Camera positioning

[d5775927]

I want to cover the area of the red rectangle.
That is, I want to be able to identify faces of people passing in the red rectangle.
There is street light, however, it is not very strong.

1. How many cameras are required?
2. Where would you position them?
3. I have a Dahua NVR and one Dahua camera, bought them a while ago but did not use them yet.
IPC-T2431T-AS 3.6mm
NVR4108-8P-4KS2

Thanks

 

[wittaj]

This camera height is ok for an overview, but you will get lots of tops of heads.

You need at least two more cameras installed lower (about head height), one facing in each direction to get them coming or going. I would suggest a varifocal like the 5442-ZE.

 

[d5775927]

This camera height is ok for an overview, but you will get lots of tops of heads.

You need at least two more cameras installed lower (about head height), one facing in each direction to get them coming or going. I would suggest a varifocal like the 5442-ZE.

Total of 3 cameras is also what I had in mind.
I can position them in whatever height I want, my concern is if placed too low a person passing by may grab it and go.

 

[wittaj]

At that distance to your area to be covered, you could put up the turret style, which is a lot harder to grab it and go. But as long as you have it installed on a strong support/wall, it should be ok. Most people are oblivious to them and with at least 3 there, you would capture them on the camera with a good close face shot of them. My neighbor installed them on a fence 4 feet tall and 3 feet away from the public sidewalk and they have never been touched.

 

[d5775927]

At that distance to your area to be covered, you could put up the turret style, which is a lot harder to grab it and go. But as long as you have it installed on a strong support/wall, it should be ok. Most people are oblivious to them and with at least 3 there, you would capture them on the camera with a good close face shot of them. My neighbor installed them on a fence 4 feet tall and 3 feet away from the public sidewalk and they have never been touched.

View attachment 105365

I marked 3 green X what do you think about the placing?
I can place 1 and 2, lower, but then it will be bordering in the street.
I cannot place 1 and 2 further into the property since the fence will block its view.

 

[wittaj]

I would probably go with 1 and 3 so that you have the distance in your favor to "flatten" the angle.

 

[d5775927]

A) Do you recommend to place: 5442-ZE both In 1 and 3 ?
B) In 1 I don't a have a wall to mount, I can place a pole or mount it to the fence (there metal fence underneath the plants).
C) Do I need extra equipment beside the cameras/cables/nvr, for example:

1. Mounts
2. Gel/greeze to avoid moisture in the Ethernet connections
3. Outdoor grade cable or it is enough to use a regular (cat5e copper) cable and make sure it passes in a PVC pipe (to protect it from sun/water/animals)

Thank you very much for the swift and clear responses

 

[sebastiantombs]

Every camera, when mounted outside, should have a dab of dielectric grease applied to the RJ45 pins prior to mating the male and female ends. Then the connection should be wrapped with a self vulcanizing tape followed by a couple layers of quality electrical tape. Typically Coax Seal and 3M 33+ electrical tape are used. Moisture, even condensation caused by temperature variations, in an RJ45 connection will eventually lead to failure. That means even if the connection is inside a weatherproof box, or otherwise out of direct weather, it needs to be well protected.

 

[wittaj]

Since your cameras are on that side (originally I thought they would be from the viewpoint of your image), you could get by with the fixed lens version of the 5442.

You would want a junction box for sure for the one you would mount to the pole. The one on the building maybe not if you can shove the cable back in the hole.

At a minimum get dielectric grease for the connection points, and then probably wrap them in tape as well.

If the cable is not exposed, you probably do not need the outdoor rated, but given the one in the bush, I would probably opt for PVC piping to protect it from the sun/weather/vandals with a knife.

 

[d5775927]

Since your cameras are on that side (originally I thought they would be from the viewpoint of your image), you could get by with the fixed lens version of the 5442.

Which lens size?
2.8 /3.6/6.0

 

[Mike A.]

You may have trouble trying to put a cam so that it's in any way hidden where you have 1 and 2 marked. If using IR, you need a clear area around the cam or you'll get reflection and bright highlighted areas near the cam that will wash out the rest of the image. I have several where I have to continually manage the vegetation. Just a few leaves in near-view of the cam makes a big difference. If you have enough light not to use IR on that cam or can rely on the IR from others and turn it off there, then not so much of an issue.

 

[d5775927]

You may have trouble trying to put a cam so that it's in any way hidden where you have 1 and 2 marked. If using IR, you need a clear area around the cam or you'll get reflection and bright highlighted areas near the cam that will wash out the rest of the image. I have several where I have to continually manage the vegetation. Just a few leaves in near-view of the cam makes a big difference. If you have enough light not to use IR on that cam or can rely on the IR from others and turn it off there, then not so much of an issue.

Yes you are right.
I intended either of:
1) Trim the bush (to avoid reflections and to allow me to position the camera in a suitable height)
2) Use the bush itself as a hiding place for the camera (still need to make sure nothing is blocking the camera lens, but I don't have to trim the bush, just tie it properly around the camera).
What do you think is preferred?

I also considered to add a PIR sensor (maybe: Shelly Motion Sensor | Shelly Cloud)

 

[d5775927]

Assuming i'm going with, two of 5442, are these mounts a good fit (for points 1 and 3):
PFA152 - Poll mount (do I need some water proofing here?) - for point 1
PFB203W - Wall mount - for point 3

 

[Mike A.]

Yes you are right.
I intended either of:
1) Trim the bush (to avoid reflections and to allow me to position the camera in a suitable height)
2) Use the bush itself as a hiding place for the camera (still need to make sure nothing is blocking the camera lens, but I don't have to trim the bush, just tie it properly around the camera).
What do you think is preferred?

You can try somehow within the bush first but I'd guess that you'll likely need to cut it back or get the cam well out in front of everything. Especially if you go with a wider-angle cam. Harder than you'd think in some cases to get a clear view.

Or as I said maybe your other cam will be enough IR and the angle OK to just use that. I have to run one of my 5442s with IR off because there's a big bush near the cam that I can't really get completely out of the way. Works great in my case given other cams and the 5442s don't need a lot to perform well but that's kind of dependent on specifics.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'd say you'll need IR for both cameras otherwise the one with IR off will struggle with contrast making a good ID problematic. That can be solved, with the vegetation, by using an auxiliary IR and keeping the IR in the cameras shut off. It wouldn't take much, a 4 watt IR would be more than enough.

 

[d5775927]

I'd say you'll need IR for both cameras otherwise the one with IR off will struggle with contrast making a good ID problematic. That can be solved, with the vegetation, by using an auxiliary IR and keeping the IR in the cameras shut off. It wouldn't take much, a 4 watt IR would be more than enough.

Is it important where I place the IR light, it should be between point 1 and 3? (or the position of the IR source is not important)
I'm asking since I have an electrical socket near point 3, so placing a light there is not an issue.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I always position auxiliary IR lights behind the camera by a foot or two. That keeps the bugs away from the camera. Remember this is IR, not visible light. The objective of two is to light up the face of anyone approaching either camera.

 

[d5775927]

I always position auxiliary IR lights behind the camera by a foot or two. That keeps the bugs away from the camera. Remember this is IR, not visible light. The objective of two is to light up the face of anyone approaching either camera.

Thinking to skip the IR setup as initial step, will try to run with the cameras builtin IR (not sure where to get the 4 watt IR or how to provide power to it, also its position may be tricky for point 3).

 

[d5775927]

Regarding the required mounts:
For point 1 I need:
PFB204W + PFA152-E + PFA130-E
For point 3 I need:
PFB204W + PFA130-E

Is anything else required for mounting (except for the 3 layered insulation mentioned before, dialectic grease and 2 layers of electric tape)?.

 

[d5775927]

Picture from point 3 (a little bit higher). Using old camera Dericam H502w, the light maybe enough (for new high end camera).