New to security camera systems I think I may be going down the wrong road

[Daniel Fostel]

Hey guys! came here seeking knowledge as Lorex is starting to worry me about what I just did. I was getting sick of all the crappy 1080p wireless nest cam footage of the guy breaking into cars around my neighborhood and started seeking out the most badass, reasonably priced cameras on the market. My cameras will be ~ 50ft to the road and 20-30 ft from my cars. I have a sodium light that I may change out for a white motion light as well as bright pathway lights on the one side of the driveway.

I got to looking at the Lorex 4K nocturnals, I believe they are the rebrand of the starlights you guys talk about here?

But after researching and finding my package of two 4k nocturnal 250ft range cameras and a NVR from Lorex was going to be over a grand and Costco had a Lorex NVR (LNK7108) with four 4k cameras(LKE383a-c) and ((LKB383a-c) for $450 I decided to jump on the bundle (Costco Wholesale)

Now I am a bit worried about compatibility down the road as my talk with Lorex tech support kept saying contact Costco with my questions about the unit... and would not answer saying he had no record of those product numbers.

My plan was to get the system running and next year replace the two dome cameras with the Nocturnals (LNE8974ABW) and re position the other costco domes inside the house for fire watch duty.

But now after my talk with Lorex I'm worried that the Nocturnals will not work with the LNK NVR and the other cameras will not get along with a proper Lorex NVR(NR900 or NR 800 series) in the future if the cheapo NVR dies.

The cameras are still in the mail... are my concerns valid? or is Lorex just brushing me off because I bought the "cheap" kit

I come to this site to seek knowledge and answers!

- Dan

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Buy a dahua kit NVR with some 2mp starlight is perfect, but 450usd budget maybe a little hard. Or just use some cheap 3mp models

 

[fenderman]

The Lorex nocturnal is a dahua camera at a much higher price.... Color night vision is a fraudulent claim... Regardless you will not be able to see 30 feet out at night unless you zoom in tight and have lots of light... Start reading the forum..

 

[Daniel Fostel]

Buy a dahua kit NVR with some 2mp starlight is perfect, but 450usd budget maybe a little hard. Or just use some cheap 3mp models

Yeah it just seemed too good a deal to pass up to get into the environment... getting a 2TB HD, NVR, And four cams for $450... But if it doesn't play well with anything else that means the cams are useless in the future.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

The Lorex nocturnal is a dahua camera at a much higher price.... Color night vision is a fraudulent claim... Regardless you will not be able to see 30 feet out at night unless you zoom in tight and have lots of light... Start reading the forum..

Working on that as we speak, so you agree that they will probably not get along when I start mixing systems?

 

[mat200]

Hey guys! ...
The cameras are still in the mail... are my concerns valid? or is Lorex just brushing me off because I bought the "cheap" kit

I come to this site to seek knowledge and answers!

- Dan

Welcome Dan,

Check out the various lorex related threads here for other lorex kits people have picked up from Costco.

If you are looking for extra cameras, if the NVR is a Dahua OEM NVR, which I believe it should be based on Lorex seeming to be supplied by Dahua then:
You should be able to some of the Dahua OEM starlight 2mp cameras to that kit to get a full set of cameras, and I believe you maybe able to add the 8mp Dahua OEM cameras also to this kit.
( I would recommend Andy empiretecandy who replied earlier as a source for those cameras )

As I mentioned in the SD forum, lorex does not support the Dahua OEM more advanced IVS features. Many of those here enjoy those features either in the NVR + cameras, or the equivalent in Blue Iris. Of course that may cost a little more to go that route - so a lot depends on your budget. Remember cabling and placement of the cameras is the most important - if you do those well you can always upgrade your kit later on.


Take a look here
FYI - Some local Costco B&M have a Lorex / Dahua OEM 4K 6x camera kit and 8 port NVR for $800

and
Replace my Lorex 4K (lnb8005) with a starlight (IPC-HDW5231R-ZE)

When you get the kit in, definitely share your impressions with us as well as some images from the day and night time.

update: Also Dan check if the cameras in that Lorex kit have WDR or DWDR ( wide dynamic range ), as I was not able to find mention of that in the spec sheets of the cameras.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

Got to admit not super stoked about the picture so far. Took some screen shots of me coming home at 530am. No sign of sunrise yet. It gives good all awareness. But the motion blur is so bad I could be Sasquatch. Back if the van is about 50ft away. The stairs roughly 15ft. The entire sequence of me coming home I couldn't get a single face shot that was usefull.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

Straight from the NVR zoomed in.... You can see a trail that lags behind as I walk. the persistence is terrible.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

That said... It does a good job of lighting up there world. At least you will know something happened. You just won't be able to identify anyting. Image is smoother on my screen, I took a picture of the screen and got some artifact

 

[mat200]

Got to admit not super stoked about the picture so far. Took some screen shots of me coming home at 530am. No sign of sunrise yet. It gives good all awareness. But the motion blur is so bad I could be Sasquatch. Back if the van is about 50ft away. The stairs roughly 15ft. The entire sequence of me coming home I couldn't get a single face shot that was usefull.View attachment 29221 View attachment 29222

HI Daniel,

You may need to adjust some of the camera setting for low light conditions.

Also, remember to compare the full res images what was captured. Not certain if you're getting those on the mobile device. Sometimes the mobile device gets the default lower res stream.

Best way to check a 4K UHD res video is on a 4K TV or monitor from a saved video clip to get a complete idea of what you maybe able to give the police as evidence. ( use the scissors button on screen to do this )

Also remember that in theory a 4K UHD camera at 90 degrees will have an ID distance of 25 feet. Beyond that and you'll get less than 100 ppf, closer more than 100 ppf.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

Daytime is obviously much better. But still can't read a license plate in the street.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

HI Daniel,

You may need to adjust some of the camera setting for low light conditions.

Also, remember to compare the full res images what was captured. Not certain if you're getting those on the mobile device. Sometimes the mobile device gets the default lower res stream.

Best way to check a 4K UHD res video is on a 4K TV or monitor from a saved video clip to get a complete idea of what you maybe able to give the police as evidence. ( use the scissors button on screen to do this )

Also remember that in theory a 4K UHD camera at 90 degrees will have an ID distance of 25 feet. Beyond that and you'll get less than 100 ppf, closer more than 100 ppf.

I have noticed that I must have too much light for it to kick over into night mode. I can manually do it, but then it doesn't work for daytime. may have to get a dedicated night setting camera. I have a manual shutter setting that will probably help with the blur, but darkens the picture too much...

 

[mat200]

I have noticed that I must have too much light for it to kick over into night mode. I can manually do it, but then it doesn't work for daytime. may have to get a dedicated night setting camera. I have a manual shutter setting that will probably help with the blur, but darkens the picture too much...

Hi Daniel,

You may want to augment your setup with the addition of a Dahua OEM 2mp starlight camera.

I suspect the NVR is a Dahua OEM NVR and thus you should be able to hook up a Dahua OEM camera to it. If the NVR can handle ONVIF then it should also work if you need to go that route.

W/regards to day time in the street reading plates, you will need about 80 ppf for that.

So you'll need a lens with more zoom and less FOV for those 4K UHD cameras.

A lot more to learn on these cameras than you and I first imagined, and our expectations are way off thanks to Hollywood.

 

[Daniel Fostel]

Hi Daniel,

A lot more to learn on these cameras than you and I first imagined, and our expectations are way off thanks to Hollywood.

The origonal plan was to get a set of zoom LOREX cams... but apparently the other 4k cams are not compatible with my NVR. I will check out the Starlight as a dedicated car watching camera right in front of the driveway... But its amazing anyone has ever got caught on cameras concidering how bad they are now..... And I know they have gotten A LOT better over the last few years. Still not there yet it would seem. Good thing the bad guys do not necessarily know how bad they are.

 

[fenderman]

The origonal plan was to get a set of zoom LOREX cams... but apparently the other 4k cams are not compatible with my NVR. I will check out the Starlight as a dedicated car watching camera right in front of the driveway... But its amazing anyone has ever got caught on cameras concidering how bad they are now..... And I know they have gotten A LOT better over the last few years. Still not there yet it would seem. Good thing the bad guys do not necessarily know how bad they are.

its all about proper lighting and or ir...cameras are not bad, its the users who dont purchase the correct cameras or dont provide proper lighting. Also note that setting noise reduction too high will cause trailing as well.

 

[mat200]

The origonal plan was to get a set of zoom LOREX cams... but apparently the other 4k cams are not compatible with my NVR. I will check out the Starlight as a dedicated car watching camera right in front of the driveway... But its amazing anyone has ever got caught on cameras concidering how bad they are now..... And I know they have gotten A LOT better over the last few years. Still not there yet it would seem. Good thing the bad guys do not necessarily know how bad they are.

Hi Daniel,

According to page 15 of the NVRs manual it look like this NVR is able to support ONVIF cameras.
https://www.lorextechnology.com/dow...NK716394B/LNK7000_SERIES_MANUAL_EN_R1_web.pdf

According the the Lorex compatibility list, this unit is not plug and play compatible with other Lorex IP cameras
Lorex Product Compatibility

Also as the interface UI and cameras do not seem familiar with my Dahua OEM products, nor can I find Dahua OEM cameras which are similar to those from this kit - I am wondering if Dahua is the OEM of this kit.

Well, either way - if it supports ONVIF you should be able to use that setting on a Dahua OEM 2mp starlight to get it to work with this NVR.

Note: Relik at SD has confirmed that this NVR can support ONVIF cameras, also it can support 2 HDDs from the SATA ports even though there is only room in the case for one HDD.
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[looney2ns]

I have noticed that I must have too much light for it to kick over into night mode. I can manually do it, but then it doesn't work for daytime. may have to get a dedicated night setting camera. I have a manual shutter setting that will probably help with the blur, but darkens the picture too much...

Then you need more light.