The new estate that we've moved into seems to have become an attractive target for the local ne'er do wells (long story but thankfully we've been OK so far) so I'm looking to cover the front and back of our house with CCTV. Any recommendations from you good people? I'll need 2/3 cameras and am just after the cameras themselves as have plenty of computer hardware to sort the record/store bits out with (and to be honest I'd prefer it that way).

I'm after
Night vision
PoE (that will make the install a lot easier)
Some form of motion detection capable software (Linux compatible would be best)
Edited to add
Range 15m or better

Nice to have but not essential
Remote access (seems like just a worry device to me to be honest)

Not bothered stuff
Motion tracking capability as it looks like I'll comfortably be able to cover comfortably with static cameras
Edited to add
No wireless and not bothered about full HD images.

I'm in the process of working out what range and field of vision that I'd like but a very rough back of fag packet calculations looks like a 15m range

Before you go too far down the line - as most are connected to the interwebs, look carefully: there are at least two major botnets that make their homes on cctv cameras and to be honest, you don't want them on the same network that your domestic computers live on.

Perhaps a DMZ if they have to be external facing?

See recent stories in The Register.

Noted, as I mentioned above it's not an essential feature but I'll have a bit of a read around that. I could also possibly isolate the camera network from the home one.

The two main purposes are to act as a deterrent and to collect evidence should something happen. The incidents that we're seeing are all quick smash and grab type affairs so I'm not sure they'd be any benefit to me being able to view things from afar other from giving me something to worry about. It's not as if I'd be able to teleport back and apprehend them if I did see something. The house is never left unattended for more than a day as there is always someone coming at least daily to feed/stroke the cats.

Thinking out loud
Starter for ten

Another point is that I don't see the need for full HD (720p would be fine).

Maybe a standalone system that just reads to SD card?

Something like this?

http://www.espuk.com/product/category/id/8

The issue with those is that as they'd be mounted up on a height it would be a PITA to get the images from the card as would changing batteries unless I got power to them.

My rough install location would be to have the cameras high up on an outside wall and get at the cables through the loft. This is where PoE comes in (bear in mind two would be at the back and one at the front) as I would just need to run ethernet around the loft as oppose to power.

Checkout item 142225125200 on eBay, I have installed one of these and apart from installing a hard drive it's relatively easy to set up and has a remote view app for iOS or Android. Lots of similar ones on there but budget £150-175 ish

Aye, but wireless, internet facing and almost certainly wide open to be a botnet candidate.

This one, I should probably add that I don't want wireless for the reasons above.

It does bring me to another question though which is one of the things that I haven't pinned down. Why is that whole system with 4 cameras not much more than the price of one of the Ubiquiti ones that I linked to? Obviously there's 1080p vs 720p and Ubiquiti are a known brand but still, that's one hell of a price differential.

Try a hikvision set up then with wired cameras, good quality kit.

I've been looking at their stuff too, something like this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/ibn/Camera-Re...=reolink+rlc423

With a Qnap or Synology NAS drive, you are sorted.

We have 4 of these and they are amazing. 4MP (2560x1140) even their £69 Bullet cameras are brilliant. All are POE

I have Ubiquiti Unifi for our home network (USG, Switches and 4xWAPs ) brilliant stuff. The Edge Router Lite is a fab bit of kit too

So this fixed lens one this fixed lens one fro £69 or an autofocus one for £99.

Is autofocus useful in this type of camera or a hindrance? My initial thoughts (I'll have a proper read later) are that it would be too easy to confuse and adding motorised elements would just be one more thing to go wrong.

Starting to look at this again (my day jobs have been interfering with my down time for the last couple of weeks so I'd stopped looking at this temporarily), I have no need for autofocus. The reason for this is that the depth of field required will be quite short due the cameras pointing down towards entrances/exits and not needing to cover land in the distance.

Crunched the numbers on what I need to cover and that has me needing to cover an 80 (+/- 40) degree viewing angle.

Looking at this has me needing a 2.8mm lens to achieve that with a 1/3" sensor.

I'd still like to run the controller on Linux so for the moment that looks like the Ubiquiti one I haven't looked widely at this yet). Shame the Reolink one is Windows/Mac only as otherwise as it's so much cheaper that otherwise I'd just buy it to play with.

Hik vision seems to be widely used in the industry as previously dealing with access control firms. I'm in Beijing atm and Hik vision cameras everywhere monitoring all the streets

I have a hikvision nvr and cameras
Software is ok, not as polished as you may expect, but they are big players and there is lots of functionality to them.

Not the cheapest, but depends on what you want to invest

They seem to be around the same price as others I'm looking at. I'm also looking at open source software solutions that will be compatible with whatever I get as an alternative to proprietary software suites. I see ONVIF mentioned on a few cameras as a standard.

Sorry for delay in replying, the £99 is a 4x zoom with autofocus, the cheaper one is a fixed lens so doesnt need to focus. Both give an excellent image.
If the zoom is important then go for it but with the 4MP image, the cheaper one and use of digital zoom seems to be ideal for your purpose.
The Reolinks are ONVIF-S, extremely easy to set up with a QNAP or Synolgy NAS drive (literally run the wizard and 2 mins later they are working), there are frequent firmware updates from Reolink, (via their website).
I have now got 6 and all have been totally reliable.

Not to worry it's only a been few months, far too soon for me to have actually done something about this!

Saying that however, the network wiring in my other thread that is getting put in in the next few weeks is the last piece of the jigsaw required to get this rolling.