Practically Classics Forum

Sensor lights are great. Those little IR cameras are completely useless for external use, the range of the LEDs is nothing like large enough to make any difference. Internally they are usable but poor.
Wireless cameras are 2.4g, the same as your WIFI and most other "wireless" devices so you get lots of interference and if your house has thick walls they won't work anyway (from experience)
Colour cameras are a waste of time unless they are fitted somewhere well lit as they barely work at all at night. You can get Day/Night cameras that go between which are a good compromise.

If funds are tight may I suggest you put up some sensor lights (as they are cheap and damn useful for more than just security) and buy some 2nd hand camera housings and plonk them about.
At night they will look real and unless someone looks hard during the day they will then too. Don't spend more than £10 each on them and buy some small stickers saying CCTV in operation and stick them in the corner of a few windows. That will put most people off.

As Terry says, wireless cameras are 2.4Ghz. The channels are not the same as Wi-Fi though and they can not co-exist easily. If you install them you run the risk of trashing your Wi-Fi and that of your neighbours. The signal will pass through one brick wall but more than that is pushing it. Those things were the bane of my life in my last job as a W-Fi engineer.

thanks chaps, the walls on this place are about 60 cm thick so the wifi thing isnt going to work.. ive got several pir lights so ill swap some over to those with the camera when i can afford it.. i wonder if pc could do a "road test" on security systems

Maplin was merely a suggestion for a cheap kit.

I fitted four of these at work, the night vision is brilliant and they are TDN with 700tvl(b&w) but there about £140 each.!

Ive just taken this screen shot showing one of our older cheap cameras and the newer TDN neither has any additional lighting except the street lights in the distance.
The DVR also uses the signal from 3 PIR's dotted around the yard, when the PIR pick up motion the DVR output is used to put the security lights on and a 110db siren.
The cameras do have built in motion detection but its useless outside.