Camera recommendations, urban area

Hi all, my introduction post was a year ago and life got in the way, am now ready to pull the trigger on some camera (and PC/network hardware).

I live in Greater London, there has been various low-level anti-social behaviour on the street (vehicle damage, graffiti etc) over the last 12 months, but in the last month, the road has had an attempted motorcycle theft and, separately, a burglary where a car was stolen while the homeowners were in.

I'm improving security on the house, upgrading locks and alarm system etc but I'm a little stuck for camera (and hardware) advice...

I'm starting from scratch, I've received a POE Reolink Doorbell camera to go next to the front door already. I'm looking for reccomendations for 3 turret style cameras, 1 overlooking the drive and will have two looking at the back garden. All will be mounted c.2.7m/9ft off the ground.

Schematic of my place attached, orange/pink is buildings and green the garden, paths are in blue. Driveway in yellow. Neighbours are either side.

At the front, the star is where the street light is. Big red triangles are the c.61° field of view an IPC-T54IR-AS-S3 1/1.18 with 6mm lens, the extent of the triangles is the "identify" distance listed.

I've chosen the 6mm lens as the plot is quite narrow, however, I'm slightly worried about the minimum focal distance, for example, if someone was trying the window directly below camera 2...

The streetlight obviously backlights anyone on my drive. I see from another thread, that the IPC-T549M-ALED-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP is reccomended in scenarios with backlighting, but I can't find any explanation why....?

I currently have PIR LED lights mounted where cameras 2 and 3 would go, but these can be removed if camera performance would be improved...

Not sure if it has an impact on camera choice, but foxes, birds and squirrels are regular visitors in the garden, it would be an additional benefit to review footage of the wildlife!

Very happy to hear any thoughts from some of the experienced users on here, thanks in advance guys!

Edit to add: budget is c.£/€/$450 so 3x of the Colour 4k 1/1.2 is too expensive.

steve1225 said:

You should simply choose 5442-ZE (54IR-ZE).
Those are varifocals - so they have optical zoom - You can change it between 0.5x - 2.0x (comparable to those zoom ratios in smartphones).
You can change zoom from 2.8mm (110 degree horizontal Field of View) to 12.0mm (real 8.0mm, 47 degree horizontal FoV).
they have also changeable focus..

EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Var

4-MP 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, low luminance, and high definition image. Outputs max. 4MP (2688×1520) @25/30 fps. Built-in IR LED, and the max. illumination distance is 40 m. ROI, SVC, AI H.264/H.265, encoding after filter, flexible coding, applicable to various bandwidth and storage...

empiretech01.com

Click to expand...

This is a good suggestion, I'd actually looked at these and thought about them but had convinced myself that I could get away with fixed lenses... I think you're correct that the additional cost for the zoom is going to prove worthwhile. These are now the cams I'll most likely go with, unless I get any other reccomendations to look at.

Any idea how these are in backlit conditions? I'm still none the wiser as to why the T-549M is reccomended, is it simply due to the built-in lighting?

And while I'm asking noob questions, is there any benefit (or is it required?) to install a SD card in these cameras?

I've decided on an N100 based PC with 16 or 32Gb (unofficially supported) of RAM, with SATA interface to run a WD Purple HDD drive for 24/7 recording and a 120gb+(ish) SDD for the OS, I figure I might as well order all the necessary memory/storage bits I need from the same place if I can... PC choice dictated by low power consumption requirements.

Switch wise, I'm looking at the TP link TL-SG108PE, I need the 4 POE ports for the cameras and a couple of ports for TV, perhaps a NAS eventually. Suggestions for alternatives are welcomed.

Will get External grade copper Cat 6 cable (maybe Cat6A if it's outside for lightning?) and learn how to terminate the connectors... Wiring has to be external as house is 120+ years old, and of brick construction, access to the space under the floors is extremely limited, I'm not going to chase the walls for ethernet cables...

Have I forgotten anything?

Thanks! I've tried search function to find reccomended cards, but it didn't turn up much. WD do purple SD cards, purportedly for surveillance systems, do you know if these are these any good? Or is it just marketing crap?

wittaj said:

Yes, an SD card is a form of backup. Redundancy is good in case your VMS system fails. Or if someone steals the VMS device (NVR or computer) they probably can't get to every camera also.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion! As @wittaj points out, these are 8MP. While I did mention the colour 4K in my initial post, which I believe is 8MP, it also has a 1/2" sensor.

I do appreciate the suggestions though because as you can tell, I'm starting from a very low state of knowledge here!

Tech Lucas said:

How about this one IPC-HDW5842TM , Original Dahua 8MP WizMind IP Security Camera Eyeball, around 170USD, 1/1.8" CMOS sensor
View attachment 206753

Click to expand...

I've sent a message to EmpireTech Andy for 3x 54IR-ZE cams.

Now need to find some offers to pick up hard drive and SD cards, ethernet cable and a network switch! This is an expensive month

Okay, PC arrived yesterday, not yet unboxed it as I still need to order rest of the system (cameras on their way, but I'm hunting for some black Friday deals on SD cards and HDD).

Looking to order a cheap, single port, POE injector for setting up cameras at my desk before actually mounting them and finishing refining settings via the network... (assuming this is the easiest way to do it?)

Have T54IR cameras coming from Andy; I've seen conflicting reports of POE injectors hardware working with IP cameras, however, I assume the UniFi POE adapter "U-POE-af" which claims to be 802.3af compliant will work fine?

Also going to order a network switch in the next few days, with intention of getting all set up with separating the cameras from my main network; TV, smart speakers, IOT things can also go on separate VLANs once I've figured it all out... Does anyone have any opinions on 8-10 port switches with minimum 4 POE ports? I don't need a huge 24-port switch for "future proofing"! I'm leaning towards the TP-Link SG2008P as the price is quite affordable, but happy to hear what you guys think. An alternative I've spotted is the NETGEAR GS110TP, with SFP slots this would be nice for eventually running fibre to the outside building, but I think I've enough on my plate right now in getting a secure network, cameras and remote access set up!

Is there any comprehensive guide on here for those of us starting from scratch? I've found some great reference posts but no crash course/quick start/ipcams for dummies?

Hurrah! Cameras have arrived! Weather was pretty windy today, don't fancy being a delivery driver at the best of times, let alone bad weather.



Surprised by how fast delivery was, really great service from Andy- I've not even placed an order for cable and connectors (is that the correct term, or just RJ45 plugs?) yet .

What a trial this is turning out to be! I know this is the "unpopular opinion" but I can completely understand why WiFi and or proprietary cameras are popular now!

Perhaps if I were to do this over, I'd just double up on "bad" Google/reolink/etc cameras and I'd still be in a better situation than I am currently...

Headaches/learning experiences to help other first time installers, especially if UK based:

1) Only 1 of the 3 junction boxes I ordered from an AliExpress seller has shown up, they say they will send those missing but I wish I'd paid the 20% extra and just ordered from EmpireTech Andy with the cameras- just buy from Andy!

2) The junction boxes use a G34(?) thread which is approximately M25. M25 Cable glands which also seal 6mm CAT6 are almost impossible to find- Altech 5309 624 are reported to fit but Mouser UK wanted £12 shipping so 6 would have been £26 ($32) delivered! I've seen rumours of universal rubber inserts to use in cable glands, but couldn't find anywhere to buy the kit. Instead I bought M25 to M20 adapters then threaded M20 glands on - these cannot pass the RJ45 plugs so you must terminate the cable "inside" the junction box. As it turns out, the M25 adapter thread is slightly smaller than requored, so I'll need to get PTFE tape or something to bulk it out, which is a pain in the ass. Conclusion: just buy the stupid expensive Altech grommets.

3) Painted pebbledash is virtually impossible to hammer cable clips into; I gave up very quickly and went to B&Q to buy 20mm plastic conduit instead. The D-Line Safe-D conduit clips 20mm are low profile, come in white or black, and I've found them excellent thus far. Conclusion: you'll possibly get cable clips into soft brick or in the gap between brick and the mortar. The conduit and clips work okay and are easy to install, I've mixed and matched the black and white conduit to blend it into my house as much as possible.

4) VLANs are spoken about in a very casual way but I've found it incredibly difficult to get them set up. I've no networking or computer experience other than usual MS office suite, but I'm interested and keen to learn so I thought it would be manageable. I discovered not only do I need a smart switch with POE, I also need a smart (VLAN capable) router. I've fibre internet and it's not clear if my router/modem will support being placed into modem mode and then acept a third party (VLAN capable) router. I've not found a guide that presents set up and configuration of VLANs in a step by step manner (starting with hardware acquisition!), so if anyone has any suggestions, I'll be happy to accept advice. Conclusion: this is ongoing so I can't add advice

5) Above technical limitations aside, I've managed to install PROXMOX- a software capable of running multiple Virtual Machines, it was challenging but there are lots of user guides and forum information. I've a N100 based mini PC with 32GB ram and a surveillance HDD to hopefully keep power consumption low VS an old Desktop PC. I used PROXMOX helper scripts several times. I currently have a tailscale exit node to provide remote access to my LAN and a Windows 11 VM to eventually run BlueIris on. Incidentally, the Mini PC actually is designed as a NAS, so has 2 NIC, I suspect this could help my VLAN networking problem, however, I want to be able to connect smart house alarm and the TV etc, so setting up my network with the switch with no access to WAN isn't an option... Also ongoing, will add advice once I've got it sorted.

6) Documentation for the T54IR cameras and the web interface isn't great- I have got my single camera running and currently writing to SD card while I finish my nightmare with the networking. I haven't found a good site which explains what the settings are changing; I don't have constant record on because it seemed to override my IVS rules and no event recordings were produced. IVS triggered recording isn't really what I want. For some bizarre reason I get a still image every second, with the type "General". It appears it's not possible to set Day/night switch based on lighting/conditions and is only a calender/time based function. I've not yet discovered why some settings are unavailable when others are switched on/off ... Conclusion: there are some good posts on here for basic camera settings, if I can figure out more of the web interface settings, I'll post a write up/explainer below

I'll update this post again once I've got some more parts of the jigsaw sorted out.

terry274 said:

Don't feel too bad. I am in the United States and my experience has been only a little better than yours. I still don't have my cables sealed where they enter the camera junction box. I suspect I will have to cut the end off the cable, put some sort of gland that I don't yet have on and terminate a new end.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reassurance and support! I think those Altech glands I posted are more readily available in the US. They're expensive but if they fit as well as people say they do, I'd say they're worth it- I've just priced up my bodged method to about £2 ($2.5) per connector plus a bunch of time to wrap threads in PTFE Vs £4.30 ($5.35) per connector, no PTFE needed, better aesthetics (no ugly step-down adapter) and likely superior quality.