We have recently come across two articles on the same topic:
Although people have been toying with USB webcams on the Raspberry Pi for some time now, the release of the official camera module has reinvigorated interest in video related projects.
The official Raspberry Pi camera module is a Full HD camera that plugs into the Raspberry Pi via the Camera Serial Interface (next to the Ethernet port) on the device. The sensor on the camera is a 5MP with fixed focus lens. It can shoot still images with a maximum resolution of 2592×1944 as well as Full HD 1080p video @ 30 FPS and 720p video @ 60 FPS.
And you get all this in a module that’s only 25x20x9mm in size and weighs just 9 grams! This makes it ideal for projects that require a small steady camera, like surveillance.
Full article here:
Use the Raspberry Pi as a DIY Surveillance camera (Make Tech Easier)
This article describes how to build a surveillance cam based on a Raspberry Pi micro-computer which records HD video when something moves in the monitored area. Live picture can be viewed from any web browser, even from your mobile while you’re on the road.
What you will get:
- See live stream in any web browser from anywhere
- Record any motion into video file
Usually, such a cam will cost you around US$1.000, but with the result from this article, you will get such a cam for only about US$120.
Full article here:
Raspberry Pi as low-cost HD surveillance camera (CodeProject)
The only suggestion we might make as a possible addition to either project is that if you are using this to monitor an entry area (such as a front or back porch), why not include a few bright white LED’s to provide illumination at night? Those could be turned on and off via a cron job on the Pi, or by some type if logic that detects when there’s not enough ambient light to get a decent image, and then applies power to the LEDs (which could be powered via a GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi if they don’t draw too much current).
