I'm looking to set up a webcam overlooking the back garden and garage so that I can monitor my garden during the day from work. Ideally I'd also like the PC to start recording when it senses movement (maybe this would be in software). Would also be good if it could work in very low light conditions. Any suggestions? Also how could I go about making such a camera available online?

There's always X10. Despite how much I despised their web marketing campaigns, they're still what everyone thinks of when you mention webcams.

You should get in contact with Rob Vreeland, cruzths or was it crzthis... anyhow. He has his whole house wired externally with cameras and all kinds of autorecording and web enabled madness. He did it after my car was stolen from his driveway. =]

I am in the process of setting up a Geovision system, from RF Concepts.

Not arrived yet, has some really cool featuers, like Dynamic Hosting for remote internet access and a Pocket PC app that allows local or remote access to the cameras on the system.

Should have the system ready for testng in the next few weeks, will give you a full run down then

Cheers

Cris.

Looks and sounds just what I'm looking for. Let me know how you get on

I've fiddled around with various stuff in the past, I would recommend against getting a webcam type camera for serious security stuff and stick to a propert CCTV hooked up to a bt848 type card. You can get single, quad and 16 input cards from Hong Kong (on ebay) for very little money.

The best place I have seen for CCTV is Henry's: www.henrys.co.uk
They also have a nice London shop where you can see any camera hooked up.

I never found any good free software and I think I ended up using webcam32 which I used for a webcam when I was at Uni five years ago. You can set it to detect movement and it can email images, FTP files or serve JPEGs (inc. streams).

It seems that since I got my version it has been sold on and the trial version is time-limited, but it's worth a look:
http://www.surveyor.com/index_webcam32.html

Gareth

Ooh yes, for low light I am currently making a camera using the intensifier from an old night vision periscope from a Ferret armoured car. More info here - the site of the chap I purchased it from. It's Gen I, cost was £100 but it is FAR better than the commercially available stuff - for visible light it is as good as a Gen II unit. It also has large input and output windows so as you can see from the pics in the link it can be used with 35mm lenses.

Gareth

Too many cameras to choose from there! Is there one that you'd recommend? Is there any way to get a motorized one that I can control through a web interface?

Also if anyone else knows of any great (also free or cheap) software, please let me know.

Get a UPS and a cellular phone uplink for it, so no one can cut your power or phone to rob you. Yes, I'm paranoid.

If you overlook any public area with the camera then you'll have to put up signs and follow various laws.

Nah I'll be ok - its going to look onto private land only. And only our property. On that note though, would you actually be prosecuted for pointing in the other way so that as well as the driveway it would take in a bit of pavement/road?

And does the law change if its not actually recording or isn't a real CCTV (is just a webcam?). I mean Argos sell cameras to watch the door - what if it also allows the user to see the street?

Yeah. If it's only a webcam thing pointing at the garden then I doubt anybody would even notice. It's a tad more obvious if you've got a big metal weatherproof CCTV case bolted to the side of the building

It's fairly easy to register with the ICO anyway so most places just do it to be covered. It was £35 a year from what I remember.

Hrmm... The DPA may be scrapped? They are going to replace it with something equiv tho yes? It's a pain for the people storing the data but it's good for the people which the data is about.