Camera placement strategies

[kdsteele]

My goals are to monitor activity on my property and to provide the authorities with usable footage (faces?) in the event of a break-in. I've been experimenting with camera placement. Pic 1 is a shot of the back of my house with the three areas (sunroom, doors and windows) I'm trying to protect highlighted. I plan to mount one 2.8mm turret above the windows, centered on the back porch shooting straight out into the yard. Pic 2 shows this view.

I plan to mount another turret to provide better detail of the sunroom, doors and windows I highlighted. Pics 3, 4 and 5 show placements I am considering. Pic 3 has the camera above the doors to capture anyone approaching, but doesn't actually show the sunroom, doors or windows and would not show the actual break-in. Pic 4 gives a view of the sunroom, doors and windows but seems like it would be less likely to capture any facial detail. Pic 5 splits the difference.

Between camera placement 3, 4 and 5 which would you go with and why? Is there another view that would be better?

 

[Del Boy]

Why not have more than one camera?

I would cover the doors personally if it was one or the other. The advantage a dome has over a turret it that from a distance people don't know what it's recording.

 

[kdsteele]

I will have more than one camera. There will be other cameras on the front and sides of the house and another camera on the back side of the house that will be positioned to capture the view shown in Pic 2. I only planned to use one to cover the area I highlighted in pic 1. When you say "cover the doors", is it pic 4 that you prefer that actually shows the doors rather than pic 3 that would show them approaching?

 

[Del Boy]

Pic 3, I don't want to see the back of their heads and I want the camera to primarily act as a deterrent.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Out of 3, 4, and 5, I might go with 3, preferably a hair lower if possible. Best chance of a direct face shot of anybody approaching and entering that door, plus it shows you what's going on at both the boat house and the dock. You'll need something AT the boathouse to have any chance of identifying someone who steals your boat. Now that I think of lower though, if you can get 5 lower on a bit of a drop mount but still above a fairly tall guy's head it'll show the boathouse, dock, some of the lake, a good angle on the steps, the actual door, and more windows. That has advantages, particularly if you won't have cameras inside the place. You'll probably have IR exposure complications with really wide angle cameras mounted where they can see the highly reflective trim, ceiling, etc. Turrets or bullets instead of domes would minimize some of them. Although 5 won't have as direct a face shot, it'll have a better side shot and most people will be looking down when coming up the stairs, giving a bad angle for straight-on face shot from 3. Shot 5 will give more of the face, particularly if they're wearing a ball cap with a bill, even if it's from the side a bit. A hoodie would shield a bit from both angles so a face-height location is generally best for face shots, particularly when people are approaching from below.

 

[kdsteele]

That helps, thanks for the feedback!