Best Value Long Distance Camera

[Jaceon]

I'm one of those cheap Dahua/Hikvision camera kinda guys. Have over 40 running on BI5.. I'm hoping to put up a house about 700ft from our shop. Curious on any recommendations for a decent but cheap varifocal camera that could keep an eye on construction from about 700ft. I'd prefer a varifocal so when I'm done with it I can still use it @100ft or so. Obviously nothing is going to be great at that distance, just didn't know if anyone has any recommendations.
Thanks

 

[wittaj]

While 5241-Z12E has DORI numbers that suggest you could observe at that distance, I would go with a PTZ.

 

[Jaceon]

I guess by varifocal I meant zoom. Never been a big fan of cameras with the pan and tilt options since they're generally massive and like to wonder during power outages. I'll look into that guy though for starters. Thanks!

 

[Alaska Country]

Dahua has a 8mm - 48mm bullet zoom. Works well here for LPR at 130 feet, but would IMO be marginal at 700 feet.

HFW5242H-Z6E-M

 

[wittaj]

The Z-12E I mentioned is a varifocal with up to 64mm zoom, but like I said at 700 feet would be tough. Not many varifocals if any with a higher focal length.

 

[Holbs]

would have better luck running a wireless point-to-point (ubiquiti or something similar) and then putting a Z-12E out there (and other cameras like PTZ or such)

 

[Jaceon]

I think I'm going to go with a 5241-Z12E. Those DORI numbers do seem to give it the best hope although the pixel count is low... I do have PTP bridges, a solar panel, and semi batteries laying around, but IDK I feel like all that hassle for this since there won't be power for awhile. Maybe some trail cams, but my main focus is just to be able to day observe and maybe put a high speed video together of the construction. Appreciate all the feedback!

 

[wittaj]

Do keep in mind DORI numbers have no real basis. Real life most of us would cut the DORI in half or more during the daytime and cut it at least 75% at night.

It might work to observe, but just be away that DORI numbers are not exact.

 

[Jaceon]

I got the Loryta one of Amazon but here's the 5241-Z12E fully zoomed on a house 2000ft away at sunrise, so it should work great for my needs later on at 700ft. My only complaint with this camera so far is when fully zoomed, auto focus is garbage. Had to switch to manual.. Could be because of the fields, but didn't seem to have an option to change it's focus point.. Also focus wouldn't work from BI so had to do it from the Camera UI... Thanks for the recommendations though!

 

[Bob Schulz]

This was just the other night from my DH-SD645U-HNICE2. Andy has the 4k version now SD6CE445XA-HNR

 

[wittaj]

I got the Loryta one of Amazon but here's the 5241-Z12E fully zoomed on a house 2000ft away at sunrise, so it should work great for my needs later on at 700ft. My only complaint with this camera so far is when fully zoomed, auto focus is garbage. Had to switch to manual.. Could be because of the fields, but didn't seem to have an option to change it's focus point.. Also focus wouldn't work from BI so had to do it from the Camera UI... Thanks for the recommendations though!
View attachment 136822

BI should let you adjust the focus (although it is better to do it in the camera GUI). Did you check the enable PTZ controls in BI and did you type in the IP address/user/password in BI and hit find/inspect? Even though the camera is not a PTZ, that needs to be checked to allow focus and zoom to be changed from within BI.

Yeah I think the field is messing with your focus. It has a regional focus where you can draw a box and it focuses to that area (unless that was eliminated with some firmware update)

 

[Jaceon]

Yeah PTZ is enabled in BI. Zoom works fine, but the focus buttons don't change anything.. Minor annoyance since I won't often change my zoom.. assuming the focus holds fine...
Don't see any sort of reginal focus settings in Dahua's settings.. all in all seems to be a decent zoom camera for the price. Obviously a $1500 4k PTZ would be better, but there's the whole... $1500 part