# electronic survellience on the shop



## Howie (May 25, 2010)

I'm planning on putting cameras focused on the outside doors of my shop.
Does anyone know/have any comments on the Defender system? The one I'm looking at has 100' night vision
(cams would be about 20' away)36IR lens.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

The one I'm looking at has 500 megs(expandable to 1 TB) and you can use a card in the usb port for back up.
Thx for the reply


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## MNgary (Oct 13, 2011)

For why? Different needs have different solutions.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

MNgary…where I live is on a dead end street, then I have about 500 acres behind me that is pasture. There are reports on the news all the time about break ins and wife and I like to travel so I just figured a little video won't hurt. Could be cheap insurance compared to the tools in my shop.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Keep your DVR where is would be unlikely to be found. Off site storage would be better if possible. It does no good if the burglars find it and take it with them.


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## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

Something like the giant ball in Raiders of the Lost Ark or blow darts shooting out from the walls would be appropriate. But I think courts frown on defending your property to that degree. It's actually a very good idea - a new house was built down the road last year and they had a setup like that - the camera was aimed at the driveway so they got the license plate number as well as I.D.ing the perp stealing tools. State police got the guys the next day.


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## skipj (Mar 6, 2012)

I'll add that make sure the time,date stamp is correct. If not courts will dismiss as eveidence.


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## hairy (Sep 23, 2008)

I live in a city, so my situation is different. I have found lighting to be a good deterrent. Burglars prefer to be in the dark. Cameras come in handy trying to catch who did it.


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## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

If my shop doors or windows open when I'm in bed or away (system "armed") then lights go on in the shop and in the house, I can have the noise maker on AND a signal gets sent that unlocks our dog door. When the dogs hear that beep they tear ass out the door barking and looking for someone in the yard.  Even at 2am…. heheheh…. we ran a drill. I warned the neighbors first and did it when it was cold so they wouldn't have their windows open and stuff. The dogs cornered my son in the shop and stood at the door barking and carrying on until I went out there.

Works for me. I also now have IP cameras, motion sensing, pan and tilt. Someone gave them to me. Don't even know what kind they are.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

@dhazelton, yes you are correct, you can't shoot someone defending your property. However if they come at you with a screwdriver,hammer etc and you fear for your life that is a different story. This way it would all be on cam if necessary. I think I would sleep better if I'm traveling,knowing there was some security here.

@Art, actually I have plans to put the DVR in a bird house I will build specifically for this.

@Charlie, my 110 # shepard huskie would probably help them load up the car (g) and show them where the gold is.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

Regarding hairy's comment that "Burglars prefer to be in the dark.", when my parents lived near Atlanta they were in a subdivision, half of which had streetlights, the other half didn't. The half with streetlights had more break-ins.

Burglars like shadows. As my Dad, who spent a number of years in the intelligence biz pointed out, it's not light vs dark, it's having the contrast so that people can't see into the dark.

I have a Wansview wireless IP camera (though I use it wired) in my shop, mostly so that people can peek in on me when I'm out there futzing around. I've thought about setting up cameras for security monitoring around my yard, if I did I'd go with a handful of IP cameras like the Wansviews, and ZoneMinder, preferably in a configuration that streamed the data off-site so that the server/archiver wasn't an obvious target.


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## ducky911 (Oct 6, 2010)

I have a swann system…they have a good support phone number that I had to call a few times to get it hooked up right. I get a email every time it goes off and can check it from my smart phone….


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

You may be better off with a surveillance company like ATM that automatically notifies the police at a break-in attempt.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

@MrRon…I thought about that but I rent and if I move I'll just take it with me. Thanks for the comment though.
I've decided to go with a "Defender " system. If I don't like it I have 30 days to return it.
I ordered it from B&H Electronics. I've had very good service from them.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

Good luck with whatever you come up with. I hope you have good neighbors that can "keep an eye out"


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## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

If it's the same B&H that used to be B&H photo in Manhattan be careful - the were famous for advertising a product at a price and then just substituting something cheaper in your order. And they were famous for moving their storefronts around as they kept declaring bankruptcy and reopening under someone else's ownership.


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## Fishinbo (Jun 11, 2012)

We need all the ways we can think of to protect limb and property.
Criminals are getting desperate by the moment. 
Good luck and hope it will work out well for you.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

B&H Photo in New York has long had a great reputation among professional photographers, and I've bought thousands of dollars of lenses from them at ridiculously low prices with no problems.


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## ChuckC (May 13, 2010)

I have an app for my iPhone called iCam. You can put a bunch of cameras around and you will get a notification when one of the cameras detects motion. You can monitor the camera(s) from your iDevice or their web page.

There was a story on the news about a year ago where a guy was using this app and got a notification on his phone that someone was in his house. He called the police and watched the guy get arrested on his phone. Pretty funny …


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## oldretiredjim (Nov 14, 2011)

motion detectors for lights inside and outside the shop. all my tool chests are locked at nite. every nite. door double locked. miter saw chained to the wall. shop is right outside my bedroom window. i live in the city.


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## msmith1199 (Oct 24, 2012)

Howie, the first piece of advice I can give is you can tell people you have a security system and cameras, but don't give out details even on here, such as where you plan to hide the DVR. I have two different sets of cameras at my shop. One recording to a DVR and the other involves wireless cameras that I can view from my iPhone or iPad or from any remote computer. I also have an alarm system that contacts me by cell phone if it goes off.

Now let me tell you the bad thing about security cameras. It's very rare that the video from them ever actually helps catch anybody. Most of these systems don't provide what we call ID quality pictures. That means you may have great video of the people breaking into your shop and taking all of your tools, but if that's all you have the video it's generally almost useless. Now if you can see that it's the neighbor breaking in or maybe you know the people breaking in, then the video is great evidence, but absent some other info the video usually doesn't help much.

Video does act as a deterent for some thieves and some don't care. You know why the "Hoody" sweatshirt is so popular? Because it's an instant disguise from video cameras.

My video cameras recently caught images of a homeless guy stealing an air conditioning unit from the shop building across from me. The video helped to catch the guy only because the detective got the video and sent out it to the patrol officers and one of the patrol officers recognized the subject. But the only reason he was able to recognize him was because of the bike he was riding and the homemade handtruck trailer he was towing behind his bike. It was distinctive and the officer knew who it was. That is one of the rare occasions where the video helped.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

@Mark, thanks for the advice. Funny you mentioned the "hoodie" People wear them and wonder why every cop on patrol take the second look. If you say something to someone wearing a hoodie they come up with a hundred answers as to why. I get amused at the ones that when it's 90 outside and they are wearing shorts they also wear a hoodie with the hood up. When you comment on it, it's usually "I'm just expressing myself"(duh) What by showing how dumb you are? Guess I'm just getting old and grouchy (G)


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## msmith1199 (Oct 24, 2012)

The ones that keep the hood on all the time are the ones that never know when they may commit a crime so they need to keep covered up all the time, just in case.


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