security camera - save to disk advice please

Hi

I have no experience in this area - advice sought.

My daughter has had her car 'keyed' / (scraped) several times outside
her house (3 yards / meters from window).

I would like to set up a camera which would be triggered when someone
passes the car, it should take several stills or a few seconds of
video.

I would prefer to save directly to storage media - possibly a
removable hard disk, although flash media might be an alternative.

As car can be inspected each day, the media could be erased daily.

I would appreciate comments on the practicality of taking the images
(mostly at night) and the practicallity of saving images direct to
recordable media.

Note boradband / wireless internet is not available in the premises so
IP camera will not be practical.

Thanks ColinK

ColinK wrote:
Hi
>
I have no experience in this area - advice sought.
>
My daughter has had her car 'keyed' / (scraped) several times outside
her house (3 yards / meters from window).
>
I would like to set up a camera which would be triggered when someone
passes the car, it should take several stills or a few seconds of
video.
>
I would prefer to save directly to storage media - possibly a
removable hard disk, although flash media might be an alternative.
>
As car can be inspected each day, the media could be erased daily.
>
I would appreciate comments on the practicality of taking the images
(mostly at night) and the practicallity of saving images direct to
recordable media.
>
Note boradband / wireless internet is not available in the premises so
IP camera will not be practical.

IP cameras do not require an internet connection of any kind, only a PC
or network recorder of some sort. That said, they're relatively
expensive for a temporary setup like this.

If you have a computer in the house, there's plenty of software
available that will do what you want with any USB webcam. you
need some sort of video-capture device to use a standard camera.

Most of these cheap cameras, however, do not have very good low-light
performance, so unless she parks under a street light, you may not get
usable images.

The most cost-effective solution, frankly, would probably be to find a
used 1/3" CCTV camera with an appropriate lens, and just connect it to a
VCR, then record it at SLP with T-160 tape, which will give you 8 hours
and should be enough to get through the night. If you can find a used
time-lapse recorder to go with it, even better, but since those are
usually only taken out of service when they fail, it may not be possible.

If you really need to record to digital, you could look at some of Video
Domain's MemoCam offerings. From the ad copy for the MC-Z/BX:

"The MC-Z/BX model is for use in low light conditions, with sensitivity
of 0.003 Lux. It has full resolution quality of 640x480 (VGA), recording
quality - 8 levels, 10 frames per second (fps), an RS-485 Comm Port, and
a TV output for an external monitor.

"MemoCam Zorro is a solid state device that doesn't require daily
maintenance, and is easy to install and use without special training. It
is IP ready for remote management over Internet/LAN.

"It automatically record events on a mini SD card for local storage up
to 2GB memory. The recorded events are easily analyzed by simply
removing the mini SD card from the unit and inserting it into a memory
card reader connected to a PC/pocket PC."

No idea what the prices are for this unit though, but I'm sure Bass
would be happy to sell you one.