New Installation - Camera & Location Recommendations

[machineage]

Hi all

I'm looking for some recommendations. I’ve enclosed a couple of drawings which illustrate the general layout of my house, neighbouring properties, and access points. The pavement & road are reasonably well lit at night, with a streetlight on the opposite pavement a little further down. I currently have no lighting at the rear of my plot outside the garage. I am happy to install movement activated IR, or LED illumination. I have highlighted where I thought I may site two cameras. The first under the soffit facing the entrance to my plot, and the second on the wall adjacent the rear conservatory door. Both are around 7ft above ground. Alternatively I could mount a couple of cameras onto the timber clad end gable or bargeboards above the conservatory. The peak of the gable is around 13ft above ground, and the gable cladding is recessed by around 8 inches.

I am confused as to which cameras will give me the best picture for day & night viewing in each location. I’m aware that lower pixel / larger sensor cameras perform better in the dark. I’ve read the Cliff notes, but I’m not sure how up to date they are re: new cameras.

So I wondered what would be considered good options for my application from what is currently available, or soon to be released.

I am also Mac based (Big Sur), so I need whatever NVR / cameras to be accessible & stable via my Mac.

Thanks!

 

[wittaj]

Keep in mind many of these cameras only work with full functionality with Internet Explorer - yeah the defunct program (although it is still baked into WIN10).

Some people find that they can get by with the mac, some can't. YMMV.

You need to identify the areas you want to cover and pick a camera designed to cover that distance. In some instances, it may be a 2MP or 4MP that is the right camera. DO NOT CHASE MP!!!

It is why we recommend to purchase one good varifocal and test it at all the proposed locations day and night to figure out the correct focal lengths and cams.

A few other tips....It is simple LOL do not chase MP - do not buy a 4MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/1.8" sensor. Do not buy a 2MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/2.8" sensor. Do not buy a 4K (8MP) camera on anything smaller than a 1/1.2" sensor. Unfortunately, most 4k (8MP) cams are on the same sensor as a 2MP and thus the 2MP will kick its butt all night long as the 4k will need 4 times the light than the 2MP... 4k will do very poor at night unless you have stadium quality lighting (well a lot of lighting LOL). Starlight, ColorVu, Full Color, etc. are simply marketing terms, so don't be sold on those names.

To identify someone with the wide-angle 2.8mm lens that most people opt for, someone would have to be within 13 feet of the camera, but realistically within 10 feet after you dial it in to your settings.

My neighbor was bragging to me how he only needed his four 2.8mm fixed lens 4k cams to see his entire property and the street and his whole backyard. His car was sitting in the driveway practically touching the garage door and his video quality was useless to ID the perp not even 10 feet away. Meanwhile my 2MP varifocal optically zoomed 60 feet away to the public sidewalk provided the money shot to the police to get my neighbors all their stuff back. Nobody else had video that could provide anything useful, other than what time this motion blur ghost was at their car.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision works as well. These cameras meet all your requirements.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great auto-track PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A wide angle 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who.

One camera cannot be the be all, see all. Each one is selected for covering a specific area. Most of us here have different brands and types, from fixed cams, to varifocals, to PTZs, each one selected for it's primary purpose and to utilize the strength of that particular camera.

So you will need to identify the distance the camera would be from the activities you want to IDENTIFY on and purchase the correct camera for that distance as an optical zoom.

If you want to see things far away, you need optical zoom, digital zoom only works in the movies and TV...And the optical zoom is done real time - for a varifocal it is a set it and forget it. You cannot go to recorded video and optically zoom in later, at that point it is digital zoom, and the sensors on these cameras are so small which is why digital zoom doesn't work very well after the fact.

 

[Griswalduk]

At first glance i would recommend not putting the cameras above the conservatory. Installing the cameras in the positions shown in diagram 1 is ok for starters but i feel leaves considerable blind spots most notably the front door.

For decent coverage I'm counting 7 possibly 8 cameras fitted in a cross formation so they can see each other.

I've added some crude arrows to your diagram. I also appreciate some positions like the driveway entrance might be hard to get to.

Out to others for ideas

Welcome to the forum btw