Newbie looking to get a few cameras

[muerte69]

Hello all,
I am new to the ip camera game though I have setup a few many years back. I work in IT so know enough to be dangerous. All installation would be done by me.
I am looking to get 4 to 6 cameras for my house with the capability to monitor them and record locally and possibly on cloud storage as well.
We live in the country and can only get 8 Meg down and not quite 1 Meg upload speeds.
I would like to go wireless as much as possible but may go wired if the cost/benefit is there.
I am a cheap a$$ so the cheaper the better. Was looking at foscam then found this place so better options are preferred.

4 cameras is about my lowest starting point to give me 2 inside and 2 outside.

I would like to come in under $300 for everything needed if possible.
I have been looking over amazon for cameras so better places to purchase if the there are any are appreciated.

All help is appreciated and if I need to post in another section of the forum please let me know.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[ServiceXp]

Others with more experience will be here soon, but I think your budget is too low. You should probably think about at least doubling it. The word here is stay away from wireless if at all possible.

Here is my setup, pretty modest really and I'm probably right around 1K. (including the Cat 6, pipe, fittings, etc...)

1) Have 5 camera's right now (4 outside and 1 inside)
2) Blue Iris 4.0 x64 d2d 20 meg buffers
3) 3 Hicks ((2) 4mm 2032 and (1) LaView Panda LV-PC902F2-W) and 2 Dahua's ((1) IPC-HFW2300R-Z and (1) EYEsurv 3.6mm ESIP-MP3-BT1)
4) i5 2.9ghz -- 12 GB Ram -- Windows 8.1 Pro x64 to run Blue Iris.
5) ZyXEL ES100-8HP-240W POE (All Camera's will be connected to this switch) which is connected to a Gigabit backbone.

 

[fenderman]

Dont go cheap on cameras....For indoors look at the hikvision 2432 cube with pir motion..get the 2.8mm (wide angle) lens they can be had from china for about 120...
I would not use wifi at all, but you can get away with it indoors...For you outdoors, since you need to run power to the cameras anyway, you may as well wire it up using POE....as a backup you can use powerline..look at the hikvision 2332 turret..
If you are adamant about wifi there is the 2132fIWS http://www.hikvision.com/europe/Products_show.asp?id=9893 that has wifi..not it must be the F-I(WS).

 

[muerte69]

Ok thanks for the info so far.
If I am going to do one POE I might as well do them all that way.

What are some good sites to look into getting the hardware from?

Do I need a pc dedicated to running software or can I use an existing one and use either a NAS hard drive or something like that?

What specs and features am I looking for so that I can get good images? If someone did break in I would like the clearest images I can get and also so I can tell who might be at the door before I go check it?

Is there any recommended threads to read up on to learn a bit more or any stickies?

Thanks

 

[fenderman]

There are tons of options and lots of threads...look at both hikvision and dahua cameras...if you get all cams from the same brand you can use the manufactures vms software to record...ivms for hikvision and smart pss for dahua....they require little pc resources...alternatively you can record direct to nas...
If you want to mix and match brands or want tons of options with respect to schedules and notifications, blue iris is a great software package but requires some decent pc specs...
Note that 1.3mp/720p cameras will be better at night and low light than 3mp cameras..it really depends on your lighting conditions.. i would look at 1080p or 3mp cameras and add lighting if needed, this way you get a super crisp day images and decent night shots...