Front door camera placement

I'm trying to figure out where to mount the camera at my front door. I have a narrow brick entryway that leads to the front door. The ceiling is about 14 feet high so that's not an option. The door is 96 inches tall so it's not a normal height door. Camera will be small turret style camera with a junction box.

I really only see 2 choices. I attached a picture of the entry way (green and red circle for the two choices)

1. Mount the camera in the top right corner of the door frame to the wood. It would overhang by an inch or two. I don't think this would be a bad option because of how tall the door is, so it wouldn't be too intrusive looking... i don' think. Then just run some conduit up to the attic... maybe even paint it to match the brick color.

2. Mount the camera to the brick on the side wall to the right of the door. I don't like this option very much because of how narrow the entry way is. The camera will just stick out and i think it would look out of place.

*** Also, I'm concerned about how the light will affect the camera. We leave this light on at night. If need be, i could raise the hanging light a foot or so if it would affect the camera.

I'm open to suggestions on this camera placement. Thanks!

Get a Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z), rotate it 90 degrees to run in corridor mode on that red dot, then adjust the zoom to get the FOV good enough to see the ground for packages and out for faces at the door without the walls eating up all your pixels.

the light will do nothing but help, if its bright enough you can keep in color mode when its on, the varifocal will help alot in that tight area, the WDR will make it so the bright lawn/road wont be overexposed, and the auto-iris will adjust to faces as they approach the door..

Can those cameras be rotated 90 degrees or do they have to be mounted perpendicular to get the 90 degree rotation?

And would you think the green placement (on door frame) would not work out?

I actually spoke with Empire today and will be on the next round of stock in early mid March for the Starlight.

Do you know what junction box the Starlight turret uses?

PFA137 or PFB203W

The camera has to be physically rotated 90 degrees, but its just a round ball, the mount is seperate.. look at the pix in the first post of my review.. then you set a setting in software to rotate the image back to normal..

the closer to face height you can get the camera the better, people dont look up normally.

Also check out this thread: Finally some progress with my cameras.
I'd put a camera on the garage too

tangent, that install looks great! I really like the painted mount that makes it blend in nicely. I'm guessing you went through the wall with the cable? Also, yes I am going to put a camera above the garage (where it meets the house). I plan on putting 3 cameras on the front of the house in addition to the front door cam so I have a view of the entire front of the house, yard, and street.

nayr, Sorry I was a little confused by your reply. Are you saying the mount is separate (as in sold separately, so all you get is the camera (round ball)), and then I would also have to buy the mount and junction box?
Is there any way to mount the camera to the wall without a junction box. I'm just concerned the box will make it stick out even farther.

If I do have to use a junction box, I suppose I could paint it and the conduit going up to the attic so it didn't look so... industrial... with a metal pipe going up the wall.

Thanks for your help!

This is what you get:


And here is a snapshot from the QuickStart Guide shows how it goes together:

ChrisDav said:

tangent, that install looks great! I really like the painted mount that makes it blend in nicely. I'm guessing you went through the wall with the cable? Also, yes I am going to put a camera above the garage (where it meets the house). I plan on putting 3 cameras on the front of the house in addition to the front door cam so I have a view of the entire front of the house, yard, and street.

Click to expand...

That's not my install or house. It's @wantafastz28's handywork.

If you want to surface mount to brick you need a junction box to make to connection. By the front door you may be looking at a piece of EMT conduit that goes straight up to the attic painted to match the brick.

nayr, thank you for the reply. I thought that's what came with it, i just wanted to make sure!

tangent, looks good no matter who put it in and i was pretty sure i needed the junction box, just wanted to double check. I guess if it's high enough (8ft or so) it would be too big of a deal. Looks like your front door is fairly tall as well? Do you know how high your camera is mounted?

What is on the other side of the brick where the red dot is? If there is insulation and drywall, I would try running the wire the brickup to the attic, but that's me. I'm completely comfortable with 2 anchor/screws for brick along with silicone. If it is brick on the other side, then yeah a junction box is needed, and that would be a bummer.

I mounted mine with in a inch or two of 8 foot, if I was to do it again, I would put it a little lower, closer to 7 foot. It can ID people where it is at, but younger kids is a challenge sometimes, last year I was having brats ringing the door bell and running. The main purpose is to watch packages and solicitors and so far it does excellent.

nayr said:

Get a Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z), rotate it 90 degrees to run in corridor mode on that red dot, then adjust the zoom to get the FOV good enough to see the ground for packages and out for faces at the door without the walls eating up all your pixels.

the light will do nothing but help, if its bright enough you can keep in color mode when its on, the varifocal will help alot in that tight area, the WDR will make it so the bright lawn/road wont be overexposed, and the auto-iris will adjust to faces as they approach the door..

Click to expand...

I agree with @nayr on this. Mount it about 6 ft high on the wall where the red dot is. I'd mount one on the far garage wall facing back at the front door area also to get a general view and to see if someone is hiding out of view of the door cam.

bababouy said:

I agree with @nayr on this. Mount it about 6 ft high on the wall where the red dot is. I'd mount one on the far garage wall facing back at the front door area also to get a general view and to see if someone is hiding out of view of the door cam.

Click to expand...

+1!
IP cams become a slippery slope of buying more cams. I initially mounted my front door cam on the side wall next to the front door at 8' high. I realized to see the doormat where UPS/FedEx drops deliveries that I had to aim the cam downward which limited the FOV towards seeing people approaching the front door. Also, the cam was mostly seeing the tops of people's heads. So I re-installed the cam on the side wall about 10' away from the door. For my house, the advantage of this new location is that most people don't notice the cam until they are leaving the front door area. I now clearly see the doormat and people's faces when they leave the front door. I do plan on buying a mini-dome with a 6mm lens and mounting it about 5' high right next to the front door.

Thanks for all the input. I think the plan is going to be mount it on the side wall, turned 90 degrees, about 7 feet high. I'm going to try and figure out if i can run it through the brick and into the attic or if i'm going to have to mount it on a junction box and run it to the attic through conduit... anyone have pictures or video of how they went through a brick wall and into the attic?

Also, i do plan on having several other cameras on the front of the house (4 total).

get into the attic above the wall and see if you can see a 2x4 marking the top of the wall.. do some maths from measurements, adding/subtracting for brick to the point where you'd want to drop a cable down, make sure its not on a 16" stud and drill in 1/2in or so.. take weighted string and lower it and see if its an empty cavity you can just feed down.. if its stuffed with insulation its gonna suck and probably be conduit up to attic, or all the way through the wall into the adjacent room and up into the attic.

then mount camera on junction box, drill a 1/4 hole through grout, backing board and into that cavity.. try to fish in and hook onto the line you droped from above.. pull it out, attach cable then go into attic and pull it up.. the closer you hit your target from above the easier it'll be.

nayr said:

get into the attic above the wall and see if you can see a 2x4 marking the top of the wall.. do some maths from measurements, adding/subtracting for brick to the point where you'd want to drop a cable down, make sure its not on a 16" stud and drill in 1/2in or so.. take weighted string and lower it and see if its an empty cavity you can just feed down.. if its stuffed with insulation its gonna suck and probably be conduit up to attic..

then mount camera on junction box, drill a 1/4 hole through grout, backing board and into that cavity.. try to fish in and hook onto the line you droped from above.. pull it out, attach cable then go into attic and pull it up.. the closer you hit your target from above the easier it'll be.

Click to expand...

Agree with nayr above.

But I do it a little quicker, instead of measuring or doing math to find the stud in the attic that is between walls.

I would drill hole in ceiling just big enough to insert a fish rod against the wall where I want to mount the camera at. Then I go to the attic and look for a rod sticking out of the floor of the attic. Once I find the rod, I know the stud that goes in between the walls below is right behind that rod sticking out which I would drill the stud then fish the Ethernet cable down the stud.

Then I pull out the rod and patch that tiny hole, since my ceiling is all white so and the patch I buy is white so I never needed to repaint it.