Camera placement, models

[ktiz81]

Hi,

I have began planning my system, and I will admit to being an “overthinker” and a spreadsheet-type person.

I am coming from an Arlo system that was basically dead half time because batteries need to be charged and that we ended up turning alerts off on because the notifications were terrible.

That being said I have one 5442-ZE that I have been playing around with a learning how to use both it and blue iris, and I’ve embarked on planning my “next steps”.

That being said I’m struggling with which camera to choose for my next step. I want to place varifocals first, mainly to some overall coverage, with the intent that I can reuse them in other spots later to get good IDENTIFY in key places.

I am having a hard time deciding between the Z4E-S3 and the Z12E-S2. The Z12E primarily seems to be used as a LPR around here, and I do intend to eventually venture into that, but I am no where near that. Is it a good camera for other purposes? It’s appealing to me because it has a wider FOV range than the Z4E, better illumination distance on the IR, and obviously the ability to be zoomed more precisely in the future.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree and should I be looking at placing more 5442-ZE right now because of the wider FOV and ability to narrow down which fixed lens cameras can go where?

Sorry for all the questions. I can see how cameras multiply like rabbits once you get started. I started this journey as a “I’m just gonna replace these 4 arlos I have with something better and we will be good” now I’m thinking I need 20 cameras everywhere! Ahahaha.

I live on an acre pie shaped lot, with a dirt road that runs behind my house (I view this as probably the biggest area a suspicious person would come from). In the front I live on a cul de sac. I’m attaching a google maps overhead for recommendation purposes.

Thanks!

 

[Ri22o]

Z4E vs Z12E will come down to how much light you have, how far you need to reach out, and if you might plan to repurpose it later on and then circling back to the first two of light and distance.

I use both. I have Z12s for LPR and spotter cam duty and a Z4 covering my back gate. Ultimately I plan to have some coverage of the walking path behind my back fence and plan to use Z12s for the distance and light requirements.

 

[ktiz81]

Z4E vs Z12E will come down to how much light you have, how far you need to reach out, and if you might plan to repurpose it later on and then circling back to the first two of light and distance.

I use both. I have Z12s for LPR and spotter cam duty and a Z4 covering my back gate. Ultimately I plan to have some coverage of the walking path behind my back fence and plan to use Z12s for the distance and light requirements.

thank you. Which is better in low light situations? I live in a neighborhood that does not have street lighting at all. I have some neighbors that leave some exterior lights on, and I have landscape lighting (low voltage, so it’s fairly dim), however my lighting conditions are very low, and I’ll probably be running B&W at night. I’m not too keen about putting floodlights places.

as far as distances, from my house to the property lines, the longest I have is 150-170ft. Obviously don’t need Identification at my property line, but my overall goal is to have 100% observation of my property line, and recognizing and identifying as they get closer to my house. But I do have to cover some distance in order to observe my property line.

 

[Sybertiger]

I would say that you should plan on 10 cams minimum on the outside of the house. I say that just to get you in the right frame of mind setting expectations.

Other than that, I'd only comment that because of the type of community I live in I went with T5442T-ZE for my last addition. It's worth the extra $10 or $20 for varifocal so do that! I went with the turret design for my cams because it's less visually invasive with regard to neighbors concerns about "cams pointing at them". For license plate stuff the turret will not be ideal.

 

[ktiz81]

I would say that you should plan on 10 cams minimum on the outside of the house. I say that just to get you in the right frame of mind setting expectations.

Other than that, I'd only comment that because of the type of community I live in I went with T5442T-ZE for my last addition. It's worth the extra $10 or $20 for varifocal so do that! I went with the turret design for my cams because it's less visually invasive with regard to neighbors concerns about "cams pointing at them". For license plate stuff the turret will not be ideal.

Thank you. My first phase is just getting some cameras up in key spots (around 6 to start…budget), but I’ve made up lots of maps of my property, and it appears like I will probably end up in 14-16 range, which I know is likely overkill, but that’s kinda how I roll.


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[Sybertiger]

thank you. Which is better in low light situations? I live in a neighborhood that does not have street lighting at all. I have some neighbors that leave some exterior lights on, and I have landscape lighting (low voltage, so it’s fairly dim), however my lighting conditions are very low, and I’ll probably be running B&W at night. I’m not too keen about putting floodlights places.

as far as distances, from my house to the property lines, the longest I have is 150-170ft. Obviously don’t need Identification at my property line, but my overall goal is to have 100% observation of my property line, and recognizing and identifying as they get closer to my house. But I do have to cover some distance in order to observe my property line.

I have a very dimly lit community too. The street lights are far and few in between. I have low voltage uplighting but still need to operate in B&W IR mode at night. Suggest you look into getting a PTZ then using some of your fixed cams as spotters to instruct the PTZ were to zoom in when the fixed cams see something at a distance. And, you may want to look into IR floodlights. Like you, I don't like to draw attention to my house by flooding the area with visible light at night.

 

[Sybertiger]

Thank you. My first phase is just getting some cameras up in key spots (around 6 to start…budget), but I’ve made up lots of maps of my property, and it appears like I will probably end up in 14-16 range, which I know is likely overkill, but that’s kinda how I roll.


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It will not be overkill. But get 10 minimum then add in as you see holes to fill. The PTZ will help filling in a lot of gaps.

 

[ktiz81]

It will not be overkill. But get 10 minimum then add in as you see holes to fill. The PTZ will help filling in a lot of gaps.

Yes PTZ is something I would love to have. Do to the shape and non-square box style to my home, a few PTZ cams will really bring home the IDENTIFY portion of my plan. It’s hard when I am covering so much property. Of course the perfectionist in me says I need to be able to identify every single person that steps foot on my property, even if that’s 170ft away but there are stages to goals!


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[Sybertiger]

For a good/excellent PTZ you are looking at $900+. For a fun decent starter PTZ like I have $400.

And when said get 10 cams I'm just saying put that as minimum to go with just to set expectations. Certainly, buy a few then install a few. No need to overwhelm to start with and it gives you a chance to see what a few can do. You'll probably find that you need different cams depending on what you want to do.

You can see my signature to see what I have for my little 1900 Sq ft home. Some of those cams are old models no longer sold.

 

[Sybertiger]

You must be an engineer.

 

[ktiz81]

You must be an engineer.

I’m not but probably should have been


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[Ri22o]

thank you. Which is better in low light situations? I live in a neighborhood that does not have street lighting at all. I have some neighbors that leave some exterior lights on, and I have landscape lighting (low voltage, so it’s fairly dim), however my lighting conditions are very low, and I’ll probably be running B&W at night. I’m not too keen about putting floodlights places.

as far as distances, from my house to the property lines, the longest I have is 150-170ft. Obviously don’t need Identification at my property line, but my overall goal is to have 100% observation of my property line, and recognizing and identifying as they get closer to my house. But I do have to cover some distance in order to observe my property line.

Z12 will likely be better in low light, but I haven't had any experience with the new S3 and S2 versions. I have read they both do a much better job with less light than the previous versions.

This is my Z4E set to full zoom. First picture is 85' with 22' height, second is it moved to 65' with about 12' height.


This is at night with just the IR from it, the other cameras, and whatever IR flood light actually makes it back this far.

 

[Ri22o]

Thank you. My first phase is just getting some cameras up in key spots (around 6 to start…budget), but I’ve made up lots of maps of my property, and it appears like I will probably end up in 14-16 range, which I know is likely overkill, but that’s kinda how I roll.


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I had originally come on here saying I would end up around 16 cameras. I am at 37 for my 1/3 acre lot. This doesn't include the 4 T-180s on my roof for sky cams. I have at least 3 more I would like to add to cover other areas.

 

[StevenFromTexas]

I went with the turret design for my cams because it's less visually invasive with regard to neighbors concerns about "cams pointing at them".

You mean neighbors like this one? Yes, he is saluting one of my cameras. And everyone that lives at THAT house knows I'm watching them 24/7/365.

 

[ktiz81]

I had originally come on here saying I would end up around 16 cameras. I am at 37 for my 1/3 acre lot. This doesn't include the 4 T-180s on my roof for sky cams. I have at least 3 more I would like to add to cover other areas.

This is probably my future


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[TonyR]

View attachment 180823

You mean neighbors like this one? Yes, he is saluting one of my cameras. And everyone that lives at THAT house knows I'm watching them 24/7/365.

Aw, he's braggin' about his IQ....

 

[Ri22o]

This is probably my future


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And you may think overkill until something like this happens. The neighbors may change their tone too.

Stranger Danger: Side-by-side captures of Ring/Arlo/Nest vs Better Cameras

This post is a combination of the Typical Ring/Arlo/Nest Captures thread and the Captures from Better Cameras thread. It's not too often we have side-by-side images of the crappy, consumer grade cameras with the same subject as better cameras that have been installed with a purpose. It...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[wittaj]

I started with the four 2.8mm camera box kit system and I was like "I can place one on each corner of the house and see my whole property and the whole neighborhood." A newbie loves the wide angle "I can see the whole neighborhood" of the 2.8mm fixed wide angle lens. I LOVED IT WHEN I PUT IT UP. I could see everything that would be blocked looking out the windows.

And like most NOOB, I put mine up on the 2nd story soffit to maximize the reach of the field of view, which meant the closer someone got to my house, the more I was getting tops of heads.

It is easy to get lured into the "I can see the whole neighborhood" mentality because you are watching it and you see a neighbor go by and you are like "Look at that I can tell that is Heather out walking." and "Yeah I can tell our neighbor 4 down just passed by". Or you watch back the video of you walking around and are like "yeah I can tell that is me...these things are great."

Little do we realize how much WE can identify a KNOWN person just by hair style, clothing, walking pace, gait, etc.

Then one day the door checker comes by. Total stranger. These overview cameras give you totally useless video other than what time the door checking happened.

Then you realize that this wide-angle see the whole neighborhood comes at a cost and that cost is not being able to IDENTIFY who did it. These 2.8mm wide angle cameras are great overview cameras or to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet of the camera. At 40 feet out you need a different camera.

So you go from seeing a wide angle with a few arlos to realizing if you want to IDENTIFY you need more cameras.

I have had a few neighbors that have given me rude remarks on my cameras, but who was the first person they asked when something happened to one of their cars? I should have been "oh man sorry I didn't catch it", but I was nice and provided them with the make/model/plate of the car that hit theirs in hopes maybe it would settle them down.

 

[Ri22o]

This is probably my future


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I guess I should add that of that number 2 are LPRs and 1 is a dedicated spotter. I also have 8 inside the house between the basement and various rooms/floors.

 

[Swampledge]

I’m using a z12E to look down the road on my property that leads to the majority of my land. Chose that one after a woman we don’t know came onto our property and headed down there, then left. I wanted to be sure I could identify at about 85 ft if it happened again, and I wasn’t confident the Z4 could “reach out” quite far enough. It is probably my favorite camera because it gave detect ability on my chicken coop 300 ft away, and also gives me the best detection of nocturnal wildlife which use the road nightly. (The coop is now watched by a Z4 S3 mounted about 60 or 70 feet away.)