# Costar cameras



## JohnR (Apr 12, 2010)

Ask him how much commission he gets per item.
I have never heard of this brand.


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## Wpgshocker (Jan 25, 2013)

JohnR said:


> Ask him how much commission he gets per item.
> I have never heard of this brand.


You haven't heard of most companies that make cameras. You only know some of the names that get slapped on them. 

Costar, ATVideo, Digimerge, Capture, Dedicated Micro, and quite a few others use cameras made by a company called Hitron. 
I use Hitron and for the price, they are good. 

OP, Who is your supplier?


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## zwodubber (Feb 24, 2011)

On a side note, cooper electric (my main electrical supplier) now carries speco which is nice to know.


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## JohnR (Apr 12, 2010)

Wpgshocker said:


> You haven't heard of most companies that make cameras. You only know some of the names that get slapped on them.
> 
> Costar, ATVideo, Digimerge, Capture, Dedicated Micro, and quite a few others use cameras made by a company called Hitron.
> I use Hitron and for the price, they are good.
> ...


:laughing: You would be correct. I have never heard of any of those. Well maybe the Hitron but it was only in passing.:laughing:


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

farlsincharge said:


> Does anybody use these. My supply house guys are telling me they are the real deal and everything else is basically junk. The prices are incredibly high.
> 
> Any feedback?


Been in the business 16 years and never heard of them.



zwodubber said:


> On a side note, cooper electric (my main electrical supplier) now carries speco which is nice to know.


Speco Intesifiers are amazing but... they are crap at recording movement at night.


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## zwodubber (Feb 24, 2011)

LARMGUY said:


> Been in the business 16 years and never heard of them.
> 
> 
> 
> Speco Intesifiers are amazing but... they are crap at recording movement at night.


I agree with you. The only Speco's I have used were intensifiers (HTINTT5 box and HTINTB10 bullets) and have had no complaints.

Was curious what the SH is charging for Speco's IP megapixel cams so I had them give me a quote as I have some projects coming up with IP and megapixel cams, surprisingly the prices weren't to outrageous. Have been mainly using axis and vivotek but might give the Specos a try.


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## Wpgshocker (Jan 25, 2013)

JohnR said:


> :laughing: You would be correct. I have never heard of any of those. Well maybe the Hitron but it was only in passing.:laughing:


Hitron DVR's are rebranded as Honeywell, ATVideo, Samsung, Costar, Speco, and quite a few others.
The cameras are not picked up by the bigger names like Honeywell.


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## Fredman (Dec 2, 2008)

Wpgshocker said:


> You haven't heard of most companies that make cameras. You only know some of the names that get slapped on them.
> 
> Costar, ATVideo, Digimerge, Capture, Dedicated Micro, and quite a few others use cameras made by a company called Hitron.
> I use Hitron and for the price, they are good.
> ...


Dead micros's is the only one I've heard of before and it operates just like I spelled it! :laughing:


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## farlsincharge (Dec 31, 2010)

Eecol is the supplier. 2 costar cameras $1275.

I have asked another outfit to quote me some speco's.
We want top end stuff for this job and aren't afraid to pay if the cameras work.
I want facial and licence plate recognition at 30', mounted outside, at night.


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

Fredman said:


> Dead micros's is the only one I've heard of before and it operates just like I spelled it! :laughing:


 
Agree with that.

Their tech support answer to everything is you need an upgrade to the software. Go to site, download the software, burn to disk, feed to DVR, DVR upchucks or doesn't read it. Call tech support. They send Disk that has OS you upchucked and upgrade on it. It takes it and six weeks later you are calling tech support again. Replace with NVR and encoders.


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## mikeh32 (Feb 16, 2009)

panasonic, pelco, and sony.


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

zwodubber said:


> I agree with you. The only Speco's I have used were intensifiers (HTINTT5 box and HTINTB10 bullets) and have had no complaints.
> 
> Was curious what the SH is charging for Speco's IP megapixel cams so I had them give me a quote as I have some projects coming up with IP and megapixel cams, surprisingly the prices weren't to outrageous. Have been mainly using axis and vivotek but might give the Specos a try.


 
Some advice, Buy one for yourself and torture test it. If the Axis and Vivoteks are performing well why change horses midstream? We had different cameras at different jobs so we had minimal time to get to know the quirks of each one. A little story that explains this in spades.

I'll use American Dynamics as an example. We had been using AD speedomes and untradomes for years on big projects with very little if any problems other than an comm issue between vendors. (whole other story). We saw AD came out with a new 3.5 to 8 mm dome camera. Bought 150 for a hospital. Started installing them and noticed the cameras COULD NOT be aimed straight down a hallway when mounted in a ceiling. The lens and camera chip just would not physically move to a level position. (insert your favorite swear words here). 

Now, due to a salesman trying something different, and a little cheaper, the application we bought them for didn't work. More words were spoken and a conversation of what to do's flowed back and forth between my company and the hospital. The installers had a timeframe to get them done and were not told to stop installing them so they modified them to work. The hospital decided to return the AD cameras and go Pelco. Guess where we are now? We cannot return the domes for any money because the installers modified each one with a Dremel tool. My company is mad at the installers, and the PM. The sales guys and the hospital are throwing sharp emails at each other. It goes downhill fast just because we assumed a major manufacturer would have a camera that would work in the application we were told it would. We lost the hospital for four years until the were mad at someone else. I happened to know the head man through other sources and got the hospital back.


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## Wpgshocker (Jan 25, 2013)

farlsincharge said:


> Eecol is the supplier. 2 costar cameras $1275.
> 
> I have asked another outfit to quote me some speco's.
> We want top end stuff for this job and aren't afraid to pay if the cameras work.
> I want facial and licence plate recognition at 30', mounted outside, at night.


Use an ExtremeCCTV plate cam. They are Bosch now but I have used a ton of them and they will get a plate of a car moving 100kms /hr at night!

http://www.boschsecurity.us/en-us/reg


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## farlsincharge (Dec 31, 2010)

Wpgshocker said:


> Use an ExtremeCCTV plate cam. They are Bosch now but I have used a ton of them and they will get a plate of a car moving 100kms /hr at night!
> 
> http://www.boschsecurity.us/en-us/reg


Who do you deal through?


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## Wpgshocker (Jan 25, 2013)

farlsincharge said:


> Who do you deal through?


ADI and Tri-ed mostly. Eecol is too expensive.


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

Wpgshocker said:


> ADI and Tri-ed mostly. Eecol is too expensive.


ADI is really quite good. Their staff(at least in Wpg) are very knowledgeable, and pricing is good. Been dealing with them for almost 15 years (Burtech before ADI)


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