4K POE Camera Recommendations for Lorex LNR616X-N 4K NVR

[pwscottiv]

I've operated a Lorex LNR616X-N 4K 16-Channel NVR around the perimeter of my house for a few years now. It only came with four fixed position (not PTZ) cameras. I have cameras positioned where my back yard abuts a large park and I have cameras in the trees around the front of my house that point down the street in both directions. The purpose has been to catch people who have been breaking into cars and vandalizing property in our neighborhood. Three successful felony convictions so far!!!

I'd like to add some additional cameras, but I'm not sure what cameras might be compatible and what the capabilities of said options might be. For example, am I stuck with Lorex branded cameras, or can I use other brands?

The user manual states that only Lorex PTZ cameras are compatible for PTZ functionality. Is this likely true, or are they just trying to make more money for themselves?

Also, I've never used PTZ cameras, (as the cameras included are fixed). Is there a great benefit to PTZ, or in practice is it better to just buy several fixed position cameras to cover an area?

And what about fixed (Non-PTZ0 cameras - Can off-brands be used?

I've noticed that while the video resolution might be 4K, the actual video quality kinda sucks. Is that mostly do to the actual cameras being used, or is that more to do with how the video is being encoded/compressed?

Thank you in advance for the assistance!

 

[wittaj]

Welcome!

Please post pictures of your successful captures of perps!

Lorex is made by Dahua, so any Dahua OEM camera would work.

A member here, @EMPIRETECANDY sells Dahua OEM cameras at a great price with great service on his Amazon store. You will find that these will blow away any Lorex camera as Lorex uses smaller sensors to keep the price down.

See this thread for commonly suggested/recommended cameras. Focal Length is more important the MP. Many people are finding that the higher MP cameras make great overview cameras but have trouble due to a shallow depth of focus. 4MP is the sweet spot.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

ipcamtalk.com

PTZs are a great compliment to an established system of fixed cams in place to catch the critical areas. The PTZ fills in the other areas. We are refering to autotracking PTZs so they will track an object as they move.

The problem with a PTZ is they are always looking the wrong way. So you have the camera looking to the right and a perp approaches from the left so the PTZ misses. It is why we don't recommend PTZs unless someone already has critical areas covered with fixed cams.

Now where they become useful is to use your fixed cameras to spot for the PTZ and tell it where to look and start tracking. This can be done with BI or many NVRs:

Using Spotter Cameras to direct a PTZ where to look in an NVR or Blue Iris and setting a spotter cam as a priority in Blue Iris

We get this question from time to time, so I thought with the recent addition to BI, it made sense to have a thread we can point to. Previously in BI, if you had more than one spotter cam, you could not make one a priority, so if spotter cam #1 triggered the PTZ and it starts tracking and...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[CanCuba]

I've operated a Lorex LNR616X-N 4K 16-Channel NVR around the perimeter of my house for a few years now. It only came with four fixed position (not PTZ) cameras. I have cameras positioned where my back yard abuts a large park and I have cameras in the trees around the front of my house that point down the street in both directions. The purpose has been to catch people who have been breaking into cars and vandalizing property in our neighborhood. Three successful felony convictions so far!!!

I'd like to add some additional cameras, but I'm not sure what cameras might be compatible and what the capabilities of said options might be. For example, am I stuck with Lorex branded cameras, or can I use other brands?

The user manual states that only Lorex PTZ cameras are compatible for PTZ functionality. Is this likely true, or are they just trying to make more money for themselves?

Also, I've never used PTZ cameras, (as the cameras included are fixed). Is there a great benefit to PTZ, or in practice is it better to just buy several fixed position cameras to cover an area?

And what about fixed (Non-PTZ0 cameras - Can off-brands be used?

I've noticed that while the video resolution might be 4K, the actual video quality kinda sucks. Is that mostly do to the actual cameras being used, or is that more to do with how the video is being encoded/compressed?

Thank you in advance for the assistance!

Congrats on the convictions! It's an awesome feeling to know that you've been a part of solving a crime!

 

[tigerwillow1]

I've noticed that while the video resolution might be 4K, the actual video quality kinda sucks. Is that mostly do to the actual cameras being used, or is that more to do with how the video is being encoded/compressed?

Do your cameras have ROI? If they do you can see for yourself that the optics and sensor are capable of much better resolution than what you see in the compressed video. Depends a lot too on how bright the lighting is. The video quality goes down as the light level goes down, more so with smaller and older sensors. If you can use a 5442 series, 4k-x, or 4k-t camera, you should be pleasantly surprised at the improvement at lower light levels.