Front Door Placement Help

[intotech]

Hello - need some guidance on where to place my front door. In both cases would a 4mm turret be sufficient?

I have two options in mind at this point - I placed my phone in those locations to help get an idea.

A. Right next to the door installed under the soffit/fascia (?)

• Pros: get the person walking up, close up right at door & packages
• Cons: loose side backyard entrance view

B. Top Left corner under soffit/fascia

• Pros: get side of person walking up, side backyard entrance and packages
• Cons: loose close up view like option A.

For both applications I would think to brace it with some wood like a 2X4.

Lastly, I do plan to have a camera on the garage top left corner so I should get people walking up to the pathway to the door (just the start of it though).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[shieldsy]

Hi,

Have attached a couple of pics of my front door using Hikvision Camera turret model DS-2CD2342WD-I

4mm first picture
2.8mm second picture

My experiences you got to be careful if you have objects or walls too close to the camera especially with IR
at night your camera b picture with the grey column might cause some reflection back to the camera
and the areas beyond the column becoming dark and porch bright instead of a balance porch vs pathway
if that makes sense.

My recommendation don't try to cover too much with one camera you end up compromising. I would get
another camera on your garage out the front to cover that area. Your unlikely to get enough detail of the garage area
to get sufficient detail to get faces of people etc from the porch area anyway.

If you can't decide I would do a test make up a nice long network cable hook it up to the camera and recorder get it online displaying
on your phone. Take both phone and camera outside and using a ladder camera, in one hand phone in the other the camera and test each
position.

If you only install one camera go with option A (Watch out for the column)
If two cameras go with B.

 

[mat200]

..
B. Top Left corner under soffit/fascia

• Pros: get side of person walking up, side backyard entrance and packages
• Cons: loose close up view like option A.

..

I like option B, however in the corner more.

imho Option A will give you a close up of hats and bald spots.

 

[intotech]

@mat200 Thanks for replies - with Option B will the porch light cause any issues with the video capture? Or do these cams adjust for light sources in the way

@shieldsy i actually plan to have on the garage that would cover the driveyway and part of the walkup to the porch area.

 

[bigredfish]

Id probably choose A along with another camera on the corner of the garage capturing curb to house and one of the two crossing cameras I'd want to cover the cars in the driveway anyway.

 

[shieldsy]

@mat200 Thanks for replies - with Option B will the porch light cause any issues with the video capture? Or do these cams adjust for light sources in the way

@shieldsy i actually plan to have on the garage that would cover the driveyway and part of the walkup to the porch area.

Yes the cameras compensate for light but might take a few seconds to adjust depending on intensity of light and location of it near the camera.

as before if you have two cams go for option B also agree with mat200 in the corner you also cover what looks the side entrance? with the wooden gate along side the house.

 

[bigredfish]

I get the choice of location B, but I think you;ll get a lot of shots of the side of people's faces and few head on face shots. I also think the photo of location A is a bit deceptive. I have a 3.6 fixed lens at two doors similar to location A and get a much wider overview of the scene but still good face shots in the 3-8 ft range

 

[looney2ns]

A would be my choice.

 

[zeoclang]

I have a porch that is similar and mine is placed in the B area. Place it as far into that corner as you can. The field of view will probably be larger than what you took a picture of. Also, if you plan on keeping the porch light on at night you might need to angle the camera so it isn't seeing the light.

 

[intotech]

@zeoclang would you might sharing a pic of the view? Also Did you go 2.8mm or 4mm?

 

[Fastb]

Front door camera placement

 

[zeoclang]

@zeoclang would you might sharing a pic of the view? Also Did you go 2.8mm or 4mm?

This is from my 4mm DS-2CD332-I, when I replace it I will probably get a 6mm. My porch looks like it might be double the size of yours so I think 4mm should be enough for you.
Before you permanently mount your camera, just hold it up in both locations to see what you prefer.

 

[intotech]

@zeoclang thanks for sharing!