which raspberry pi is better to make surveillance camera?

[chernobyl_choky]

hi guys i need to make surveillance camera that will record videos for 5 hrs per day with 1080p 30 fps
so i don't need more than that
i thought about getting Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
but it is a bit expensive
do you think i can make this project using pi zero ? or it is not powerful enough ?
thanks ♥♥

[HermannSW]

Pi Zero is definitely good enough for 1920x1080@30fps with raspivid.
Besides being cheap, it is light weight and can be attached to small RC airplane with camera.
I did record 1920x1080@25fps for upload to youtube.
More details in youtube comment link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0Q50mwpRI

[topguy]

The video will be compressed by the GPU which is basically the same so performance wise its not much of a difference.
But in practical use it might be a huge difference, the inbuilt Ethernet port and USB ports just make the Pi3 so much simpler to work with.
After you realise you need some extra adaptors and maybe a USB hub to work with the Pi0 you see that the actual price difference is not really much.

Bu it depends on what you plan to do with the video files, store them on SD card or USB-drive or send them over network.

[chernobyl_choky]

wow it looks amazing !
ok i think i'll go on and get pi zero
but i know some basics in c++
what i should learn to program it to work properly do you have an online course or something like that ?
and how much memory i will need to record 5 hrs ?
thanks a lot ♥

[chernobyl_choky]

The video will be compressed by the GPU which is basically the same so performance wise its not much of a difference.
But in practical use it might be a huge difference, the inbuilt Ethernet port and USB ports just make the Pi3 so much simpler to work with.
After you realise you need some extra adaptors and maybe a USB hub to work with the Pi0 you see that the actual price difference is not really much.

Bu it depends on what you plan to do with the video files, store them on SD card or USB-drive or send them over network.

no i will store it on SD card
does it not possible in pi0 ?

[rpdom]

Yes, you can store the videos on the SD card on the Pi Zero. It will take pretty much any sized card currently available (I think there might be an issue with cards over 256GB, but I'm not sure).

You don't need to do any programming as such, just one command line to start the recording software.

[HermannSW]

You don't need to do any programming as such, just one command line to start the recording software.

This command will record 1920x1080@fps video for 5h (time in milliseconds):
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /camera.md

Code: Select all

raspivid -md 1 -w 1920 -h 1080 -p 22,50,960,540 -pts tst.pts -o tst.h264 -t 18000000

You can use file tst.pts to verify that indeed 30fps got recorded, or to determine the number of frame drops.
With storing .h264 video on SD card there should not be any frame drops, even on Pi Zero.
https://github.com/Hermann-SW/userland/ ... ptsanalyze

wow it looks amazing !
ok i think i'll go on and get pi zero

You might spend a little more money and buy a Pi ZeroW.
That is same as Pi Zero, but has Wifi and Bluetooth:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/ra ... pi-zero-w/


In case you want to do surveillance, that typically means that you need to record in the dark as well.
You need a NoIR camera in that case (camera misses IR filter, but does cost more).

To be future proof you can buy 8MP v2 NoIR camera:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/pi-noir-camera-v2/

Or 10$ incl shipping "ZERO Night Vision" camera:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/33034095425.html

You need external infrared light source as well, don't try to connect IR lights to any v1 camera.

[mohit1]

Use pi 3A+
Iam using them and they are much better to pi zero in all respects
And price is not much either

[RDS]

@HermannSW
I have just tried the code from your post above but my results come out as quite a jerky picture, using a standard pi camera.
Could I ask if you were using a different camera for your video from the RC plane.

Code: Select all

raspivid -md 1 -w 1920 -h 1080 -p 22,50,960,540 -pts tst.pts -o tst.h264 -t 60000

I only set it for 1 minute

[HermannSW]

@HermannSW
I have just tried the code from your post above but my results come out as quite a jerky picture, using a standard pi camera.
Could I ask if you were using a different camera for your video from the RC plane.

Code: Select all

raspivid -md 1 -w 1920 -h 1080 -p 22,50,960,540 -pts tst.pts -o tst.h264 -t 60000

I only set it for 1 minute

I did use 5MP Raspberry v1 camera (clone):
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/IMG ... 073346.jpg

The raspivid command I used (I had to look myself) is part of camfly script executed from /etc/rc.local:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 7#p1196292

Code: Select all

...
  raspivid -t 300000 -fps 25 --shutter  1000 -o fly.`date +%s`.h264
...

The most important setting is "--shutter 1000" to reduce exposure time to 1ms.

P.S:
You can capture photos/videos with Raspberry cameras with much lower exposure times -- you just have to increase lighting brightness. With 5000lm led near object you can even capture with 9µs exposure time:
https://github.com/Hermann-SW/Raspberry ... shots-tool

[RDS]

@HermannSW
Thank you for a very prompt reply.
I will try lowering the shutter speed.

[alphanumeric]

I'm using 3A+'s running Motion Eye as networked cameras. I tried a Pi Zero but the video feed was choppy and lagged a lot. I run at 720P, 1280 by 720. I get about 20 FPS over my WIFI. 3A+'s are nice cost saving over a 3B+ . It also let me run a Pan Tilt on one of them.

[RDS]

@alphanumeric
Could I ask how you run MotionEye.
I have tried running it as an Operating System (I hope that is the correct term) and as part of a Python Program, without any success at all with either. I liked the fact that it could run multiple cameras.

Even using a Pi3B, I have been unable to get steady video, just using a simple Terminal command. My video seems to jump probably up to a second each time.

[alphanumeric]

I just downloaded the appropriate image for a Pi 3 and used etcher to image it to my Micro SD card.
On first boot up I connect a USB hub I have that has an ethernet jack. If it doesn't get an ethernet connection it will just endlessly reboot.
If you connect a monitor it will show you what IP address it got. I then log in from a web browser and enable wifi, and setup a static IP address.
Then do a reboot and unplug my ethernet cable.

https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/releases

[RDS]

@alphanumeric
Thanks, I will try that.

[chernobyl_choky]

what is the FOV of this camera ?

Specification
The Raspberry Pi Camera Module v2 replaced the original Camera Module in April 2016. The v2 Camera Module has a Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor (compared to the 5-megapixel OmniVision OV5647 sensor of the original camera).

i want to make the camera as small as possible with small lens to not attract attention with auto focus
which version should i buy ?

[RaTTuS]

what is the FOV of this camera ?

Specification
The Raspberry Pi Camera Module v2 replaced the original Camera Module in April 2016. The v2 Camera Module has a Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor (compared to the 5-megapixel OmniVision OV5647 sensor of the original camera).

i want to make the camera as small as possible with small lens to not attract attention with auto focus
which version should i buy ?

you don't - not with a RPi
a good quality micro SDcard will give you 30fps - recording - on a Pi0 just make sure you have setup the fps / iso / data rate so it can cope

size wise the Pi0 will be the best

otherise you need something like
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000296137410.html or
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000096615354.html

[chernobyl_choky]

[/quote]

you don't - not with a RPi
a good quality micro SDcard will give you 30fps - recording - on a Pi0 just make sure you have setup the fps / iso / data rate so it can cope

size wise the Pi0 will be the best

otherise you need something like
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000296137410.html or
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000096615354.html
[/quote]
unfortunately it's banned in our country so i can't buy it from amazon , aliexpress etc
i thought about buying 2 raspberry pi0 to have a wider FOV