Need Assistance with Home Security Setup

First of all, I want to thank the community for providing all of the information here. I obviously haven't read through all of it, but it is very useful and detailed.

I am looking to setup a video security system for my house, and hook it in with some of my other smart devices around the house. I have a Foscam FI9826W that I got a couple years ago to use as a baby monitor. It has worked well, but the resolution isn't that great (but still better than regular baby monitors).

I want to put a few cameras around the house, and I'm not sure what exactly I should get. The goal would be to have one over the front door looking out (possibly an additional doorbell camera for really wide viewing), one for the breezeway towards our garage, and maybe one or two on the side or back of the house. I want them to all be PoE and work well for daytime and night. They should all be ONVIF compatible.

I tried the Arlo Pro setup, and it worked reasonably well (my wife really loved the ease of everything), but I wanted higher resolution and something that wasn't wireless. I then got the Reolink RLC-410S to try, but that didn't work because the viewing angle was too narrow for our front door. I currently have the Amcrest IP4M-1026E mounted over my door, but the motion alerts (from bugs or tree shadows) are driving me nuts.

It looks like I need something with Line Crossing detection, and I would like a wide viewing angle for the front door (115º seems to work). I did not see an exact match for what I'm looking for from the Dahua US product lineup, but I did find two from Axis: M2025-LE or M2026-LE Mk II.

I would like these cameras to be able to integrate with Home Assistant, which makes me lean towards Axis, but if I need to create an interface to get Dahua working, then I might do that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

PriceCzech said:

First of all, I want to thank the community for providing all of the information here. I obviously haven't read through all of it, but it is very useful and detailed.
..I would like these cameras to be able to integrate with Home Assistant, which makes me lean towards Axis, but if I need to create an interface to get Dahua working, then I might do that...

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Welcome Price,

Do take a look at the notes which Giomania has assembled for us from the information and experiences members here have been sharing.
IPCamTalk WiKi | IP Cam Talk

For the front door I like the Dahua OEM international model mini-dome wedge starlight camera in 2.8mm lens.

For other locations the Dahua OEM starlight IPC-HDW5231xx models are well liked and thus you should look at that model for your comparisons.

Smarthome standards / integration is still evolving quickly so I personally do not think it should be as important as getting a reliable setup with quality image capture. Thus I would recommend taking some time to determine what you wish to accomplish with your setup, and what is the most important.
( for example for me - it was getting good quality night time images and having a reliable setup so that meant continuous recording and throwing out those unreliable arlo products )

mat200 said:

For the front door I like the Dahua OEM international model mini-dome wedge starlight camera in 2.8mm lens.

For other locations the Dahua OEM starlight IPC-HDW5231xx models are well liked and thus you should look at that model for your comparisons.

Smarthome standards / integration is still evolving quickly so I personally do not think it should be as important as getting a reliable setup with quality image capture. Thus I would recommend taking some time to determine what you wish to accomplish with your setup, and what is the most important.
( for example for me - it was getting good quality night time images and having a reliable setup so that meant continuous recording and throwing out those unreliable arlo products )

Click to expand...

Well, looks like I am leaning towards the IPC-HDW5231R-ZE. It should provide a wide enough range to cover the front door (and zoom in to look out a bit). I need to get the okay from my wife that it looks okay.

I'm thinking the IPC-HFW4231E-S might work for the other size of my Breezeway and then I'll have to think about what kind of visibility I want for the back and sides of the house.

Any recommendations on ordering these cameras? I see that they are available on Amazon or AliExpress (both through Empire Tech). Any difference in shipping time between the two?

PriceCzech said:

Well, looks like I am leaning towards the IPC-HDW5231R-ZE. It should provide a wide enough range to cover the front door (and zoom in to look out a bit). I need to get the okay from my wife that it looks okay.

I'm thinking the IPC-HFW4231E-S might work for the other size of my Breezeway and then I'll have to think about what kind of visibility I want for the back and sides of the house.

Any recommendations on ordering these cameras? I see that they are available on Amazon or AliExpress (both through Empire Tech). Any difference in shipping time between the two?

Click to expand...

Hi Price,

You can also go through paypal - it will perhaps even be a bit cheaper as there will be no Amazon nor AliExpress overhead.

I had issues sometimes with Aliexpress as have others, paypal seems to work a bit better.

Amazon, while they are the 800lb gorilla I don't want to give them all the business as I would like them to be 400lbs instead.