I've been looking around online for which camera may be best for me for a few months now. I just bought the dream machine and PoE switch.
What are your thoughts on the best cameras for the job? I'm hoping to find a 4k with minimum of 30fps with colored night vision. I am having a pretty hard time finding the correct camera. Can ya'll please help me?
You need to be specific on what you're trying to accomplish. 30fps is faster than Hollyweird uses in "block buster" movies. Most surveillance cameras use 15fps.
What are the lighting conditions like? Every camera needs light to "see".
Don't chase megapixels, chase sensor size. An 8MP camera on a 1/2.8" sensor will be, basically, blind at night unless the shutter speed is very slow, as in 1/30 (33.33ms). Then any motion will be nothing more than a meaningless blur. A 4MP camera on a 1/1.8" sensor is far more capable and useful under low light conditions.
Rad the WiKi in the blue bar at the top of the page. There's a lot more to it that "I want this so where is it?". First you need to know what you really want to do before you can specify any specs for a camera.
The three basic rules of video surveillance cameras-
Rule #1 - Cameras multiply like rabbits.
Rule #2 - Cameras are more addictive than drugs.
Rule #3 - You never have enough cameras.
Quick guide -
The smaller the lux number the better the low light performance. 0.002 is better than 0.02
The smaller the "F" of the lens the better the low light performance. F1.4 is better than F1.8
The larger the sensor the better the low light performance. 1/1.8" is better (bigger) than 1/2.7"
The higher the megapixels for the same size sensor the worse the low light performance. A 4MP camera with a 1/1.8" sensor will perform better than a 8MP camera with that same 1/1.8" sensor.
720P - 1/3" = .333"
2MP - 1/2.8" = .357" (think a .38 caliber bullet)
4MP - 1/1.8" = .555" (bigger than a .50 caliber bullet or ball)
8MP - 1/1.2" = .833" (bigger than a 20mm chain gun round)
Don't believe all the marketing hype no matter who makes the camera. Don't believe those nice night time captures they all use. Look for videos, with motion, to determine low light performance. Any camera can be made to "see" color at night if the exposure time is long enough, as in half a second or longer. Rule of thumb, the shutter speed needs to be at 1/60 or higher to get night video without blurring.
Read the reviews here, most include both still shots and video.
Avoid Reolink, Foscam, SV3C, Nest, and all the other consumer grade cameras. They all struggle mightily at night and never get anything useful on video. Here's a link to a whole thread debunking Reolink in particular.
Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...
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Avoid WiFi cameras, even doorbell cameras. WiFi is not designed for the constant, 24/7, load of video that a surveillance camera produces. At best, with two cameras on WiFi, they will still experience dropouts multiple times daily. Murphy's Law says that will happen at the worst possible moment.
Lens size, focal length, is another critical factor. Many people like the wide, sweeping, views of a 2.8mm lens but be aware that identification is problematic with a lens that wide. Keep in mind that it may take two cameras, or more, to provide the coverage you need or desire. Another factor that effects view angles is the sensor size. Typically larger sensors will have a larger field of view in any given lens size.
The 5442 series of cameras by Dahua is the current "king of the hill". They are 4MP and capable of color with some ambient light at night. The 2231 series is a less expensive alternative in 2MP and does not have audio capabilities, no built in microphone, but is easier on the budget. The 3241T-ZAS has similar spcs as the 2231 and has audio. There are also cameras available from the IPCT Store right here on the forum and from Nelly's Security who has a thread in the vendors section.
Intro I’m excited to be doing another Worlds First Review. this time as I mentioned in the full color thread, I’ve been testing the new Dahua full color 4K camera. This was provided courtesy of @EMPIRETECANDY for a fair, honest, no holds barred, unbiased review. I’ll attempt to answer any and...
Hey guys The full color 2.0 has been released. Most cams I already posted here. Like: IPC-Color4K-X Bullet 4MP Motorized Full color. Today I bring a secret model, 1st release for the Dual-Lens Full color model in the world. Dual-lens Camera( Sample at Early Sep ) Ø Dual light fusion...
IPC-T5442T-ZE Varifocal from @EMPIRETECANDY 4MP WDR Turret Varifocal Network Camera Review unit courtesy of Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) in exchange for a fair and honest review. Andy's ipcamtalk store: link Andy's AliExpress store: link Andy's Amazon store: link Price Approximately US $200.00...
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Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+
All, thanks to Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY ) we have a new 4MP AI camera for testing. This camera has been provided by Andy in exchange for a fair and honest review. This camera is using the OEM model number of IPC-B5442-ZE which is the equivalent of the Dahua IPC-HFW5442-ZE for reference. The IPC-B...
Dahua OEM IPC-T5442TM-AS from EMPIRETECANDY 4MP WDR Turret AI Network Camera Review unit courtesy of Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) in exchange for a fair and honest review. Andy's ipcamtalk store: link Andy's AliExpress store: link Andy's Amazon store: link Price Approximately US $160 Link to camera...
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Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Turret, Full Color, Starlight+)
Dahua OEM IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED from EMPIRETECANDY 4MP WDR Turret AI Network Camera Review unit courtesy of Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) in exchange for a fair and honest review. Andy's ipcamtalk vendor forum: link Andy's AliExpress store: link Andy's Amazon store: link Andy's Email: kingsecurity2014...
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Review: IPC-HDBW5442R-ASE-NI - Dahua Technology Pro AI Bullet Network Camera
Many thanks once again to Andy @EMPIRETECANDY we have for testing the OEM IPC-B5442T-ASE-NI 4MP Starlight+ Full Color bullet. This camera has been provided by Andy in exchange for a fair and honest review. This is a fixed 3.6mm bullet (Pro AI) series with the 1/1.8” sensor. It has no built in...
ipcamtalk.com
2231 Review
Review-OEM IPC-T2231RP-ZS 2mp Varifocal Turret Starlight Camera
Again courtesy of @EMPIRETECANDY EmpireTech Andy we have a new cam to look over. Its a new model in Dahua's new Lite H265 Series of cam's. Available for purchase here: Aliexpress.com - Online Shopping for Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden, Toys & Sports, Automobiles and more Price is approx...
IPC-T3241-ZAS from EMPIRETECANDY 2MP WDR Turret Varifocal AI Network Camera Review unit courtesy of Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) in exchange for a fair and honest review. Purchase in the IPCT Store Andy's ipcamtalk vendor forum: link Andy's AliExpress store: link Andy's Amazon store: link Price...
Well here we go. I dont see anywhere more approriate to discuss this. Ive been messing around with putting together a cctv system for close to 3 years now. Ive bought everything i needed and also bought 2 cheap cams from a third party seller on walmart. Those cams cost me a grand total of $50...
The internet is a force of nature; no video surveillance system made was designed to be exposed to those forces.. NEVER FORWARD PORTS to your NVR or Cameras, doing such things not only exposes you to severe security problems, but everyone else on the internet too.. Hackers dont want your video...
In making your system more secure this is a great option to eliminate your cameras calling home / connecting to the internet This is a great place to start to setup a bit more secure network and learn more about IP/Subnets etc. before adding dual NICs: Router Security - Subnets and IP addresses...
You need to be specific on what you're trying to accomplish. 30fps is faster than Hollyweird uses in "block buster" movies. Most surveillance cameras use 15fps.
What are the lighting conditions like? Every camera needs light to "see".
I'm doing a full perimeter camera set up around the house, the house has good places to mount so the sun would only be directly in the lens for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening..
I already have camera's for the interior. There is a lamp in the back yard from the street that lights up that side pretty well, but nothing in front of the house. I'll likely be adding flood lights with blinders on it so they aren't flooding into nearby properties.
Here's a couple of pictures, one without the drawing and the one with the directions I want the camera's facing, blue dots are the mount points.
I'm doing a full perimeter camera set up around the house, the house has good places to mount so the sun would only be directly in the lens for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening..
I already have camera's for the interior. There is a lamp in the back yard from the street that lights up that side pretty well, but nothing in front of the house. I'll likely be adding flood lights with blinders on it so they aren't flooding into nearby properties.
Here's a couple of pictures, one without the drawing and the one with the directions I want the camera's facing, blue dots are the mount points.
Remember to over cable when running your cables, often we find that we want to add a couple more cameras to get a better coverage .. N+1 / N+1+ rule ..
As you are on a corner lot, with no fences yet .. I would plan to add more cameras to get coverage of the areas I marked in blue with enough pixels on target, with the hope to be able to ID any cars which drive by or park in those areas and potentially ID anyone in the street / sidewalk areas ..
As you are on a corner lot, with no fences yet .. I would plan to add more cameras to get coverage of the areas I marked in blue with enough pixels on target, with the hope to be able to ID any cars which drive by or park in those areas and potentially ID anyone in the street / sidewalk areas ..
The proper MP/sensor ratio is the most important component. The correct focal length for the area to be covered is next.
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. All the cameras proposed below are on the appropriate MP/sensor combo:
T5449H-ASE-D2 2.8mm fixed lens - anything within 10 feet of camera where the object would be in a backlit condition at night
5441F-AS-E2 (AKA Boobie cam) or E3241F-AS-M- great choice for a front door camera. The boobie cam can have one lens pointed down for packages
T5241H-AS-PV - Great little active deterrence camera with two way talk. Good for anything within 10 feet of camera or as an overview camera
5442 ZE or 5831R-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.
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Hello @wittaj (and many others!), thank you for all these posts... They're are ridiculously helpful! Concisely, I need to cover all the corners of a house and a detached unit too (think something on the lines of a detached "garage"), and the camera count is poised to go up pretty quickly. For starters, my current thinking is to use 5-6 Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW-28MM (which are inexpensive and my understanding is that they can be flashed with dahua firmware to become equivalent to dahua's IPC-T2431T-AS-S2 / IPC-HDW2531T-AS-S2) for overview cameras. The Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW-28MM can be purchased online for about $50 each and they would help keep costs down a bit. In addition, I am planning to complement the overview cameras with 3-4 IPC-T5442TM-AS for shorter distances (anything within 10 feet) for identification purposes. Based on your expertise, would such an approach make sense or should I consider something else for overview cameras? For NVR I am planning to use Blue Iris. Thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or suggestions you may have... Again, immensely grateful and appreciative of everyone on here! Have a good weekend.
The amcrest for overview cams would be fine. Do keep in mind that these cameras are starting to be hard-coded to not accept Dahua firmware, and those that have been able to recently have said it didn't really add anything. Just FYI.
I would recommend getting one 5442 turret and play with it and make sure that the fixed focal length is what you would want.
Looking at the original Post, the FPS of 30 may not be what your after, it's probably more about Shutter Speed adjustability on the camera than Frames Per Second. As I too had to learn when i started my IP cam searching for a Condo Complex.
