What type of surveillance camera would be best suited for the entrance to my gated community?

Our gated community needs a surveillance camera. Our gate was hit and broken two times, but we have been unable to determine who did it (probably am impatient driver). If we had a camera that could capture video for 24-48 hours (and then recycle), we could determine who is responsible for future incidents. Since there is only one entrance to the community (besides climbing over fences), this would also be a deterrent to criminals entering the community. There is a light pole with electricity near the entrance to the community, so power and view plane issues are not a problem. We just need to be sure the resolution of the images is sufficient to capture faily good images (license plate numbers, etc). This is Altanta, so severe weather is also not an issue. Finally, we are a small gated community, so we cannot afford very expensive options. Reliable, inexpensive solutions are preferred over high cost, high-tech solutions.

What type of surveillance camera would be best suited for the entrance to my gated community?graphics for myspace

Silly answer - Hang a balloon full of paint so when they ram the gate with their car the balloon pops and gets paint all over their car. Just look for the car with paint splattered all over it.

Serious answer - I don't think there is a cheap solution. You can either buy a security camera system, which has a camera and a time lapse VCR or buy a camera to connect to your computer and use software to do the monitoring.

What type of surveillance camera would be best suited for the entrance to my gated community?myspace tweaks myspace.com

Check out http://www.supercircuits.com and I believe they have a variety of relatively inexpensive cameras which will work for your situation.

I would definitely get a camera that has a weather housing for rain and bad weather (even if it's not severe like the snow you had a day ago!), as well as infrared capability for night views.

Pair it up with a digital recorder of some kind (also available at the same website) and you're in business.