Hi folks

There has been a spate of robberies in my area and I have been thinking of fitting CCTV cameras (or similar) around my property, to prevent any possible break-ins.

Could someone be kind enough to advice what type of camera I could fit, which is reasonable priced and easy to fit?

Thank you.

If it is purely as a deterrent then you might as well just fit dummy cameras and PIR lights that detect movement. If you want to go the whole hog, you will need cameras that can produce decent images and a recording system. Screwfix sell a variety of set-ups online at various price points.

Much better though to beef up your security locks on doors and windows. Multi-point locking systems, deadlocks even metal security gates.

I'd agree - I don't think many burglars would be put off by home owner CCTV. They'd have already assumed that there will be cameras somewhere in the general area and that a low res shot of them probably isn't going be enough for them to be identified. So it's really an 'after the event' tool - it might help the police catch the person, it won't stop your stuff from being stolen in the first place.

Just make sure you're solid with your home insurance.

Ditto what the above posters have said. Any smart burglar will cover their face so even if you get a close enough shot then you're unlikely to be able to identify a person. Also, most lowlight cameras record in black & white at night so you won't be able to tell the colour of clothes or vehicles.

It's better to make your home uninviting by beefing up physical security. Add CCTV if you wish, but don't rely on it as a first line of defence.

All the comments above are sage.

Police really dont want to look at cctv footage, maybe if you have a high res still of the person they may submit that in their report but I wouldn't count on it.

Just note that CCTV can really annoy neighbours who may feel their privacy is being invaded, a bit like if you have a security light that goes on every time they are walking out their own door or in their own back garden.

Well yeah, your CCTV mustn't overlook anyone else's property or public spaces. It can only cover your own home and garden.

Unless you have consent of your neighbours of course!

As long as you have an ICO registration, there's no problem with it covering public spaces either.

My cameras cover the front of my house, the back of my house, my drive as well as part of my neighbour's drive and the footpath between our homes.

The cameras aren't there to protect me from burglary, but to discourage ingress/egress to a further neighbours garden via my neighbour's and I's garden. That neighbour suffered a brutal battering by her ex brother-in-law.

If you want to install them to prevent a break in then you are better off spending your money on a decent alarm. They don't put off thieves these days.

If you want to install them to catch the criminals after you have been burgled then they have a small amount of value.

This was the advise from the police and security companies after I was broken into last week.

I think they are a deterrent. We've had police asking if they could view our recording when there's been breakins nearby.
There's been less anti social activity since I've had them fitted. We had them professionally installed, 4 wired cameras, £500
We can view them on iPads , computers etc
You can do them yourselves, but make sure they really are waterproof, not just weather resistant. We had them done professionally as we really didn't know enough about the subject
Also, consider how long the recording lasts before being overridden, some are a month, others 24 hours

Absolutely not the case, quite the opposite.

And very timely.
Geddit?
Sage
Thyme
Christmas

Bit of a turkey really ........
😕

As the OP has very little help with their question I thought I chime in.

The system I use is a Synology NAS with 2 IP cameras connect with the cameras recording 24/7.

The Synology NAS’s come with 2 free licences for the cameras but if you want to add more cameras the extra licences are very expensive. Synology NAS’s have an App called “Surveillance Station” that’s use for the remote viewing, local viewing and playing back recordings. Some info here... https://www.synology.com/en-uk/surve...e/7.2/overview

I restrict my 2 HD cameras to 2 weeks archive then the recordings get written over this saves on HDD space. The cameras BTW are Foscam IP HD cameras and the back garden camera is an external model and is at the bottom of my garden face back towards the house and is connected to my home network via wifi. My front garden cam is connected via LAN using HomePlugs back to the router but this one is an internal only PAN camera but as my front garden is very well lit by street lamps and the cameras have very low lux levels I’ve not needed the infra-red so have that turned off to stop reflections on the glass.

Cost is about £50 to £70 for each 720p HD camera (higher spec cameras £150 +) and the single drive Synology NAS is around £80 without a hard drive. I had a few 1TB HDD’s hanging around the house but if you have not got one factor in about £50 + for a 1TB drive. HomePlug and cables will need factoring in too but you may get by with just using wifi but with mine my back garden cam is OK on wifi but my internal one is in a wifi iffy spot so the use of the HomePlugs front and wifi rear gives 100% connect reliability.

The system can be monitor from any part of the World (PC, iOS and Android apps) and can be very handy for seeing if my relations have remembered to put the dustbin out when I’m on holiday and as proof of none delivery of parcels when the delivery company says you weren’t in but in reality could not be bothered to show.

As for the police they certainly do look for cameras if there has been any hanky panky in the street and should burglars turn up while you are at home the cameras are very handy because it gives you advance notice of how many cartridges you need to put in your pump action shotgun.

Security besides and having a house alarm anyways there very handy observing any miseries in the garden like back in the Spring this year we had a few fish go missing from our garden pond and on running through the recording for that day it turned out to be a Herrin so a quick visit to the local garden centre to get some netting was on the cards that day.

Wow, a herring stole your fish? Or it was a herring that was stolen?