Eye level cameras

[hamsoplo]

Anyone know of any covert style eye level ip cameras? I'd like to place one in a lobby of my business to capture faces as people leave to better take advantage of the light. I've seen some cropped pictures released by the police from a local store that takes great shots. I recognized the store and went to check it out. Never noticed it before but there is a pole with a pinhole at eye level, pretty awesome. Won't work at my place since I've got a wood door/interior and a metal pipe would look out of place. Here's a pic, notice the pole between the exit doors.

 

[nayr]

strap a mini dome to it, wide angle with at least a 90 degree FOV so you can catch both doors as good as possible... you definitely want a dome to protect it from vandals on there way out.

dont hide it, make it dead obvious so you can get suspicious fast of people trying to avoid looking at them or stairing at the ground.

 

[pal251]

Is there a way to put it behind the register and get a camera with good zoom that can focus on? Only problem would be bright light possibly depending on the camera. Show us a photo of business it will be installed in and have you considered the hikvision pinhole covert ip camera

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If you want to make it obvious mount a monitor and have that camera broadcasted to it

 

[hamsoplo]

I'd rather it be descrete. I have an obvious camera behind the register but it doesn't get great face shots unless they approach the register, dim lighting and bright light from the open door doesn't help either. I ordered the hikvision pinhole and see what can be done with it, maybe hollow out the door trim?
Here is the entrance way, it is 8ft long and 8ft ceilings, hats, hoods or looking slightly down render it totally worthless with the severe downward angle. Screen caps are usually blurry. There is only one can light illuminating the space.

Here is the behind the register shot.

 

[fenderman]

With the hikvision pinhole make sure you order it with enough cable length to the camera from the box...there are two versions 2m and 8m....

 

[nayr]

the pinhole cam was a good choice, its not really high resolution but it does have a huge WDR range and really good low light, at least in specs.. Ive been eyeing that camera for a bit.

Both combined should prove to work really well in a confined entrance like that with dramatic lighting variations from inside/outside.. looking at the photo I'd say that bit of wall to the left of the person coming in is a good spot.. might be better coming in, because anyone leaving after something bad will be in even more of a hurry I suspect.

 

[pal251]

Maybe put the camera in the wall to the right of the person walking in with a discrete hole and put a picture frame or something next to it to distract the eye. It's that or the door frame

 

[nayr]

hidden framed up in a picture of some nice titties would nearly grantee you get a nice identifying image of every male, and many female patrons.

other than that, perhaps something shiny or blinkey.. you have the problem of people reaching down for the handle so they will naturally look down.. so go for a short head height.. make a lil tripod test rig and try it out in various spots and angles, try to manipulate behavior so people look right into your camera if you can... whats something everyone looks at and see if you can put it in there... the opposing wall under a security alarm sign (psychological, a nervous robber or someone scoping you out is likely to look at it before going in.. make it the first one seen) is first thought but seems like you have all doors opposing the entry.