26/14) but I bet there will be another one of interest by February. QSEE has very mediocre reviews but it seems to relate mostly to their cameras. I have three of their DVRs with no issues so far.

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-16-Chan...D-and-8-900TVL-Cameras.product.100123928.html
 
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I bought a Qsee system about 4 years ago from Costco. It came with (16) 600tvl cameras and a 500g HD. I paid $799 for that system..At the highest resolution, I get more than 30 days recording before it over-writes....I'm in agreement with CFCW, if you angle the cameras just right, you will get plates at least 75% of the time. The system listed for $399 is a great buy and they keep getting better and cheaper every day....I wouldn't hesitate in getting another one. The one I have has given me zero problems.
 
We have the Zmodo 16 channel system. Came from Amazon and right around $300 with 8 cameras. The original cameras were good, we have experimented with many cheap cameras from ebay, some don't last very long at all. Some will give you partial tag and as cfcw says they have to slow down really to be able to read anything. I'd like to have a HD system like Randy is talking about but our budget won't allow it right now. Maybe after a few snows and nasty salted roads...
 
Can you hook up a 1080 P camera to a system that typicaly uses 600L cameras?

OOPS looks like they use CAt 5 / 6 cables.
 
My son sells and installs cameras system, he doesn’t think much about the Qsee or Costco systems. I had him install a 16 channel 1080P HD-SDI camera system with audio and the picture and audio quality is absolutely unbelievable. He buys all of the components from http://www.cctvdirectbuy.com/ The first time I called the police they couldn’t believe the clarity of how fine the picture is, the officer called his Sgt. and the other officers on duty to come look at the video, they too couldn’t believe the clarity. They had no problem pulling up the license plate number of the garbage dumper and sending her a summons to appear in court for a “Theft of Services” charge. My son likes to use the Ball cameras so they can’t be pushed up with a pole or stick. For the best picture you want to use a Premium grade RG-59 cable or a RG-59 cable that is a HD-SDI rated cable. We used 4 mm fixed ball cameras in the bays and 2.8mm – 12mm adjustable ball cameras everywhere else. The only way to go if you’re installing a camera system is 1080P HD-SDI.
 
Lots of the new DVRs say they are "NVR" or network video recorder. How is this different than one that hooks up to the internet?
 
With thanks to Wikipedia......

A network video recorder (NVR) is a software program that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other mass storage device. An NVR contains no dedicated video capture hardware. However, the software is typically run on a dedicated device, usually with an embedded operating system. Alternatively, to help support increased functionality and serviceability, standard Linux and Windows operating systems are used with standard Intel processors and video management software. An NVR is typically deployed in an IP video surveillance system.

Network video recorders are distinct from digital video recorders (DVR) as their input is from a network rather than a direct connection to a video capture card or tuner. Video on a DVR is encoded and processed at the DVR, while video on an NVR is encoded and processed at the camera, then streamed to the NVR for storage or remote viewing.[citation needed]
 
We use supercircuits.com for all our camera systems. Just had a hard drive go bad, called them & they sent us a new one, did not even have to send the old one back. Three year warranty on system! Very good support and mid priced.
 
Randy said:
My son sells and installs cameras system, he doesn’t think much about the Qsee or Costco systems. I had him install a 16 channel 1080P HD-SDI camera system with audio and the picture and audio quality is absolutely unbelievable. He buys all of the components from http://www.cctvdirectbuy.com/ The first time I called the police they couldn’t believe the clarity of how fine the picture is, the officer called his Sgt. and the other officers on duty to come look at the video, they too couldn’t believe the clarity. They had no problem pulling up the license plate number of the garbage dumper and sending her a summons to appear in court for a “Theft of Services” charge. My son likes to use the Ball cameras so they can’t be pushed up with a pole or stick. For the best picture you want to use a Premium grade RG-59 cable or a RG-59 cable that is a HD-SDI rated cable. We used 4 mm fixed ball cameras in the bays and 2.8mm – 12mm adjustable ball cameras everywhere else. The only way to go if you’re installing a camera system is 1080P HD-SDI.
Click to expand...

Randy makes a very good point.

Sure we save money in the short term based on some of the other posts ... but I can say that there are few things more frustrating than to almost being able to identify vs not. In my mind I vividly remember the general manager part owner of the strip mall across the street from us ... venting to me ... about how our local police actually refused to even look at his footage after awhile. Brian ... has since passed away ... but I really did feel for him & how he got taken in & misled by some so-called experts in the camera sales field.

I don't have a crystal ball & of course the long term reliability, light handling, & the 5 megapixels would all be keys ... but is seems like the following de-warping fisheye camera technology could make sense for some of us even now: http://www.amazon.com/Vivotek-FE817...alculator/dp/B00HNW7LFK/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_1

I personally think that the above could be a good fit for some of us considering the fact that it could take care of several cameras at once without too much gap from a field of view change which is a trade off with an automated HD PTZ camera.

Anybody mess with Blue Iris Video Management Software? ... I am in the process of getting the 4.0 version of it ... mainly for our pre-programmable preset paths ... one 1.3 megapixel PTZ IP camera we have & another IP camera that we may start testing etc.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com
 
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