Hi Jack,
I've done a fair bit of this sort of thing before. The most useful setup i've
found is:
1) Analogue monochrome CCTV camera. (Preferably with around 700 horizontal
lines or so, very low lux, and self syncing)
I use these.
http://www.allthings.com.au/Catalogue/CCS/monochrome%20low%20light%20cctv%20dsp%20video%20camera.html
You can then buy a C or CS lens that is the right angle for your situation. For
roof mounted stuff I use an ultra-wide angle varifocal set to just before it
noticably fisheyes.
2) Cat 5 balun connected to CCTV camera's analogue video output and power
input. This allows signal to be sent, and power to be recieved via a single
cheap UTP Cat 5 lead (i've gone 30 metres with no noticable image quality loss,
supposedly you can go much further). Removes the need to run a mains power lead
or coax lead to the camera so setup is quick and easy, and reduces time spent
dangling from ladders. You can get sets of cat 5 baluns really cheap on ebay.
3) Second cat 5 balun, on the other end of the cat 5 lead, placed next to
computer. Connect to a suitable power supply for your video camera, and connect
signal to a near zero latency industrial firewire capture device such as a
DFG/1394-1e.
http://www.theimagingsource.com/en_US/products/converters/dfg13941e/ This
allows you to hook up to a to a desktop or laptop, including a mac mini.
Then you're done. Just set Pd to listen to the DFG/1394-1e. Image will be clean
and roughly equivalent to 720x576 res.
This setup can also be modified to work with near infra-red light instead of
visible light if you want to avoid detecting lighting changes as movement. Just
tape three squares of primary red and congo blue gel in front of the camera
lens. Set up a few PAR56s to flood the space with light. Add the same gel to
the 56's as you did to the camera and it will block almost all visible light.
People will glow bright white when viewed through the camera, but most other
stuff in the space will be close to invisible.
Alternately, if you want to use a firewire board camera, you can get something
like a Lindy CAT5 FireWire Extender. They aren't cheap but they extend the
maximum length of a firewire run from around 5m to 70m without quality loss.
Regards,
David Kirkpatrick
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