Entry camera placement guidence

[SteveN1]

Greetings all,

I'm about to pull the trigger on my first surveillance camera, and would love any comments on the placement vs. camera capabilities. The area to be covered is the front door, which is at the top of a flight of stairs. Here's a picture from the landing below the entrance:

Entry from stair landing

• SteveN1
• Jun 25, 2019

In this neighbourhood you are not technically supposed to have external cameras, but many people do, so I'm thinking it should be unobtrusive, on the back side of the overhead beam:

HDB camera location

• SteveN1
• Jun 25, 2019

The proposed location is circled in yellow, with the vertical and horizontal distances marked. Note the florescent light just below and to the left of the location. The camera would be pointing toward the viewer in this picture, so hopefully the light won't cause too many problems with washout.

So, my question:

Given this short, lighted, distance, what camera would you folks recommend to identify the person on the entrance?​

Seems these starlight, high mega-pixel units might be a bit wasted under these conditions; I'm just checking here to see if that is the case and, if so, what you guys would put here.

Cheers,

 

[SteveN1]

Anyone? The wiki mentions pixels having 5px/cm for identification purposes, but does not mention how to know what cameras are suitable for getting that.

Would also love to hear any comment on the placement. It seems somewhat high by the recommendations I've read, but I hope that the short distance will compensate for that. Mounting lower is possible, but less ideal due to camera visibility (by, say, passersby or building management) and the potential light pollution.

 

[bigredfish]

if you're only 1.6m from the door, the 2231 turret would work fine, Starlight will be helpful in the dark doorway, esp at night.
https://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/productDetail/20017

Remember what you're after is clear facial ID, not the top of heads.

 

[bigredfish]

Just another thought, with the camera pointing at the wall next to the door at such close range, Id be worried that the IR will reflect badly. The ideal position would be looking out away from the door capturing faces as they approach.

 

[SteveN1]

You raise a good point. I'm hoping with that florescent light I may not need to use IR at all, assume it doesn't blind the camera too (in non-night mode). These tight spaces can be tricky too.

 

[looney2ns]

Always test proposed locations prior to permanent install.
Review-dahua-ipc-hdw2231rp-zs-starlight-camera-varifocal