Security cameras are everywhere. It is very hard to walk around in big cities these days without being photographed. Now there are easy ways for you to harness the power of digital cameras to secure your home or office.

If you are trying to set a security camera to protect your home or office you should first consider your budget. If your budget is low and you are looking to save money you can get away with very cheap digital cameras such as a PC based web cam. Web cams cost around $20. For example if you want to protect your home install a web cam (or maybe a few). The web cams are connected to your PC usually using a USB cable. You will also need to install special security software, also costs around $25 to $50 that will power the web cams. The security software can for example process the image captured by the camera to identify movement and if such is identified it can capture a video clip, email the clip to you and so on. Most software also allows you to use the web to view a live video feed from your camera from anywhere in the world. Another enhancement would be to use a wireless web cam that will provide better flexibility in terms of where the camera is positioned.

Web cams however are very limited. They were designed to take photos of close by object in good lighting conditions. At night if your home is dark the web cam is useless. The web cam usually captures a relatively narrow angle and capturing a big home with web cams is thus not practical.

Another extreme for setting up video security for your home or office would be to use special hardware designed just for that. For example you could use the Q-See Q32DM99D network digital video recorder. The Q-See Q32DM99D can record up to 9 video feed channels from many types of security and CCTV cameras. The Q-See Q32DM99D can record all 9 video feeds simultaneously to its internal hard drive. The Q-See Q32DM99D also allows remote monitoring of one or more of the feeds over the Internet. You can simply connect to it over the Internet and get many types of live feeds – individual camera or all 9 cameras. The Q-See Q32DM99D does not come with wireless cameras but these could be added as separate accessories. It can also connect to night vision enabled cameras for night time outdoors security.

There are many other options in between the simple web cam and the high end Q-See Q32DM99D. Some wi-fi enabled camera can connect directly to the Internet through your home wi-fi router. They can even do some simple image processing internally and send an email with a video clip when movement is captured. You could install a few of those cameras but if you need to cover a big space the cost of all those wi-fi gadgets will add up.
One advantage of using web cams and other consumer electronics cameras is their innocent look and feel. A security camera install on the wall attracts attention while an innocent web cam strategically positioned on your desk does not. You can take advantage of that to eliminate the need of concealing your cameras.

By: Jacob Georgeson

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Jacob Georgeson writes about photography and cameras. You can read more about digital cameras, photography and Q-See Q32DM99D Pentaplex Video Recorder.