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Time for Cameras...

sjb

sjb

Active member
Greetings... sjb here, a 15+ year rookie of an 8 bay self service car wash Biz in Atlanta.

I am finally going to bite the bullet and put up cameras on my property. You can probably imagine why...?! Anyway, I would love to hear from those that have already done this, and what you like, and what you would do differently, as it relates to the 24/7 surveillance of your properties?

Thanks much!

sjb
KirkwoodCarWash
 
There's a 16-camera system by Q-See (available at Costco) that does a good job at an affordable price.
 
I have the 16 camera Q-See from Costco...600 TVL's of resolution, 100' of night vision...It has already paid for itself from a Hit and Run...Wasn't hard to ID the guy so the cops could catch up with him. He did over a $1000 worth of damage when he tried to get a big flatbed in a bay...
 
Whatever you end up buying try and get one good camera and position it to read license plates. There is nothing more frustrating than watching something happen and not knowing how to track them down.
 
Long time no see, SJB.

I bought a Qsee system a few months back. Actually, I just hooked up their DVR to my existing cameras. It works fine for the money. The cameras are still sitting in the box.

Costco puts various systems on sale continuously. I bought the 16 camera, 1 gig system for $799.
 
cfcw said:
The cameras are still sitting in the box.
Click to expand...
Are they suitable for outdoor? Want to sell them? I bought some from an eBay seller about four years ago and they're going out one by one.
 
A lot of the cheap systems you buy at the discount stores Costco, Sam’s Club are nothing more than toys. If you want a good quality video system go with a 700 line camera. We’ve got cameras from these guys, great service and at a fair price. http://www.backstreet-surveillance.com/hd-surveillance-cameras-1.html Check out the video difference in the HD video.
This is the camera we use to look out over the vacuums. http://www.backstreet-surveillance....tdoor-night-vision-zoom/80nv-hd-vandal-z.html
This is the camera we use in the bays http://www.backstreet-surveillance....outdoor-night-vision-zoom/65nv-hd-vandal.html
We also have a small pinhole camera in the bill changer and in the vending machine. A lot of the video I’ve seen from car washes have a camera pointing down from the ceiling, this shows nothing but the top of someone’s head
 
I do appreciate your thoughts and suggestions... I must admit that I am looking forward to the day of remotely watching $$ being deposited in the machines!

Thanks!
sjb
 
I bought a Q see system this week off the web and I am a little dissapointed. It is a QT428 DVR with 600 TVL cameras. The resolution is not what I was expecting. I can just make out 2 1/2 inch high letters at 15 feet. Does this sound right? I don't have any experience with CCTV's so maybe this is what I should be expecting for a moderately priced system.
 
Do you have the DVR set to maximum recording frame rate. I don't think default is set to maximum....I have the same DVR/600tvl cameras and can read plates in the bays...
 
2biz , thanks for the reply. I changed from CIF to D1. I think i also changed bit rate but i will check this evening to make sure.
 
D1 is what I have mine set at...With 12 camera's and a Terabite HD, I get about 30 days of motion activated recording...I've never had to go back that far. If something happens and you need to review the recording, you usually don't have to go back more than a day...

Let us know how the D1 works for you...Also, what size monitor do you have. I have a 19" LED computer monitor...A good monitor might make the difference.
 
I looked up the DVR and it says that CIF is only 352 x 240. That's really poor. D1 is 704 x 480, four times the detail.

If you want best image quality without sacrificing storage, set all resolutions and bitrates to max and reduce framerate. 15 FPS is generally smooth enough to not appear excessively jerky on playback - I keep the tag camera on 5 fps and have no issue with reading numbers due to framerate.
 
With the cameras set on D1 and maximum bit rate, the resolution is not too bad. I can read a license plate at 20-25 feet now. The DVR automatically set the FPS to 8 when I changed to D1. The night vision actually seems to be a little clearer than daylight.
 
Exactly...Some of the bad reviews these DVR's and Cameras get are from people who don't know how to set them up for maximum resolution. They always come preset (default) to lower than max resolution. Glad I was able to help out... ;)
 
A suggest I would have is to set up a small more affordable camera system and buy some extra dummy surveillance cameras that look similar. It will save the time and money on the install of the extra cameras and nobody will know which ones are real or fake.
 
We use carwashcameras.com - good results. We use the cameras to monitor staff working at the location to be sure they are out front greeting and working with customers and not sitting in the equipment room playing with their smart phones.
 
Of course they have deals even if you're not a member, but don't you still have to be a member to buy from them? :)
 
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