Recommendation For Fourth Camera Location?

Here's a crude drawing of the house and attached garage. The three red blobs indicate current cameras. The light grey marks on the black outline are the major vulnerabilities.



All other windows are impractical for break-in purposes. Mainly due to height. The home also has a wired, monitored alarm system, with switches on every window and exterior door, two inside motion sensors, and a tilt sensor on the garage door. There are several motion-activated lights, front and back.

Here are the views from the existing front and back cameras, respectively:





The outdoor cams are Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-ZE and the inside a Dahua IPC-HDBW4231F-AS. My budget allows for one more camera. My thinking is the two next most advantageous spots are either the back of the garage, to cover that back door, or in the upper-right of the garage, just inside that door.

The outside location might be the greater deterrent and will catch anybody casing the area.

The inside location will cover both doors and the side window. There's also an advantage of it covering the inside of the garage when the main door is open.

The third possibility would be the far side of the front of the garage, thus covering the cars better. But a camera there would easily be w/in reach. (I can easily reach up and touch the soffit from the ground.) Plus there's a coach lamp on the wall, just below.

Thoughts?

Btw: I already plan to zoom that front camera in a bit, to narrow its FoV more to the front porch, cars, walkway and driveway.

Someone else will probably mention this... it's a wise idea to have a camera at the front door, at face height. With the current camera mounted at the front door where it is, it'll only catch faces if someone looks up at it.

Just my 2 cents.

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Kevin_Essiambre said:

Someone else will probably mention this... it's a wise idea to have a camera at the front door, at face height. With the current camera mounted at the front door where it is, it'll only catch faces if someone looks up at it.

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Thanks for the follow-up. Yes, I'm aware.

Unfortunately, there's no reasonable way to get a camera at or below face height anywhere along that wall. The access from the basement is blocked because a drywall ceiling was installed. When somebody eventually comes out with a wireless doorbell camera I like, I think the old doorbell wires are still in place and our WiFi access point is only about 15-20' feet away.

(I define "reasonable" is not having to deconstruct part of the house to get to it.)

As for the 4th camera: I'm now leaning toward the 3rd option: The far wall of the garage.

Do you park in the driveway at night ? if yes, you need two cameras one on either side of the garage, no higher than the top of the garage door.

SouthernYankee said:

Do you park in the driveway at night ? if yes, you need two cameras one on either side of the garage, no higher than the top of the garage door.

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Thanks for the follow-up, SY.

Yes, the cars are parked in the driveway. At least for now. Two cameras, either side of the garage doors, are out of the question, but I'm this >< close to settling on the 4th cam being on that far side of the garage.

Beyond that 4th camera my feeling is there are five higher priorities than a 2nd garage door cam, at least. Probably in this order:

1. The interior of the garage (this, btw, was the recommendation of a County LEO I know)
2. That back garage door in the blind spot
3. Doorbell cam
4. Front room
5. The opposite side of the house

Adding any one of those will require replacing my existing PoE switch. Neither replacing that brand new switch or adding a 5th $130-$180 camera are in the budget, right now. Thus my trying to make sure the 4th camera ends-up in the most effective possible location.

Dramus said:

Thanks for the follow-up. Yes, I'm aware.

Unfortunately, there's no reasonable way to get a camera at or below face height anywhere along that wall. The access from the basement is blocked because a drywall ceiling was installed. When somebody eventually comes out with a wireless doorbell camera I like, I think the old doorbell wires are still in place and our WiFi access point is only about 15-20' feet away.

(I define "reasonable" is not having to deconstruct part of the house to get to it.)

As for the 4th camera: I'm now leaning toward the 3rd option: The far wall of the garage.

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Hi @Dramus

There are various ways to get cameras to better locations, just a question of the amount of work ( DIY - or hiring a good security alarm / cabling contractor )

If you own the house and plan to keep it, it is worth getting it done right imho.

One of the biggest problems is car door checkers. You need to cover both sides of the cars close up. Make sure you get good shots of their faces.

I agree. I would put the 4th camera on the far side on the garage.

mat200 said:

There are various ways to get cameras to better locations, just a question of the amount of work ( DIY - or hiring a good security alarm / cabling contractor )

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Of course there's always a way. The question becomes one of how much one is willing to spend, the amount of effort they're willing to put into it, or both.

SouthernYankee said:

One of the biggest problems is car door checkers.

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That's not such a problem here. At least not so far. I imagine few criminals are willing to walk 100' or more across open ground to check car doors. Perhaps a bit >< too obvious.

In my case: If they do it during the daytime they'll be readily visible from any number of neighbours. If they do it at night they're going to light up 2-4 motion-sensing lights and be on Candid Camera--from two directions, by the time I'm done.

My next door neighbour on that side has motion-sensing floods out front, as well. (I've activated them testing the boundaries of my own.)

Parley said:

I agree. I would put the 4th camera on the far side on the garage.

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Yeah, I've pretty much settled on that. If I'm still thinking that way come morning, I'll place an order for another 5231.

Thanks for the follow-ups, comments and suggestions, everybody!

Dramus said:

Of course there's always a way. The question becomes one of how much one is willing to spend, the amount of effort they're willing to put into it, or both.
...

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Hi @Dramus

Note we do get a number of folks reading who know less about construction and running cables joining us, and it is important to pass along the proper information so that they do not feel their only option is a wirefree kit like Arlo.

That noted, sometimes running cables can be less of an issue that you may imagine - so much depends on the construction of the house and knowing what to do.
( thus why hiring a contractor who has the proper tools and knows what they are going is not a bad option for those with funds )

mat200 said:

Hi @Dramus

Note we do get a number of folks reading who know less about construction and running cables joining us, and it is important to pass along the proper information so that they do not feel their only option is a wirefree kit like Arlo.

Click to expand...

Understood. I'm not quite the average homeowner, though

mat200 said:

That noted, sometimes running cables can be less of an issue that you may imagine - so much depends on the construction of the house and knowing what to do.

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Oh, I understand. I re-installed my own wired alarm system after the windows were replaced for the 2nd time. Routed my own cable for our Internet connection from, literally, one corner of the house to the other. Did the same with some Cat3 cable for IDSL years before that. (Computer room is on the opposite corner of the house from all the service entrances.) Have run Cat5e to a couple places. Fished Cat6 for the three existing cameras. Have fished RG-6 from outside, into a spot into the basement for connection to an OTA network tuner. Have done my share of branch wiring.

mat200 said:

( thus why hiring a contractor who has the proper tools and knows what they are going is not a bad option for those with funds )

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I've had contractors putting wiring into our home three times: Twice for the alarm system and once for an electrical system upgrade. All three times were unsatisfactory. I've found it's better to do it myself.

Hi @Dramus

Typically I see a lot of threats coming in from the driveway, thus this is what I would look to do

3 more cameras on the garage.

1 longer distance to get enough pixels on the entrance of the driveway.
2 to cover the driveway.

Here's an example of what I would try.

@Dramus mat200 has a good recommendation, but I would also budget long-term for one near the garage entrance door. First it increases your chances of getting something if someone breaks into your garage from any direction, plus if its low and near the door you have a good shot of getting some identifying images if they were to break into the house from the garage.

I know you said you can afford ONE more at this time, so it's a priorities game. But you'll get more eventually.

(Wow. I just realized I never actually posted this!)

Thanks again for the follow-ups and guidance, everybody!

Here's my long-term plan:



Legend: Red: Existing. Green: Next up (actually in, now). Blue: Future (priority noted above)

That violet one behind the house is one I'm thinking of for S&Gs . I'm thinking of running a wireless backhaul to a big shed back there, put a PoE switch in it, an AP up in the peak (because who doesn't want WiFi throughout their back yard?), and a cam in the soffit, pointing back at the house.