I'm having a house built right now and will close on it this spring. The first task I want to accomplish after closing is setting up my internet and security cameras. I no longer have security cameras because the people who bought my last house asked me to leave my EmpireTech boobie cams as a concession, which means I need to buy new cameras and hire a company to install them, since I'm getting a little too old for ladders and adventures in the attic. I want to have installed a nice PTZ cam three feet above the garage door for the front yard cam and a nice PTZ cam on the back patio post as the back yard cam, but I'm afraid my new neighbors might see these cameras as intrusive. Plenty of people in the neighborhood have cameras, but every single one of them is a bullet cam. Think I should go low pro with some bullet cams or go all out with the PTZ cams? I use Blue Iris and POE. Any feedback and Empiretech camera suggestions would be appreciated.
New Construction Feedback
- Thread starter Marlboro36
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A nice PTZ is going to be large.
Relying on PTZs only are a recipe for disaster.
PTZs with motion tracking are a compliment to an existing fixed camera system and not replacements for fixed cameras.
So with only PTZs and no additional fixed cameras - what happens when 2 or more people come up to your house - the PTZ is only catching and tracking one of them, not all of them.
PTZs are not perfect and can lose tracking. Then you miss the person.
What happens when the PTZ is looking left and a perp comes from the right?
That is why PTZs are not a replacement for fixed cameras - they are a compliment to an existing system.
If you rely on a PTZ only it will miss many instances, especially when it is off tracking something else.
You are much better off using fixed cams as spotter cams to point the PTZ to where the action is and then let the autotracking take over from there.
See this thread on how a PTZ compliments a fixed camera system.
While you may have been out of the buying game for a while, sadly the same cameras then are probably still the recommended cameras.
Here is a post of the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value/best bang for the buck in terms of price and performance day and night. It might be a 2MP camera in some instances. Many here feel 4MP is the current sweet spot for these cameras.
The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection
Relying on PTZs only are a recipe for disaster.
PTZs with motion tracking are a compliment to an existing fixed camera system and not replacements for fixed cameras.
So with only PTZs and no additional fixed cameras - what happens when 2 or more people come up to your house - the PTZ is only catching and tracking one of them, not all of them.
PTZs are not perfect and can lose tracking. Then you miss the person.
What happens when the PTZ is looking left and a perp comes from the right?
That is why PTZs are not a replacement for fixed cameras - they are a compliment to an existing system.
If you rely on a PTZ only it will miss many instances, especially when it is off tracking something else.
You are much better off using fixed cams as spotter cams to point the PTZ to where the action is and then let the autotracking take over from there.
See this thread on how a PTZ compliments a fixed camera system.
While you may have been out of the buying game for a while, sadly the same cameras then are probably still the recommended cameras.
Here is a post of the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value/best bang for the buck in terms of price and performance day and night. It might be a 2MP camera in some instances. Many here feel 4MP is the current sweet spot for these cameras.
The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection
^^ Everything he said.
I have a PTZ on the front corner of my house to hopefully get better captures of people at distance (and be nosy when I am sitting at my PC). My main circle of security is around my home and in my yard, but if the PTZ can get details beyond that then it is a bonus. It is not my entire system, but a complement to the rest of it.
I can't tell you how many times the PTZ "misses" someone because the neighbor kids down the street, where the PTZ is normally parked, are outside playing and it doesn't get the call to go to another preset because it is tracking a 5yo on a big wheel.
As far as the neighbors are concerned, I had the mini PTZ and no one thought anything of it. I "upgraded" to a "better", more typical looking PTZ and got a lot of comments, even though there had been one there the entire time.
I have a PTZ on the front corner of my house to hopefully get better captures of people at distance (and be nosy when I am sitting at my PC). My main circle of security is around my home and in my yard, but if the PTZ can get details beyond that then it is a bonus. It is not my entire system, but a complement to the rest of it.
I can't tell you how many times the PTZ "misses" someone because the neighbor kids down the street, where the PTZ is normally parked, are outside playing and it doesn't get the call to go to another preset because it is tracking a 5yo on a big wheel.
As far as the neighbors are concerned, I had the mini PTZ and no one thought anything of it. I "upgraded" to a "better", more typical looking PTZ and got a lot of comments, even though there had been one there the entire time.