Camera selection advise

jarrow

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Hi guys,

I'm new to the world of IP cams and wanting to start with just two camera's to cover the biggest part of the house and upgrade later.
I want to place Dahua turret/eyeball cams on two small detached buildings: the garage and the shed.
One problem I have: it's not really possible to lay networkcables without ripping the pavement up, so I want to try it with Powerline adapters and POE injectors. It's all behind one breaker and the distances are fairly short, up to 15m (~50ft).
I'm on a tight budget, so if possible would want to spend under €500,- for the main stuff (NVR, camera's, powerline adapters, HDD, SD cards).

This is a map of the buildings using IPVM:
1641559510483.png
  • The garage is lower left, shed lower right and the main house is in the middle.
  • The 'walls' at the right and lower side are fences.
  • The green camera will be under a carport and looking at the car, main entrance and entrance to the garden.
  • The blue camera will be under the slanted up roof of the small shed. For this cam the wider angle is important, as it will cover the right side of the house and the entrance to the garage. The shed isn't really of interest here.
  • Both are about 2.3m from the ground.

I have a few questions about the NVR, which I want to place in the main house:
  1. If I'd go with the powerline method, I won't need an NVR with POE. Do I then stick the networkcable from the main powerline adapter in the NVR?
    1. If so, how does the NVR get it's connection to the main network?
    2. If not, will my standard router be able to handle all the queries from the camera's to the NVR?
  2. What NVR from Dahua would be recommended in this situation? I reckon 4 or 8 channels without POE and one HDD, keeping budget in mind?
    1. Are the white 'light' versions any good? These: NVR2104/2108-4KS2
And about the camera's:
  1. What 'budget' turrent/eyeball camera's from Dahua are recommended right now? I see the IPC-HDW4231EM-AS in the Cliff notes wiki which seems promising, but that also seems to be from 2018, so I assume better/more recent camera's would be out by now?
Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,
Jarrow
 

mat200

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Hi guys,

I'm new to the world of IP cams and wanting to start with just two camera's to cover the biggest part of the house and upgrade later.
I want to place Dahua turret/eyeball cams on two small detached buildings: the garage and the shed.
One problem I have: it's not really possible to lay networkcables without ripping the pavement up, so I want to try it with Powerline adapters and POE injectors. It's all behind one breaker and the distances are fairly short, up to 15m (~50ft).
I'm on a tight budget, so if possible would want to spend under €500,- for the main stuff (NVR, camera's, powerline adapters, HDD, SD cards).

This is a map of the buildings using IPVM:
View attachment 114812
  • The garage is lower left, shed lower right and the main house is in the middle.
  • The 'walls' at the right and lower side are fences.
  • The green camera will be under a carport and looking at the car, main entrance and entrance to the garden.
  • The blue camera will be under the slanted up roof of the small shed. For this cam the wider angle is important, as it will cover the right side of the house and the entrance to the garage. The shed isn't really of interest here.
  • Both are about 2.3m from the ground.

I have a few questions about the NVR, which I want to place in the main house:
  1. If I'd go with the powerline method, I won't need an NVR with POE. Do I then stick the networkcable from the main powerline adapter in the NVR?
    1. If so, how does the NVR get it's connection to the main network?
    2. If not, will my standard router be able to handle all the queries from the camera's to the NVR?
  2. What NVR from Dahua would be recommended in this situation? I reckon 4 or 8 channels without POE and one HDD, keeping budget in mind?
    1. Are the white 'light' versions any good? These: NVR2104/2108-4KS2
And about the camera's:
  1. What 'budget' turrent/eyeball camera's from Dahua are recommended right now? I see the IPC-HDW4231EM-AS in the Cliff notes wiki which seems promising, but that also seems to be from 2018, so I assume better/more recent camera's would be out by now?
Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,
Jarrow
Welcome @jarrow

Your budget will make things challenging ..

Yes, the camera models in the cliff notes are all older models, and newer models are now available.

Probably best to try one of the newer 4MP with 1/1.8" sensor models out as you learn more about this topic.
 

sebastiantombs

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:welcome:

You will be hard pressed at that budget. Keep in mind, as well, that you won't be able to get solid identification of anyone near the house, even with a 6mm lens. A varifocal stands a chance at maximum zoom, 12mm or 13.5mm, but even that's a stretch. At night without some auxiliary lighting, either visible or IR, all bets are off.

Here's the current crop of "goto" cameras -

The smaller the lux number the better the low light performance. 0.002 is better than 0.02
The smaller the "F" of the lens the better the low light performance. F1.4 is better than F1.8
The larger the sensor the better the low light performance. 1/1.8" is better (bigger) than 1/2.7"
The higher the megapixels for the same size sensor the worse the low light performance. A 4MP camera with a 1/1.8" sensor will perform better than a 8MP camera with that same 1/1.8" sensor.

1/3" = .333" Great for 720P
1/2.8" = .357" (think a .38 caliber bullet) Great for 2MP
1/1.8" = .555" (bigger than a .50 caliber bullet or ball) Great for 4MP
1/1.2" = .833" (bigger than a 20mm chain gun round) Great for 8MP

Don't believe all the marketing hype no matter who makes the camera. Don't believe those nice night time captures they all use. Look for videos, with motion, to determine low light performance.

Read the reviews here, most include both still shots and video.

Rule of thumb, the shutter speed needs to be at 1.60 or higher to get night video without blurring.

8MP Review

5442 Reviews

2231 Reviews

Dahua 4MP cube camera

Dahua Doorbell (Villa) Kit

Boobie camera

2MP Amcrest PT

25X PTZ
 
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jarrow

Pulling my weight
Joined
Jan 6, 2022
Messages
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Location
NL
Thanks a lot guys, @sebastiantombs and @mat200 !
I'll try to broaden my budget to fit a better starter system.
1/3" = .333" Great for 720P
1/2.8" = .357" (think a .38 caliber bullet) Great for 2MP
1/1.8" = .555" (bigger than a .50 caliber bullet or ball) Great for 4MP
1/1.2" = .833" (bigger than a 20mm chain gun round) Great for 8MP
I'm not that well known with bullet calibers, but I get the point haha.

The camera differences are a lot more clear now. But about the NVR, I guess my question about the white 2-series isn't really recommended.
Which NVR would be the goto one?
 

Rob rusie

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Joined
May 1, 2018
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Hi guys,

I'm new to the world of IP cams and wanting to start with just two camera's to cover the biggest part of the house and upgrade later.
I want to place Dahua turret/eyeball cams on two small detached buildings: the garage and the shed.
One problem I have: it's not really possible to lay networkcables without ripping the pavement up, so I want to try it with Powerline adapters and POE injectors. It's all behind one breaker and the distances are fairly short, up to 15m (~50ft).
I'm on a tight budget, so if possible would want to spend under €500,- for the main stuff (NVR, camera's, powerline adapters, HDD, SD cards).

This is a map of the buildings using IPVM:
View attachment 114812
  • The garage is lower left, shed lower right and the main house is in the middle.
  • The 'walls' at the right and lower side are fences.
  • The green camera will be under a carport and looking at the car, main entrance and entrance to the garden.
  • The blue camera will be under the slanted up roof of the small shed. For this cam the wider angle is important, as it will cover the right side of the house and the entrance to the garage. The shed isn't really of interest here.
  • Both are about 2.3m from the ground.

I have a few questions about the NVR, which I want to place in the main house:
  1. If I'd go with the powerline method, I won't need an NVR with POE. Do I then stick the networkcable from the main powerline adapter in the NVR?
    1. If so, how does the NVR get it's connection to the main network?
    2. If not, will my standard router be able to handle all the queries from the camera's to the NVR?
  2. What NVR from Dahua would be recommended in this situation? I reckon 4 or 8 channels without POE and one HDD, keeping budget in mind?
    1. Are the white 'light' versions any good? These: NVR2104/2108-4KS2
And about the camera's:
  1. What 'budget' turrent/eyeball camera's from Dahua are recommended right now? I see the IPC-HDW4231EM-AS in the Cliff notes wiki which seems promising, but that also seems to be from 2018, so I assume better/more recent camera's would be out by now?
Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,
Jarrow
 
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