Dahua camera for particular locations (pics)

[pondo]

Good morning! My house was pre-wired for certain locations for cams. I'm not going to be able to move them and will have to deal with what I have. I'm in information overload in selecting the proper camera for my particular situations.

In the first photo, I'd like to be able to capture faces of individuals walking up to the front door or along the driveway. In a perfect world, it would be nice to capture a license plate of cars in the cul-de-sac but based on my reading that's probably not possible due to the distance and focus differences.

The second photo is on the back of my house. I'd like to capture a face entering the screened in porch. This is the only entrance to the rear of my house. I'd also like to capture some of the yard too in case a golfer smashes out a window.

I was considering a Dahua mini dome for the front porch: IPC-HDBW4231F-AS

The rear camera, I was thinking a variable zoom turret to dial in the view I really want. From my reading the Dahua starlights are some of the best bang for the buck. I'll be using blue Iris for capture.

The Wife wants a doorbell camera...I've yet to see anything as functional and integrated as the Nest Hello. I looked at reviews for the Dahua DB11 and it just seems like a PITA. Maybe I use the doorbell camera to capture faces and use the Dahua camera for the driveway/road surveillance?

All suggestions welcome! Thank you.

 

[looney2ns]

If you haven't yet, in the wiki at the top of the page, study the Cliff Notes.
Avoid Wifi cams, such as Nest, Ring, Arlo, Dropcam, etc.
Avoid cams that are sending your video to some unknown server.

 

[pondo]

Hi looney2ns, I read the cliff notes and have read many many of your posts. Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, there is literally no good equivalent door bell camera compared to the Nest Hello. I won't be using the cloud hosting. I was particularly interested in the Dahua DB11 you reviewed but there were many limitations. This is really for the WAF (wife acceptance factor) and it just needs to work and be simple.

I think a varifocal eyeball 2MP starlight may be better for the back yard with the 90 degree mount - IPC-HDW5231R-ZE? Seems like my mini dome is a good fit for a front door cam.

 

[bigredfish]

Id use a Starlight 5231 turret in both locations.

I count 8 cameras still leaving a couple of dead spots... Forget capturing license plates unless you're willing to dedicate a camera to just that

 

[mark_whocares]

Forget capturing license plates unless you're willing to dedicate a camera to just that

this.