Asking for camera recommondations

Midway

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I am considering purchasing a Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2E NVR for my house and would appreciate recommendations for the best cameras to purchase with it. Top quality is preferred but I don’t want to throw money away.

I understand some on here prefer options other than a POE NVR due to noise and home runs but that will not be an issue for me.

Also, do I need to buy a HD for the NVR? What size?

My first post and I will attempt to post a picture that may help with number, type and potential locations for cameras.

Thank you.

 

catcamstar

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Welcome to the forum!

You already gave a headstart with the google footage!

So I took the liberty and I played a bit with it!



Total cams required:
2 red I-call-them-ambush cams, to spot run-awayers. Best to hide in mailbox and stuff
4 green I-call-them-garden cams, great "overview" cams to monitor movement
8 blue I-call-them-round-the-house cams, covering all "blind" spots, windows, doors, with each cam overlapping with another cam (except right flank)

Sums up to 14! So your 16 port POE NVR is almost enough! Add some kind of video intercom, and your 16 licenses are used :p

I know I know, I'm exagerating, but you can play on your own with this underrated tool: IPVM Camera Calculator V3

Why underrated: it immediately will teach you all about DORI. Because even in my l33t-paint skills drawing, your viewing requirements (FOV/DORI distances/.. ) all define which lens you'd require. Many people on the forum use varifocal (which eliminates "hard thinking on the lens size") and 2MP starlight dahua (because of low light capabilities), however you might have other requirements which we cannot guess.

In any case, if not yet done: read IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes | IP Cam Talk

Then re-read IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes | IP Cam Talk

And additionally to save you some headache later: VPN Primer for Noobs

Good luck!
CC
 

SouthernYankee

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:welcome:
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1)Run two ethernet cables to each location.
2) Mount at the proper height.
3) if you park in the driveway, a minimum of two cameras one on either side of the garage,
4) I have 2 cameras covering each door.
5) Do not use more that 75% of the NVR capability, all systems grow, leave space for growth.
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My standard welcome to the forum message.

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

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (https://store.ipcamtalk.com/) if you need good low light cameras.
2) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
3) Do not use wifi cameras.
4) Do not use cloud storage
5) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
6) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
7) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
8) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk)
9) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
10) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
11) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
12) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.

Cameras to look at

IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
IPC-HDW5231-ZE
IPC-T5442TM-AS
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I
DS-2CD2325FWD-I

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess
 

Midway

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Thank you catcamstar and SouthernYankee. Seems I have to reading and research to do.

I perceive a preference on the forum for Starlight and the low light strengths of 2MP. I am OK with a few but want some higher resolution to be able to pick up details at distance. We have had a few incidences in our neighborhood and I want to contribute to offering as much evidence as possible.

I'm a photographer and shoot a lot of sports at night and understand strengthens and weakness of sensor size, MP's, etc.

For now I would like to keep everything or most things in the Dahua family. When will 4MP Starlight cameras be available?

Thanks again.
 

VisionxOrb

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Thank you catcamstar and SouthernYankee. Seems I have to reading and research to do.

I perceive a preference on the forum for Starlight and the low light strengths of 2MP. I am OK with a few but want some higher resolution to be able to pick up details at distance. We have had a few incidences in our neighborhood and I want to contribute to offering as much evidence as possible.

I'm a photographer and shoot a lot of sports at night and understand strengthens and weakness of sensor size, MP's, etc.

For now I would like to keep everything or most things in the Dahua family. When will 4MP Starlight cameras be available?

Thanks again.
The 5442TM 4m starlight+ are out now, reviews are currently underway on this board, if you add up all the talk done thus far, it trades blows with the 2mp starlight depending on situation and a firmware revision or 2 away from being the clear winner.
 

Midway

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I live on a dead end, private road and we have had a few recent instances where the neighborhood Ring Cameras have captured something but I am sure the system I plan to put together could do much better.

Is it advisable to have cameras set up to capture license plates as they drive up and down my road other than cameras that just point to the street from my house? I assume the answer is a strong yes.

How would I secure the cameras from vandalism if I installed them in my terrace for example? Hard to tell from the attached picture but my driveway is short but very steep.

If I go this route, what cameras would work best?

Thank you.

Front terrace.jpg
 
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