Advice needed: 5442 vs everything else

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I'm sure by the time another year passes I'll have 8-10 cams online, if not more. The biggest pain so far as been running cable and dealing with the plaster walls in this old house!
unsure if I said before, but feel free to ask questions about running cable. I run cable every day (my day job) and so do some other folks here that have done it even longer. There is an easy way to do it and the hard way. More questions that can be answered brings you into the easy way! Example: I have run 40+ Cat6 cables through out my 2 story house without a crawl space and to my outdoor lampost and future weather vane and additional bird houses, perhaps (can't think of what else to put on a pole that it's primary purpose is to hide cameras), on a pole.
 
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keithfree

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Assuming the area I'm interested in using a less-expensive camera does not have much ambient light at night, would there be any lower end cam that anyone here would suggest aside from IPC-T2231T-ZS-S2? This is the 1/3" sensor 2MP for $125.
Too bad Google Voice AI can not distinguish "bye" from "buy" :)
The irony is at first glance I didn't notice "bye" since I was most curious about 5443 :)

Thanks for the offer on running cable. I don't think you've mentioned it but I'll take the bait and look forward to you telling me just how difficult I've made my life! The house has plaster walls (just plaster/lath, no metal) and no existing coax or ethernet wiring worth mentioning, so setting up adequate wifi was job #1. Internet service comes into the basement via coax and provides service to my Unifi network equipment. As you probably already know, plaster REALLY REALLY kills the wifi signal.
  • The first version of home wifi was a wired AP in the basement, and several other AP's on the 1st and 2nds floors, all of which were doing mesh backhaul. Speeds when connected to an AP that's 2 hops away were barely serviceable.
  • The second version was a minor improvement since I figured out a relatively easy way to get a hole through the first floor joist right above where the network rack is in the basement, which let me convert one of the AP's on the first floor to a wired connection. After repeatedly failing to find a way to get cable from the basement to the second floor inside the house, I finally decided to run it outside the house.
  • For the third version, I ran two separate outdoor-rated cat6 cables from the basement through the brick mortar to the outside. One cable goes up to the 2nd floor and back inside to the master bedroom, turning another AP to a wired connection. The other cable goes to a 2nd floor height, and then wraps around part of the house to an area where I've since installed an outdoor switch, and AP. Eventually 2-3 cameras will be wired from that switch as well.
This effectively gives one side of the house wired AP's on every floor, and works great. The biggest area to improve now is the second floor on the other side of the house. My plan for this area is the same - run two outdoor cables from the basement, through the brick to outside, and up to the second floor. One of the cables will go back inside directly to a switch in my office, which will turn it's AP into a wired connection. The second cable will go to an outdoor switch that will eventually feed a few cameras on that side of the house.

As someone else pointed out, "I'm very detail oriented", so sorry for the lengthy response, but I am genuinely curious if there are or were opportunities for a better solution or one that's easier to execute. I will say that the side of the house that remains undone is much more challenging to access.
 
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I've always planned on writing up some DIY cabling for houses for the use of this IPCT site, with proof reading and editing from other wire pullers. If you have the proper tools, pulling cable in a house is not all that bad. It's no fun, but any DIY person could do it. Side note: a real estate lady told me that if a house is hard wired with network cabling, the house is now considered a Smart Home which increases it's value. Take such statement with a grain of salt but I see no reason to disprove it.
Lemme see what I can whip up this coming week about such a write up. It's nearly 100 degrees out all week so do not feel like a piece of bacon outside.
 

sebastiantombs

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For a less expensive and good performing camera have a look at this one. 2MP, built-in audio, varifocal, basic AI and the right sensor size for a 2MP -

3241T-ZAS Review
 

Flintstone61

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I have all 3 of those cameras. You can certainly try the less expensive options back there. if you want audio the T2431T-AS has it. they have a range of adjustments. You will probably have to go IR at night with them depending on your surrounding light.
 

Flintstone61

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the Amcrest 1179ew is $57 and quite few people have 1 or 2 in their system.

Assuming the area I'm interested in using a less-expensive camera does not have much ambient light at night, would there be any lower end cam that anyone here would suggest aside from IPC-T2231T-ZS-S2? This is the 1/3" sensor 2MP for $125.


The irony is at first glance I didn't notice "bye" since I was most curious about 5443 :)

Thanks for the offer on running cable. I don't think you've mentioned it but I'll take the bait and look forward to you telling me just how difficult I've made my life! The house has plaster walls (just plaster/lath, no metal) and no existing coax or ethernet wiring worth mentioning, so setting up adequate wifi was job #1. Internet service comes into the basement via coax and provides service to my Unifi network equipment. As you probably already know, plaster REALLY REALLY kills the wifi signal.
  • The first version of home wifi was a wired AP in the basement, and several other AP's on the 1st and 2nds floors, all of which were doing mesh backhaul. Speeds when connected to an AP that's 2 hops away were barely serviceable.
  • The second version was a minor improvement since I figured out a relatively easy way to get a hole through the first floor joist right above where the network rack is in the basement, which let me convert one of the AP's on the first floor to a wired connection. After repeatedly failing to find a way to get cable from the basement to the second floor inside the house, I finally decided to run it outside the house.
  • For the third version, I ran two separate outdoor-rated cat6 cables from the basement through the brick mortar to the outside. One cable goes up to the 2nd floor and back inside to the master bedroom, turning another AP to a wired connection. The other cable goes to a 2nd floor height, and then wraps around part of the house to an area where I've since installed an outdoor switch, and AP. Eventually 2-3 cameras will be wired from that switch as well.
This effectively gives one side of the house wired AP's on every floor, and works great. The biggest area to improve now is the second floor on the other side of the house. My plan for this area is the same - run two outdoor cables from the basement, through the brick to outside, and up to the second floor. One of the cables will go back inside directly to a switch in my office, which will turn it's AP into a wired connection. The second cable will go to an outdoor switch that will eventually feed a few cameras on that side of the house.

As someone else pointed out, "I'm very detail oriented", so sorry for the lengthy response, but I am genuinely curious if there are or were opportunities for a better solution or one that's easier to execute. I will say that the side of the house that remains undone is much more challenging to access.
 
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Flintstone61

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The amcrests are in the laundry rooms. I turn off the IR because they hold color pretty good with the room lighting off. The audio is decent on them as well.
I also have the turret version of 1186 looking at the indoor garage in the middle of the Pic. . but they have no Audio.
Cam8.20220128_105558_224599767.jpg
 

kobebeef

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The amcrests are in the laundry rooms. I turn off the IR because they hold color pretty good with the room lighting off. The audio is decent on them as well.
I also have the turret version of 1186 looking at the indoor garage in the middle of the Pic. . but they have no Audio.
View attachment 135124
You can try Amcres IP8M-TB2886EW-AI :clap:
 

CCTVCam

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The IPC-T2431T-AS seems like a great option since it's almost half the price, but I know it will take a slight hit w night footage given it has a smaller sensor combined with the same lens and resolution
Anything will take a large hit compared to 5442. There's a reason it's the recommended camera.

Once you start to get away from the 2 most recommended cameras, 5442, and 4Kx, then you may be looking at B&W at night to get a decent picture without motion blurring or adding a powerful LED floodlight which can come with it's own issues on the older designs of cameras in the form of light adaptation changes which means some of the older cameras take a few seconds to adapt when the light comes on losing you those seconds of footage. In your position, if someone came in quickly, that could be all the footage lost as they could potentially get from gate to under camera in the time it takes to adapt. Also a camera + floodlight or ir illumiator as you may want to move away from internal IR for seveal well documentated reasons - glare, reflections, attracting insects, is more expensive than a 5442.

Sometimes it's better to simply bite the bullet unless you're prepared to put up with B&W night visions in which case there are some excellent 2mp options out there. Please note though, recognition takes a hit with B&W. Studies have shown a far higher percentage of people fail to recognise offenders when presented with even perfect B&W photos than those presented with colour.
 
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keithfree

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For areas with very good ambient light: use the 4MP + 1/1.8" or 8MP + 1/1.2" ColorVu/Full Colour Cameras (hikvision or Dahua)
Which model numbers are for 8MP + 1/1.2" ColorVu/Full Colour Cameras?

the Amcrest 1179ew is $57 and quite few people have 1 or 2 in their system.
Thanks for the amcrest mention. I'm just going to buy a few of these and compare for a few days during the return window
 

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JWH

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A version of the 8MP 1/1.2" ColorVu/Full Color Camera (N85EFN2) that eliminates the speaker and is packaged in a turret (if possible) would lower the cost and make it smaller. At full extension, this camera is almost 12" long.
 

wittaj

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A version of the 8MP 1/1.2" ColorVu/Full Color Camera (N85EFN2) that eliminates the speaker and is packaged in a turret (if possible) would lower the cost and make it smaller. At full extension, this camera is almost 12" long.
A turret version is on the horizon....

 
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