Best teeny tiny camera options?

[nbstl68]

I am looking for options to put a REALLY small camera just above or possibly along side of my front door entry area under an arched overhang for up close people & package, (or package theft) identification.

(The small / discreet requirement is from the wife...I get all the reasons why visible is a better deterrent and such but...)

I want it to be able to have decent facial recognition at close range day and night, so although there is typical lighting right above, I'd want IR as I would not leave the light on all night.

I can only think of those little 1 inch or so square black mini cams, but I have not found any decent threads here or elsewhere reviewing them...also the fact that I see no major mfg producing them, (usually just no name ebay offerings) makes we wonder if those are just junk toys.

The entry and view angle would be tall and narrow choke point. I don't need to see any scenery being right in your face level at the door but down to the ground, (packages).
So I have no clue what size degree FOV option would be best either.

Anyone have any tiny cam experience, suggestions or reviews / image samples etc. you could recommend and share?

Oh, also, I know wifi is a bad idea for reliability but it would make installation a lot easier as the whole entry area is stone and I have no idea how I'd run a CAT line to it.
(There is a power outlet near the top of the overhang).

 

[looney2ns]

Wifi stinks for cams. Give us a few pics of your entry way, there is almost always a clean way to get cat 5 where it needs to be.

I will lay odds, that you won't be satisfied with anything less than a small Dahua wedge Starlight cam.
Aliexpress.com - Online Shopping for Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden, Toys & Sports, Automobiles and more

Also, if you mount any cam higher than 8ft, you'll get nothing but the tops of heads.

 

[nayr]

teeny tiny cameras have teeny tiny sensors and teeny tiny apertures.. and that pretty much guarantee's they gona suck a teeny tiny dick in low light conditions.

the starlight wedge is as small as your gonna get w/Starlight.

 

[nbstl68]

teeny tiny cameras have teeny tiny sensors and teeny tiny apertures.. and that pretty much guarantee's they gona suck a teeny tiny dick in low light conditions.

the starlight wedge is as small as your gonna get w/Starlight.

Well, I def don't want to capture any dick sucking teeny tiny or otherwise!

I'll snap some pics tomorrow in daylight.

@nayre, you have one of those little square black cameras I saw in some other post of a comparison pic...so what does an image from that thing even look like? Of what use are they really if pic quality is so poor?

 

[nayr]

This? Yeah its total garbage..

 

[nbstl68]

That was it. Thx
You and the place in that pic have a purple haze \ blur.

So the IPC-HDBW4231F-A may be the smallest of any quality I could do then?
Wonder how much guts are behind that white casing? Maybe I could yank the cam out of it and make something smaller to house it like a fake stone that would come close to matching the stone surround.


My Wifi router is just below the entrance in the basement. I know it's kind of a no-no for any connection guarantees but I have a cheap-o Foscam wireless I move all around the house and the connection has always been rock solid streaming wherever I put it, so I'm not too concerned about using wifi for this one if I must.

 

[bp2008]

I just realized, the timestamp in that TOP-201 snapshot is mirrored. What a piece of junk.

Have you considered powerline networking? You might get lucky and find a decent module that has a PoE injector built in.

 

[nayr]

I did that, didnt want to deal with the shit china webUI that requires ActiveX, so just rotated the image in post-production

 

[bp2008]

But it is only mirrored horizontally. Why was the original mirrored horizontally?

 

[nbstl68]

Front entry pics.



So I get that higher up would increase the likelihood of only head shots, but putting it at doorbell level, besides def not looking subtle would not allow for ground view of packages.

So I think the only option is the upper left\right corners of the underside arch or maybe right below one of the side lamps.

Since it is a narrow entrance and looks so "pretty" this is why the wife does not want a big cam ruining the asthetics.

Looking at that smaller Dahua cam, it still says it is like almost 5-6" so while the lens may be small, that's still "large" up this close.

Something the size of that little black 2" square would be great if the image were not crap.

Because it is all brick \ stone all the way around, I have no easy or cheap way to fish a CAT line up there.
There is an electrical outlet in the upper left corner under the arch not shown. So my power would have to come from there and then power cord along the top left to the back top left corner or wherever mounted which would need to somehow be made as unobtrusive as possible visibly too.

 

[Brian Martin]

Is that real stone , thin stone or the looks like stone stuff ?

Drill a small hole in the mortar , fish a Cat cable , masonry screws in the mortar , mount camera.

What about that soffit ? What's up there ?

 

[nbstl68]

It is veneer. The soffit is just an extenral piece not going into the house.
The whole simple "fish a CAT cable" part is is the problem.
Anywhere near or around that door external is brick, stone, stone veneer and behind that just solid 2x6 stacked framing supporting the door...no gaps, hollow walls near it to fish anything.

 

[Brian Martin]

It is veneer. The soffit is just an extenral piece not going into the house.
The whole simple "fish a CAT cable" part is is the problem.
Anywhere near or around that door external is brick, stone, stone veneer and behind that just solid 2x6 stacked framing supporting the door...no gaps, hollow walls near it to fish anything.

I would pull down one of those soffit covers and look inside. maybe they left the 2 x 6 walls exposed on the left or right. If there is a basement below and the power feeds run up those walls you can fish cable. Flexible fiberglass wire fishing poles are the best.

Remove the baseboard in the room on the exterior wall . Many times the drywall does not go to the floor . get a LONG drill , pop a hole into the basement. Feed in the fiber pole , tape on the cat and pull up. Now go outside and push those poles down the walls and hopefully your in business .
Again that's if those 2 x 6 walls are open inside that roof on either side.

 

[nbstl68]

Nothing exposed to the inside of the house behind the soffit unfortunately. Iw as added on later after the house was built and the entry was changed out.
I'm going to have to poke around the basement in that area to see what I can find. Wish I'd thought of doing this when it was all being changed out.
I've looked at those fiberglass fishpoles...not cheap.
Thanks for the ideas.

 

[nayr]

3/16 in. x 33 Ft. Fiberglass Wire Running Kit

 

[Brian Martin]

3/16 in. x 33 Ft. Fiberglass Wire Running Kit

Funny that's the same one I have .

 

[nbstl68]

ok, that's really cheap...but why the heck does the demo photo show a guy going straight on into an electrical socket with a metal hook tip?! fiberglass or not, prob not the best idea.

 

[nayr]

at least he has gloves on

They have this thing in your house that makes working with high voltage wiring very safe; they call it a circuit breaker..

 

[nbstl68]

My circut breaker shocked me once...what do ya shut off for that?

 

[nayr]

if your working in the box turn off the main breaker, and if your working upstream from the main breaker... well you need to be licensed and get approval from the electrical company to work on that side (usually the next device upstream is the meeter and thats a big no-no)