Cheap but reliable home security camera system??

Well to positively identify the FACE of the intruder you aren't going to do it with $199 4/6 channels. That system you linked to has 4-400TVL cameras which are about as low resolution as money can buy, you need 600/700 TVL cameras and even then it's more about the distance the camera is away from the person. My friend owns a trucking company and I bought him a Lorex system because they were cheap for a 500 gig DVR/8 channel - 4 camera system and so far it works pretty good for him because if you really need protection you can set the cameras to motion detect and set them up to email you they picked up motion and you can watch the video on your smartphone. IP cameras have really good detail and resolutions if you spend the money and have the Hard drive to store the video, the better the picture, the more storage you need.

The system you linked is probably identical to the system I installed for a friend and it will probably be fine for what your trying to accomplish, my friend can clearly tell which employee it is that is screwing around from 30' away from the cameras even in night vision mode ( black and white) but there are no facial recognition past about 10' on a 400TVL analog camera but a pro thief wont be caught by his face anyway

U cud get a foscam on z-wave for less than 50 bucks.

This. Cheap/far away cameras will let you watch someone taking/breaking your stuff, but that's about it. Doubtful you'll get anything like a face for identification, or a license plate number.

DIY cams are more of a deterrent, usually. They'll steal or break the PCs, NASs, NVRs, and/or DVRs.

Personally, I'd do cams + security system.

To ID an intruder reliably, one will need to pay $150/cam, for IP cams, at an absolute minimum. But a $100 Foscam or Vivotek might be a fun toy.

CCTV is still cheaper than IP.

+1 on Foscam. I only have one right now I use in my Nursery as a baby monitor. I plan on getting more for the rest of my house and using Insteon motion sensors to notify me if someone breaks into my home and then I can verify it by looking on the cameras and call the cops myself. With a smart phone you can monitor your house from anywhere in the world using Foscam cameras. You can also get software that will record video to reveiw later.

If you have a desktop computer in your home, have a little fun and build your own.

Check out iSpy or just google "open source surveillance software". There's a lot of good documentation for building your own, it's not too difficult, and you can focus spending your hard earned dollars on the hardware and have that hi-fi camera that will zoom in on a freckle.

Is using old phones as security cameras a bad idea? I've got a few Android and iOS phones laying around with solid cameras and WiFi. It seems like the perfect camera short of having an IR array.

+1 on focam. in few words " cheap , reliable and value for your money "

me too support you man! foscam is really cheap. And they provide a good quality too.

It's not good to go for cheap security systems because sometimes, they provide low quality.