Cam catches thieves - makes me wish I bought better camera
- Thread starter suddenstop
- Start date
All the videos of people electrifying their trump signs last year....
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hmjgriffon
Known around here
I've always wondered, people have electric fences for cattle, and those are legal, why can't you put that around your yard?
I'd bet you could unless there would be local ordinances on specific fences. I grew up in farm country so electric fences around pastures were common but i never saw one around a house.
And this isn't from personal experience but i did witness the event. Don't whiz on an electric fence....
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And this isn't from personal experience but i did witness the event. Don't whiz on an electric fence....
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hmjgriffon
Known around here
automated water sprinklers, paint bombs, you ain't gonna stick around long after paint blasts all over you lol.
So if a hoodie and bandana defeats my cams, wondering what the point is?
Oh well, I just have one more I need to install, so no biggie. And by DIYing with help here, my budget was pretty low for what I have.
Problem in Cal is they have made more crimes misdemeanors, so for "low level" crimes they don't even arrest some times.
The Cal answer to prison overcrowding lol.
Oh well, I just have one more I need to install, so no biggie. And by DIYing with help here, my budget was pretty low for what I have.
Problem in Cal is they have made more crimes misdemeanors, so for "low level" crimes they don't even arrest some times.
The Cal answer to prison overcrowding lol.
hmjgriffon
Known around here
cameras are NOT a defense, unless you mount one to some kind of lethal or non lethal gun. What they do do, is allow you to see, and sometimes hear what is going on. They also give you lots of details. SOMETIMES you'll even get a face if someone is stupid, but you'll get other details, height, body type, clothes they were wearing, you might get lucky and catch a tattoo or something else. Sometimes just the outfit and body type could be enough for someone who knows them to recognize them on social media and give you a lead. You also catch details of vehicles if they were involved, you might get license plates, you might see that oh, someone was home across the street that you can go talk to and maybe they didn't know the person was a criminal but they have details, etc. etc. etc. cameras should definitely not be the end all be all though in your system, security is all about layers.
Good point. We have a hard wired alarm system, cams, and a killer 12 pound poodle 
That picture quality is incredible. What settings do you have on the cams?
I have two dusk to dawn LEDs floods which should put out about 3600lm in total so I'm interested to hear how you have the cameras set up to achieve that quality.
bigredfish
Known around here
Thanks! I'm pretty happy with it. I'd love to take credit as a master camera tweeker 
but truth told, it's mostly luck in the placement and lighting. Nothing replaces good white light for sharp nighttime video.
Cameras are Dahua HDCVI 2MP Starlight bullets and effectively the same great image as the popular IP Starlights. I used the same Cat5 that I had run to an old analog system in 2012 and upgraded in 2016 to a Tribrid DVR w IVS and 12TB disk space and 2MP HDCVI cams with baluns. Can also run IP cams if I find the need.
Cameras shown are 8ft high mounted on either corner of the garage, just 1ft above the coach lights. They are about 12-14 ft from the vehicle doors. Obviously they have great depth as I also get a great image of the street and passing vehicles as well as facial recognition at the vehicles.
The coach lights combined with street lights really makes it possible to run in forced color mode. I keep one in Auto/B&W/IR night mostly as backup because if I dont get the coach lights turned on, I still have one great picture from that camera in Auto mode. The forced color camera without the coach lights produces a very cool and excellent image of the street as it intensifies the street lights even more than you see in those clips, but not enough light at the vehicle doors to be of use as there is not enough ambient light right up by the garage door without the coach lights on..
Settings on the HDCVI cams is very close to same as you get on IP cams, except that it is via OSD through the DVR instead of a web server page on the camera. The only real difference in functionality is that I don't have a true Day/Night schedule for all functions.
Settings on the forced color cam are pretty standard - max out your FPS and bitrate
30FPs/Iframe 30
6144 bps CBR
BLC Off (experimented with WDR and it just introduces motion blur much like it does on an 8231 IP camera I manage. WDR is not for nighttime)
Exposure is "Auto" with Low Motion Blur enabled - effectively like setting you IP cam to Manual 1/30th and you can adjust the shutter as with an IP cam
Gain 50%
Forced color with IR Off
Image quality settings are all pretty close to 50%. 3DNR at 50% - too much DNr introduces motion blur also
The Auto/B&W/IR cam settings are about the same except obviously go to IR at dusk and with Smart IR enabled
I spent a of of time learning and reading on this forum and credit most of my success to those who run this place.
When I see folks post pretty still snaps from cameras I tend to say to myself "So what does it look like with a human and cars passing by?" Its pretty easy to get a good clear 2MP daytime image from even a $50 camera. The only real test is movement/target ID at night. Everything else is just pretty photography.
but truth told, it's mostly luck in the placement and lighting. Nothing replaces good white light for sharp nighttime video.Cameras are Dahua HDCVI 2MP Starlight bullets and effectively the same great image as the popular IP Starlights. I used the same Cat5 that I had run to an old analog system in 2012 and upgraded in 2016 to a Tribrid DVR w IVS and 12TB disk space and 2MP HDCVI cams with baluns. Can also run IP cams if I find the need.
Cameras shown are 8ft high mounted on either corner of the garage, just 1ft above the coach lights. They are about 12-14 ft from the vehicle doors. Obviously they have great depth as I also get a great image of the street and passing vehicles as well as facial recognition at the vehicles.
The coach lights combined with street lights really makes it possible to run in forced color mode. I keep one in Auto/B&W/IR night mostly as backup because if I dont get the coach lights turned on, I still have one great picture from that camera in Auto mode. The forced color camera without the coach lights produces a very cool and excellent image of the street as it intensifies the street lights even more than you see in those clips, but not enough light at the vehicle doors to be of use as there is not enough ambient light right up by the garage door without the coach lights on..
Settings on the HDCVI cams is very close to same as you get on IP cams, except that it is via OSD through the DVR instead of a web server page on the camera. The only real difference in functionality is that I don't have a true Day/Night schedule for all functions.
Settings on the forced color cam are pretty standard - max out your FPS and bitrate
30FPs/Iframe 30
6144 bps CBR
BLC Off (experimented with WDR and it just introduces motion blur much like it does on an 8231 IP camera I manage. WDR is not for nighttime)
Exposure is "Auto" with Low Motion Blur enabled - effectively like setting you IP cam to Manual 1/30th and you can adjust the shutter as with an IP cam
Gain 50%
Forced color with IR Off
Image quality settings are all pretty close to 50%. 3DNR at 50% - too much DNr introduces motion blur also
The Auto/B&W/IR cam settings are about the same except obviously go to IR at dusk and with Smart IR enabled
I spent a of of time learning and reading on this forum and credit most of my success to those who run this place.
When I see folks post pretty still snaps from cameras I tend to say to myself "So what does it look like with a human and cars passing by?" Its pretty easy to get a good clear 2MP daytime image from even a $50 camera. The only real test is movement/target ID at night. Everything else is just pretty photography.
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Great post!! I bought 2 of the starlight turrets, and if I can come close to what yours looks like I will be more than happy. One of my lessons learned is to do real testing at night. I messed around with my current cam while I am waiting on the new ones, and while I improved it a little (gain 76, digital nr 85) it still looks like the original.
bigredfish
Known around here
I think each placement is going to require different settings depending on your ambient white light, focal distance, FOV etc.
Here's two more examples - IP Cameras
This one is a non-Starlight Dahua
IPC-HFW52A1EN-Z
FPS15, Iframe15, Bitrate CBR 8192, Shutter Low Motion Blur 1-30, HLC70, DNR70
It struggles between motion blur and grainy-ness depending on whether I boost manual gain to 60-70 or stay with LMB and higher DNR- its a tradeoff
CHALLENGE - on this cam placement is the very dark spot under the tree, like a black hole. Thats approx 100' from camera
This one is a Starlight Dahua
IPC-HFW8231E-Z
FPS25/Iframe 25, Bitrate 8192 CBR, Exposure Manual 1/30, Gain 0-50, DNR 50, WDR25
As I increase WDR I can brighten the picture to look like afternoon at 3am, but motion blur and headlight bloom becomes increasing worse from about WDR20 on up at night.
CHALLENGE - on this cam placement is the glare/bloom from headlights
Here I minimized headlight bloom using HLC-70 with WDR off, but obviously reduces brightness of the overall image beyond the immediate street light area
Here's two more examples - IP Cameras
This one is a non-Starlight Dahua
IPC-HFW52A1EN-Z
FPS15, Iframe15, Bitrate CBR 8192, Shutter Low Motion Blur 1-30, HLC70, DNR70
It struggles between motion blur and grainy-ness depending on whether I boost manual gain to 60-70 or stay with LMB and higher DNR- its a tradeoff
CHALLENGE - on this cam placement is the very dark spot under the tree, like a black hole. Thats approx 100' from camera
This one is a Starlight Dahua
IPC-HFW8231E-Z
FPS25/Iframe 25, Bitrate 8192 CBR, Exposure Manual 1/30, Gain 0-50, DNR 50, WDR25
As I increase WDR I can brighten the picture to look like afternoon at 3am, but motion blur and headlight bloom becomes increasing worse from about WDR20 on up at night.
CHALLENGE - on this cam placement is the glare/bloom from headlights
Here I minimized headlight bloom using HLC-70 with WDR off, but obviously reduces brightness of the overall image beyond the immediate street light area
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Some great information, appreciate it!
How many coachlights are you running (each with the 1200lm bulbs)? My LEDs are kicking out 3600lm and I still need gain at 75% on my cheap Hikvision cams or else it's too dark. Very interested to see the difference when I get a couple of Starlights.
How many coachlights are you running (each with the 1200lm bulbs)? My LEDs are kicking out 3600lm and I still need gain at 75% on my cheap Hikvision cams or else it's too dark. Very interested to see the difference when I get a couple of Starlights.
bigredfish
Known around here
gpower07
Getting comfortable
I have decent cameras covering my vehicles. Not good enough to id, but decent. I went on amazon, and bought the driveway guardline. Narrow beam that crosses the driveway and sets of an alarm in my bedroom. Early warning had twice protected, one arrest, and one run away empty handed. Video evidence of attempted crime. I say attempted, they checked locked handles and moved on to neighbors house while on the phone with 911. The bean is more focused and narrow than normal motion detectors. Very few false alarms. 110 dollars.
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hmjgriffon
Known around here
looks pretty sweet, I see it says it's got a relay to wire other stuff in, I'm assuming those are not just dry contacts you can hook into a NC or NO connection? The one thing these driveway sensors seem to be missing is the ability to integrate them into an alarm system/home automation so you can get the alert when not home. I do plan on getting something for the driveway soon though, but if it won't hook to my automation I may just get the cheap $20 harbour freight driveway alarm.
RobertM
Getting the hang of it
- May 2, 2017
- 192
- 91
From a low tech perspective... since the zombies are defeating the best of our efforts (camera tech, camera placement, procedural security, defensive lighting, or defensive no-lighting, etc.) with baggy, non-descriptive clothing, hoodies, bandanas, no automobiles and the youthful ability to scram asymmetrically like a cockroach... isn't a low tech solution the answer? There are a lot a very smart people on this forum who can think outside the box. Yes, throw $ at tech to deter, prevent, scare away or lead to the catch/arrest of SOME of the bad guys - but the uncatchable zombie door checker population is growing exponentially. From a military/tactical perspective zombie behavior is brilliantly low tech like a poor rebel fighter - blending in and then suddenly striking quickly. Moments later they're casual again - looking shady still - but not legally actionable. The time they strike is relatively predictable (2:00am - 3:00am). Isn't that a choke point in itself? Isn't that a weakness that can be exploited by the homeowners?
I know nobody wants to stay awake during those hours because they have work in the morning, but is there a way in a community (even on a street of 12 houses?) to share some responsibility with some type of visual patrol? There's probably a couple homeowners on any typical street that happen to be awake and capable of seeing zombies walking down the street at that hour. Unusual work schedule, retired, sleep deprived, etc. Isn't it worth putting flyers in your neighbor's mailboxes to at least ask the question? To see if they're interested in combining resources/effort? There's usually a gung ho person on the street who claims they'd shoot any person that touches their vehicle, but from a legal/financial perspective employing firearms on bad guys is an inconvenience. However, on any street there's normally a handful of highly capable people who are practiced in less lethal ways to apply kinetic solutions. They can run as fast or faster than the zombies, know the neighborhood better (side yards, back yards, adjoining streets/alleys), and when they lay their hands on the zombies' collar they can responsibly apply kinetics. The zombie doesn't know where that highly capable person lives and can't report the person to police. All it takes is a phone network.
I know nobody wants to stay awake during those hours because they have work in the morning, but is there a way in a community (even on a street of 12 houses?) to share some responsibility with some type of visual patrol? There's probably a couple homeowners on any typical street that happen to be awake and capable of seeing zombies walking down the street at that hour. Unusual work schedule, retired, sleep deprived, etc. Isn't it worth putting flyers in your neighbor's mailboxes to at least ask the question? To see if they're interested in combining resources/effort? There's usually a gung ho person on the street who claims they'd shoot any person that touches their vehicle, but from a legal/financial perspective employing firearms on bad guys is an inconvenience. However, on any street there's normally a handful of highly capable people who are practiced in less lethal ways to apply kinetic solutions. They can run as fast or faster than the zombies, know the neighborhood better (side yards, back yards, adjoining streets/alleys), and when they lay their hands on the zombies' collar they can responsibly apply kinetics. The zombie doesn't know where that highly capable person lives and can't report the person to police. All it takes is a phone network.