Camera System Recommendation - New Home Construction

I pre-wired for 8 cameras in my new home with Cat6 homeruned to a closet.

I have the following areas:
Front Porch (maybe voice?)
Rear Bottom Covered Porch
Rear Top Covered Porch
Indoor Camera in our bonus space

then 4 units around the house on corners.

What do you guys suggest? Budget of $1500-1800 if possible. I was thinking domes for the top 4 cameras but i do NOT know anything about these systems


Thanks In Advance
Todd

Do not use dome cameras, use turrets. Domes get dirty, and reflect light.

Please read the cliff notes in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Run two Ethernet cables to each location. Make sure you have cables on the left and right side of the garage door, no higher then the top of the door.

Have cables at 6 feet up at all outside doors. Need to get a full face view at the door.

The four corners will tell you what happened, but not who did it.

Ok. I only ran one cable to each location- do I need two as too late for that ;(. I’ve read quite a few threads and notes.

Thanks

I think the thought behind "two cables" is that if one dies a few years down the road, you've got a backup ready to go... It can be more expensive to try and fish a second one later than just have strung a second one during the build.

Wiring for porch cameras was a good call, because like @SouthernYankee mentioned, cameras on the corners of the houses are great for getting a general overview of what's going on, but you're not likely to ID anyone from one of those. The cameras on your porches should be able to ID folks.

If you ever do any work on your house later down the road, consider running some ethernet down to the sides of your garages looking at your cars.

The most popular cameras here for outside are Dahua Starlights. For general purpose (like your house corners), the varifocal turrets (like the 5231 or 2231) are probably the most commonly used. A model used on porches a bit is the 4231 wedge. Spend an evening or two going through the Dahua forum here, most popular cameras have big review/owners threads where you can learn a ridiculous amount of information.

Most folks order their Dahua stuff from a trusted vendor on here named Andy -- @EMPIRETECANDY. He's got his own forum in the vendor area.

The other thing that often tough for folks to wrap their heads around when first learning more about these cameras is that if low-light image quality (i.e. from dusk-to-dawn) is important to you, the best cameras for that are still really 2MP... specifically, Dahua Starlight or Hikvision Ultra-Low Light models. You're going to see 4MP/6MP/4K <8MP> cameras that all claim to have great "night vision", but the only ones that beat the 2MP Starlight/Ultra-Low light models are 2x-3x the cost. A lot of these common higher MP cameras will have marketing pictures of great looking night shots. Remember that it's relatively easy to get a great looking night shot from a camera when nothing's moving, .. the hard part is getting good looking video (i.e. minimal blur) when something is moving at night.

Awseome info!! In contact with Andy now!! Hope to work something out. Any suggestions on an up to date NVR with good app to view and talk to front porch camera?

Here is Andy's recommendations - are the nicer ones worth the extra money?

Option A:
Front Porch SD1A203T-GN,
Rear Bottom Covered Porch IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
Rear Top Covered Porch IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
Indoor Camera in our bonus space IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
(4) IPC-HFW1831E 135USD/PCS, 4MM Lens OR IPC-HFW5231E-ZE 2.7MM-13.3MM lens (Not sure on the difference on these Corners)

Option B:

(7) IPC-HDW5231R-ZE
(1) SD1A203T-GN for the front porch

NVR4208-8P-4KS2 for both.

Is option B worth the extra money?

Thoughts?

idk if you have this issue, but possibly check the WAF on the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS in the covered areas, because they need to be in the 5.5 to 6 feet high, and those are NOT discrete cameras. My wife pretty much kaboshed anything near eye level that was that size, preferring the less flexible (i.e. dome problems, fewer lens options etc) mini-domes. ANY camera inside the house she also said had to be VERY discrete (I argued those are good mounted to the ceiling, because no one will see them due to high ceilings but lost that battle) because she doesn't want it to "look like a prison".

I'm not running a prison, but I do like to know who the kids are bringing in and out of the house, who left a mess in the kitchen, what the cats are getting into, whether or not any doors are getting left open and whether my ailing father (or anyone else) has collapsed somewhere in the house without leaving my office.

Even silly things like whether the garage door was left open, it probably opens and closes 50 times a week, but when I walk the neighborhood I see at least 2-3 left open all day long!

Post some pictures of house and pre-wired locations and you'll get better advice

How high off the ground are the camera locations? Mounting them too high is a common pitfall.

tbraden32 said:

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I really really like having the SDA1203T-GN on my front porch. I like that it's discreet looking and I like being able to PTZ it around... I don't do it a lot, but every time I do I'm always glad I have this camera there.

For most folks, the biggest difference between the 2231 and 5231 is that the more expensive 5231 has a built-in microphone. None of the models recommended to you have a speaker <which is fine because IMO the "talk back" feature doesn't usually seem to work as well as one would hope>, but some folks like hearing what's going on outside. There are some more subtle differences between the 2231/5231 covered on the first page of the 2231 review, so def. check that out real quick. They're not big deals for most, IMO.

The 1831 is a new 4K (8MP) mini-bullet style camera. It's fixed-lens, so the lens size you pick when you buy it (2.8mm, 4mm or 6mm) will determine how wide the image is. The 5231 has a varifocal lens, so you'll be able to zoom the lens from anywhere between 2.7mm-13mm, which gives you flexibility into zooming it to whatever gives you the perfect width image. Not sure how useful that would be since this will be the the corners of your house. 5231 also has a mic, the 1831 doesn't.

For low-light image quality (one of the more important things for outside cameras, IMO), all of the cameras recommended to you *except* these 1831s are from Dahua's 2MP Starlight line (which is generally considered to be the best in the price range). The 1831's low-light performance isn't as good as the Starlights, but it's closer than other models. I'm personally interested in the 1831s, I just don't like the mini-bullet style. If Dahua ever comes out with them in the turret style, I'd be eager to replace one of my 5231 "corner cams" just to see how well it does.

If you decide to go w/an Dahua OEM NVR - I prefer the NVR5216-16P-4KS2x series - it is not much more than the 8 port version, better model than the 4xxx


FYI - the purpose to run N+1 cables to each location is multiple:

1) You'll often find you want to install just one more camera in a location to cover an angle, distance, or do LPR which you did not anticipate. ( for LPR you need to dedicate a camera - and most people do not really think that is the case and think ONE camera will do it all at night.. )

2) Other sensors, or IR illuminators - often you find that you want to include perhaps an alarm sensor or IR illuminator

3) Failure or need to test a failure on one of the other cable lines.

4) If doing a new construction - with the newer methods of insulation it is very challenging to run lines or use old lines as pull lines when the spray foam to seal openings. Thus over cabling works well in these cases.

The look of the SD1A203T-GN won't be for everyone and some locations could have IR reflection problems.
There is a version of this without IR (SD12203T-GN) assuming you keep your porch light on.
Fixed cameras like the "wedge" IPC-HDBW4231F-AS are also an option.

It really depends on what the porch looks like and where the wires are.

the front porch is an issue, they pre wired the camera to the ceiling, which happens to be an arched ceiling. will the SD1A203T-GN sit ok on this. ceiling?

tbraden32 said:

the front porch is an issue, they pre wired the camera to the ceiling, which happens to be an arched ceiling. will the SD1A203T-GN sit ok on this. ceiling?

Click to expand...

Sounds too high to work well and those PTZs want a flat mounting surface. Posting pictures of the prewired locations would be very helpful.

Will take some tonight - thought that might be an issue after I seen the darn wire sticking out

Here is a picture of the front door/porch. Unfortunately the work has been completed and the wire is in the wrong spot based on your guys input. Thoughts on what to put up there? The porch does extend to the right, thinking maybe have the high camera shoot that direction then ad a door bell camera too?

Thoughts?

tbraden32 said:

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

That location will be a bit hard to work with, but at least they left you some cable to work with.
A picture standing on the porch looking up at the ceiling with your flash turned on and from from farther away approaching the porch would be helpful.

Are there recessed lights in the ceiling there? Is the garage to the left?

Hmm... looking more closely at the picture, is the cable for the camera on the wall on the left and the cable hanging down from the ceiling for a light fixture?
It's hard to tell from your picture.

What is the state of the construction? Is it all done / have you moved in yet?

moving in two weeks, the camera cable is hanging from the ceiling, but on the left side close to the wall, there we be a hanging light centered in tthe porch. looking at the house - garage is to the right

arrows pointing to blue dots where cable comes out of ceiling

tbraden32 said:

Here is a picture of the front door/porch. Unfortunately the work has been completed and the wire is in the wrong spot based on your guys input. Thoughts on what to put up there? The porch does extend to the right, thinking maybe have the high camera shoot that direction then ad a door bell camera too?

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Hi @tbraden32

Yes - wires are not in the best spots.

You want to get a straight on facial shot opportunity when someone comes to the door.

How many cables are coming to the door bell area?

Did you get photos of the framing?
Of the wall construction?


For those following:

• REMEMBER to test possible locations when the framing is up, when you have a chance to reroute any cables.
• Remember to over cable.
• Remember to take photos of the construction at various stages, especially after the electrical and piping are installed and before the drywall goes up.