Dash cam for surveillance?

[Curious]

I am also trying to do a few kinds of indoor/outdoor/mobile surveillance. I wondered is there any compact camera, that takes a memory card (or has built in memory) to store photos, that's better than Mobius? I want one that can do motion-activation. The Mobius may be enough for my purpose, if there isn't better. (I am impressed with Mobius and probably buy one for my second dash cam, but for surveillance I hoped to spend more for better.) One thing I wanted, if possible, was a wider angle because sometimes my subject is close. I also need to devise a compact mobile power source, like a USB pack if the camera can take USB power.

Or other suggestions for compact cameras? I was looking at trail cams but most of them are not small. The small ones with night abilities are expensive. I am finding the same problem with surveillance cameras that I have found. The small ones are expensive or have bad night abilities, or they can't do motion-activation and save photos to a memory card.

 

[Xybone]

Techmoan did a video about why dashcams surveillance isn't such a hot idea. Let me try to find the link.
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/6...is-best-for-catching-a-vandal-in-the-act.html

 

[niko]

Manufactuters are not yet there with market demand. You are not the first who " demandinga" that solution.
I hope in near future manufacturets will "wake up " and produce what we actually need.

 

[Curious]

Techmoan did a video about why dashcams surveillance isn't such a hot idea. Let me try to find the link.
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/6...is-best-for-catching-a-vandal-in-the-act.html

I hope that it was because his dashcam had a worse motion activation than the Mobius or others I could buy. I will look into that more. I understand what he's saying about the vandal not being in the camera's view too, but I don't mind for my specific purpose.

Manufactuters are not yet there with market demand. You are not the first who " demandinga" that solution.
I hope in near future manufacturets will "wake up " and produce what we actually need.

Yes, now that they can make things smaller and cheaper. I am willing to settle on an imperfect solution for now. But still trying to determine which are the better current options.

 

[kamkar]

Not out yet as i undestand it, but how about the Flir fx ?
http://www.flirsecurity.com/flirfx.html#t_specs
It seem to deliver decent footage.

Not sure if it support motion activated recordings, but since it clain to be a surveillance cam too it should be able to do that

 

[Dashmellow]

Although it is not quite what the OP is asking about I re-purposed an old AT-20 (my first dash cam) for use as an indoor surveillance camera and it does a pretty decent job. It does have motion detection but I don't like to use it as it can be dodgy with false triggers. As an older cam with a lower bit rate than we are accustomed to nowadays it will record 1080P video for about seven hours on a 32 GB card and so I just let it run. I use it hidden in a basket of assorted "junk" plugged into the wall with a USB charger facing a sliding glass door on the back of my house that was once smashed during a burglary. The photo I'm including here doesn't really do it justice or tell the story because the camera is really very difficult to notice off in the corner of the room. No one who has ever visited my house has ever noticed it or commented on it. I imagine someone in the midst of breaking into my house would be even less likely to see it considering that friends sitting at my dining room table looking right at it don't seem to notice there's a camera in the basket. In person it looks like just another little black thing in a basket full of assorted stuff. I'm sure I could disguise it further (and sometimes I do) but that doesn't seem necessary. Anyway, I only plug it in when I going to be away from home for several hours at a time. Actually, I have a "real" CCTV surveillance system at my home and this just makes for an extra camera indoors with a different perspective. I like that this old camera isn't going to waste sitting in a drawer somewhere and it seems happy to run and record video no matter how long I leave it plugged in, hour after hour as it will just write over the older files. There have been times when I've come home and forgotten to unplug the camera and it runs without a hiccup.



AT-20

 

[Curious]

I have multiple purposes in mind. I do plan to install a "real" system (wired surveillance cameras with DVR) but want covert or small cameras too. For one purpose, I will probably do time-lapse still frames only, which should allow for days worth on a 64GB or 128GB memory card. For another purpose, I only need 4-6 hours recording on a memory card, but this camera needs to be small and wide angle. I have some other possible purposes too.

Not out yet as i undestand it, but how about the Flir fx ?
http://www.flirsecurity.com/flirfx.html#t_specs

Interesting, if I still need a camera when it comes out, I'll look at it, or consider upgrading.

 

[CheckYourLights]

Techmoan did a video about why dashcams surveillance isn't such a hot idea. Let me try to find the link.
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/6...is-best-for-catching-a-vandal-in-the-act.html

I just want to second this.
And i would look at the D-Link DCS series wireless IP network cameras for indoor/outdoor surveillance.

The DCS-931L is a Day time only camera I would use this one as indoor day time only

The DCS-932L is a Day/Night camera that while not technically rated for out door use as long as you keep it from direct rain or snow it should be okay. If you keep an eye out on Amazon you can grab this model used for around 30 dollars.

The DCS-933L is a Day/Night camera offering Wireless Repeater function that can help extend your network to cover your front or back outside are if your router is a bit far away. This one also uses H264 encoding while the others use MJPEG i believe.

and finally the DCS-942L is a Day/Night camera that has the Micro SD slot you are looking for.

I have some experience with the 932 and 933. The mic on the 932 is a little rough if you don't turn the volume on it down. I tried it around 50% and it seems okay. The Mic on the 933 seems nicer, but the 932 looks a little better at night.

All the cameras can be viewed live from an Android or iOS device over 4G or WiFi for free. They stream can be recorded to a computer or to a D-Link branded NAS. They are all wireless set up and only require one cord for utility power once you have added them to your network.

 

[DashCamMan]

If you are looking to use a dash cam for surveillance, your best bet is to purchase one that buffers and saves video prior to motion / impact.

These 6 cameras have that feature:
http://dashcamtalk.com/compare/1/10...s-livue-lb100-vs-lukas-lk7900-vs-mnsoft-r700/

And there are a few others as well.

 

[Dashmellow]

If you are looking to use a dash cam for surveillance, your best bet is to purchase one that buffers and saves video prior to motion / impact.

These 6 cameras have that feature:
http://dashcamtalk.com/compare/1/10...s-livue-lb100-vs-lukas-lk7900-vs-mnsoft-r700/

And there are a few others as well.

Granted, my use of a dash cam for indoor surveillance is just casual use of an old obsolete camera but I have it set to record 5 minute clips and it does a surprisingly good job in daylight hour after hour, day after day. Could you explain further why buffering before impact is desirable for surveillance use?

 

[GJHS]

Could you explain further why buffering before impact is desirable for surveillance use?

It would include some footage before it detected the motion or impact, instead of detecting motion then turning on with a delay.

 

[Dashmellow]

It would include some footage before it detected the motion or impact, instead of detecting motion then turning on with a delay.

I see. As I say, I just let it run and write over itself so I hadn't really thought that through but that certainly makes sense if you use motion detection. After seven years of using quite a few CCTV cameras and dash cams I am not a fan of motion detection unless the camera is in a completely still environment because of false triggers. So for example, the way I've described using my old AT-20 just a wind blowing on a tree limb outside would likely trigger the camera and that is a pain when you want to review the files.

 

[DashCamMan]

Some of the cheaper cameras with motion detection will take a few seconds to start recording once motion is detected. Might miss some important details hence the cameras that save to a buffer memory when using motion detection are more ideal.

 

[HPF]

After seven years of using quite a few CCTV cameras and dash cams I am not a fan of motion detection unless the camera is in a completely still environment because of false triggers.

I installed rather expensive Vivotek IP8332 cameras in my warehouse last year. I planned to use the cameras motion detection capabilities but I had way too many false alarms. Reason; they simply analyze pixel changes so a cars headlights or a passing clouds blocking the sun would cause the alarm to trigger. One can play around with threshold levels but then again you never know if the alarm will trigger when it should. Besides, a moving object in very low light conditions (like warehouse at night) wouldn't trigger the alarm anyway.

I finally bought some dedicated PIR motion detectors and they work, no false alarms at all.

 

[romeski]

might not be exactly what you want but to be honest, an old computer and a bunch of USB / Wireless cams work well. You can buy ones like d link (don't remember the model) that come with software and you can have it set up so if motion goes off you get an email with a picture. There is also free software available to do similar, or paid for extra features. one i had used was iSpy.