Submission + - Is inexpensive video surveillance possible? 2
timholman writes: After a series of burglaries and auto break-ins in my neighborhood, I'm thinking about adding some video security cameras to my home. To me, the object isn't just deterrence — if someone tries to break into my house or my car (parked on the street in front of my house), I'd like to provide a high quality image of the perpetrator to give to the police. Inexpensive video surveillance systems are nearly useless, since the image quality is atrocious. The problem is being able to get good image quality at an affordable price. After some research, I've decided that using network cameras to FTP images to a central server over a HomePlug network is the best solution. However, good megapixel network cameras (e.g. Stardot or Axis cameras) can easily cost more than $1000 each.
Has any Slashdotter dealt with a similar situation? Is there any way to get reasonable quality (preferably open source) video surveillance equipment for home use (daytime and nightime) without paying an arm and a leg? Is it better to go with a couple of expensive cameras, or a multitude of inexpensive cameras? Is paying two to three thousand dollars simply unavoidable if I want to monitor my front and back yards?
