i really see no point in it besides some determent. and for the price tag, the determent doesn't seem worth it to me because they can beat it too easy (ski mask).
i'd think a better way to spend about $100 or so on determent would be an electric fence. i've already made the damn thing a fortress with wood slats every 6'' or so. chicken wire comes next. then the electric fence. they would need a razor to cut the plastic, a saw to get through the wood, and rubber handled clippers for the chicken wire and electric fence. that seems tougher to beat than simply donning a ski mask in my opinion.
Nah man, you're thinking about just being able to know who it is. It's not just about knowing who is coming onto your property, but knowing that someone is coming onto your property in the first place. I bought my set on newegg on sale for $100 plus shipping, it came with the DVR and 4 cameras, all nightvision. Not only could you place one near the front of your house for the entire neighborhood to see you have cameras, but you'd also have a good view of the street during both the day and night. Even if these people do have ski masks on, imagine how much more smoothly things would go if you saw them all coming down the street with your night vision cameras? You'll know about the problem before it happens in some cases and this is invaluable. And not only this, if you put a hard drive in the DVR you can set it to constantly record so that should anything happen you have video evidence of exactly what went down, also invaluable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881523034
This is the one I got, 15% off offer ends today but even at $130 it's a pretty good deal. Another $50-60 for the hard drive and you're then able to record evidence.
I know that's pretty pricey and it's probably what you spend on soil for your set up, but I promise that if you had your night vision cameras set up with motion sensors then you probably would have already caught these guys. This is definitely worth the investment and the best part is the cameras have built in IR sensors so that you're able to see them at night, as I've already explained. However if you feel that the light on there isn't sufficient enough, simply supplement it with one of these like I do.
http://www.amazon.com/48-led-Illuminator-Light-Infrared-Vision/dp/B0067S8IZ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340414093&sr=8-1&keywords=ir+illuminators
There are 2 benefits of going with IR lighting as opposed to flood lights. You'll have to be careful where you place the lights as they can mess with your cycles as I'm sure you've already considered, I'm not sure if IR lighting will have the same problem but I assume that it will just to be on the safe side, if someone knew more about that I'd be grateful for more info concerning this. Anyway, the other negative about the flood light is that once it's on, you and the intruders have the same vision. However when it's just IR lights, only you can see them from your camera/cell phone/computer, the only thing they will see is a slightly glowing red ring. Some people say this red ring sucks because it lets everyone know you have the cameras, however most people don't know what it is, so naturally they look up at the light to see what it is. Maybe they'll know, maybe they won't but the point is that they'll have looked straight into the lens, hopefully providing you with the face shot you need for evidence.
It's you vs the thieves and clearly they seem to know your yard and it's not a random thing anymore which makes it much more dangerous as they can make plans to be more efficient. So in order to trump this, you gain more information then they already have by setting up cameras and knowing that they'll be hitting your house when they're down the street.
Sorry if this was too long but I hope it helped, I love my cameras and haven't looked back at all.