Camera Placement and Focal Length Recommendations

[SpinnerRow]

Here is a pic of the front of my house. The thick red arrows are one recommendation from someone else. The thin red lines are what I thought I needed, which you can ignore - please. The red/green dots are where I was thinking about putting the cameras.

My preference would be one in the entryway above the front door and one on each eave of the garage. I had some thoughts about of maybe a Huisun PTZ above the garage later on. My main question, as in another thread this morning, was the focal length. I think I'm going to need 2.8mm turrets (Looking at these from Nellys) because 4mm I think would limit my view under the garage eaves. I might go with a 4mm bullet for the door to get a good close up of the goings in/out of the entryway. I might put a 2.8mm turret in the garage above that entryway as well.

I've recently built my BI server and am ready to buy some cams and POE switch. The Networking, routing, VLAN setup, access control, Windows setup and some custom programming is my area of expertise but when it comes to cameras, I'm lost.

Thanks!

 

[PSPCommOp]

I'd go 4mm for the Reds and the green a 2.8mm.

It's similar to what I have but I'd start with the 4mm above the door and angle the view as far to the right of the door (right as you walk out the door, left of this picture as your looking at the house) as you want to cover. That should cover some of your yard for people approaching there and also cover the sidewalk leading out. The second 4mm in the red above the garage can cover the rest of the sidewalk and driveway and anyone who approaches straight on from the street and into the driveway. The green would be where I'd mount the 2.8mm and I'd put that on straight ahead or angles a bit to the left (to the right if your looking straight at the house in this picture). That will give you a broad area of the driveway and walkway in front and both 4mm's will give u a better detailed picture for this approaching the door and driveway.

Logic here from my perspective is the 4mm (or even 6) will give u a much more detailed picture of people in case you need to positively ID them later. Nayr writes a lot about better placement of cameras with more narrow view to provide better picture even if it covers a smaller area. Once I mounted both my 4mm and 2.8mm turrets, I realized just how much better the larger focal lengths can provide for clarity and facial recognition.


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[SpinnerRow]

I'd go 4mm for the Reds and the green a 2.8mm.

It's similar to what I have but I'd start with the 4mm above the door and angle the view as far to the right of the door (right as you walk out the door, left of this picture as your looking at the house) as you want to cover. That should cover some of your yard for people approaching there and also cover the sidewalk leading out. The second 4mm in the red above the garage can cover the rest of the sidewalk and driveway and anyone who approaches straight on from the street and into the driveway. The green would be where I'd mount the 2.8mm and I'd put that on straight ahead or angles a bit to the left (to the right if your looking straight at the house in this picture). That will give you a broad area of the driveway and walkway in front and both 4mm's will give u a better detailed picture for this approaching the door and driveway.

Logic here from my perspective is the 4mm (or even 6) will give u a much more detailed picture of people in case you need to positively ID them later. Nayr writes a lot about better placement of cameras with more narrow view to provide better picture even if it covers a smaller area. Once I mounted both my 4mm and 2.8mm turrets, I realized just how much better the larger focal lengths can provide for clarity and facial recognition.


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So nothing on the eaves of the garage?

 

[PSPCommOp]

I'd say that would come down to your personal preference. For me, I would say put them under the eaves of the window above the garage like you have shown in the picture. Down the road you could always add another camera, maybe a 4mm under the garage eave on the right hand said (right side as your looking at the garage in this picture) to cover that side of the garage. I'd rather leave the other two up there above the garage to cut down on a "cluttered" look. By that I mean two hanging down under the eaves of the garage they will be easily visible as opposed to up above where they might not be noticed. Again its a personal preference on how you want it to appear.

Another option would be to mount them as I described, and then down the road, move the 4mm camera above the garage down to underneath the eave on the garage on the right hand side like I described in the paragraph above here, and then put a good PTZ camera in the spot where the 4mm was. So you'd have the 4mm above the doorway to your home, a PTZ underneath the eave of the window above the garage and then a 4mm to the right of the garage for better coverage there. And you can either leave the 2.8mm where it is and have a wide angle view of the front, or take that down and place it somewhere else on the property and have two 4mm's and one PTZ covering the entire front of the house.

 

[Kawboy12R]

If it were mine I'd put a 4mm on the door and two 6mm cams flanking the garage door, particularly if you often have a car in the driveway overnight. The driveway is a bit wide 4 1 6 millimeter cam but for anything at a distance at night a 6 millimeter is almost a minimum in my experience. Any length shorter than that and it will depend on what you are willing to settle for when somebody steals something from your car, particularly if you are poorly lit like most places are.

 

[tangent]

I think the window eaves above the garage are a too high for good face captures (unless you really zoom in and are trying to grab faces closer to the sidewalk).

Front door cams can be a little tricky. You might want to consider a wedge style camera down a little lower. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DAHUA-4MP-HD-Network-Vandal-proof-IR-Wedge-Dome-Camera-Original-English-Version-without-Logo-IPC/32604419768.html