For home use sony/sharp cctv cams are available in market with features
like- Motion detector, night vision(up to 5 meters),TV output, recording
scheduler.
You will need a PC with DVR card to setup recording on computer,1 day
recording will create apx 500 mb of data.If you enable motion detector,
recorder will record only motions so the recording data size will be
reduced.
CCTV cams do not consume much electricity. They are powered by 12V DC
adapter (mostly). If you want to install multiple cam's and do not want
recording facility then go for a device called as "CCTV Multiplexer" or
else you can go for a n-channel DVR recorder or DVR Card.
Most of the DVR recorder now come with motion detectors and would start
recording only when pixels change i.e. when motion is detected.
As of the Cam's, Black and White Camera's have better spectral
sensitivity at night (dark) then color ones but now you have IR camera's
too. The camera's can be fitted with lens of choice. Smaller the lens
size better is the width wise coverage but poorer depth (zoom) and vice
versa. A 3.6mm lens will give you a 72 degree of field view which is
fair enough for your home requirement.
Suggestion for you:
1. Go for Fixed Lens IR Dome Camera with 3.6mm lens.
2. n-channel DVR recorder. - DVR card would require your PC to be ON all
the time consuming electricity continuously.
3. 500GB SATA2 hard disk for the DVR (The DVR price does not includes
HDD price)
3. Avoid Video Door Phones - they are costly and if conked you would
need to dump the entire box.
