Any chance of extending the
Cat5 at your front porch to the other side of the door at my red dot or at least to on top of the door? Much better angle to catch a good close ID shot of folks at the door, cover more of who's on the front porch, what your visitors are driving, and gives you one-camera access to who is coming to visit if you want to have an iPad. A barrel connector
like this one is quick and dirty and not weatherproof, but you might be able to use it on the inside and pull some extra Cat5 through to extend your reach, depending on location and how it's run to the outside. Best bet is a separate pull to my red dot somehow or maybe tie a longer cable to the existing one and use it to pull the new one through but your idea of a wireless cam on the green dot will work as well. You MIGHT be able to get away with, say, a 2.8mm cam on the porch at your star and point it out more towards the street and still catch your driveway but you probably wouldn't be able to see people standing at the door, just when they approach it. Angling a 2.8mm so that it shows your door should give you a bit over 90 degrees field of view but you'll notice a rapidly worsening face ID at any distance at all over a 4mm. Another good location would be to the street side of my red dot at face height just beyond the swing of your door. It wouldn't show the door itself but it'd give a great angle for facial ID and your yard and driveway. First choice is probably the red dot because you'd be able to show that people actually entered your house rather than just stood at the door out of range of the cam for an unspecified time. A lawyer may try and argue that if the cams don't show someone leaving with your TV in their arms.
Your covered deck location is decent but directly over the door is better. 2.8mm will cover all of the 90 degree angle but 4mm is better for closeup ID shots at the distance to your door, particularly at night and should give you over 80 degrees coverage. Showing what they did outside is nice, but one crystal clear face shot is what you're looking for, preferably from face height or a hair above, not looking down on their cap, hoodie, or bald spot. Most folks walk with their heads down on new territory, particularly at night, and high mounts give poorer face shots up close.
6mm on the starred driveway cam should give wide enough coverage for two cars parked with their noses 10-12ft or more from the camera. Any closer then 4mm. Night quality of the cameras and available lighting will determine how adequate a 4mm will work for face shots of moving people at 20+ feet. 6mm gives an edge but at the sacrifice of field of view. Some wide angle coverage is better than a blind spot that the perp never leaves, but video of him doing the crime plus a good clear face shot anywhere on the property is what I want. Also, with cat5 going to the driveway there anyway, you might look into the ease of mounting a POE switch there inside and running two wires out for two wired cams.
We get a few car surfers here every year. I had one guy come in my driveway, walk up to my vehicle less than 15 feet from the camera, open the door, sit in clear view of the camera for many minutes, and then leave. With the camera's IR, the dome light, and house lights mounted 15 feet away, I got what I considered one barely adequate face shot from my 2mp 4mm Swann (basically a rebranded Hikvision 2032-I minibullet running at 2mp instead of 3). Not great performance but good enough for him to get caught and convicted. I've since upgraded the cameras in my driveways. Lots of times I have visitors that keep walking and I get a poor to miserable face shot.
Avoid the 2 and 3 mp Hiks unless you've got very good lighting or add IR illuminators. Old tech in their sensors and the newer stuff is cheap enough you can ignore the old stuff on a $250/cam budget. I bought a 4mp 6mm Hikvision DS-2CD3445-I turret for one driveway and it gives MUCH better pictures day and night than my old Swann. About $80 US shipped from China for a hacked Chinese model with English firmware. Almost a dome form factor but without the complications of the IR shining through the bubble. 3342 is the US model with metal housing and better WDR at a much higher price. I do like domes at home but I turn off the internal IR. I haven't seen video from the new DS-2CD2022WD-I cams and their domed cousins though. They've got the newer wide dynamic range tech than the older 2032-I and might be better at night as well.
My favourite night cam at the moment for fairly reasonable money is the Hikvision Darkfighter DS-2CD4526FWD-IZ. It's either a bit (I paid $300 plus shipping from China but they're over double that in the US the last time I checked) or a LOT over your $250 budget though, depending on where you buy it if you can find them. Low mounts (say at 7' trying for a close to horizontal lens angle) on white soffet don't work well for me with the internal IR because of glare but give very good pictures under my street light with a bit of help from my house lighting. They work great with external illuminators and see 940mm well if you don't want the red glow of cheaper 850mm IR. They're available in outdoor bullet form which I'd recommend if you need built-in IR. VERY flexible camera after you mount it because it'll handle an external microphone, speaker, and alarms (add a PIR, laser perimeter fence notification, whatever), along with 2.8 to 12mm zoom that you can adjust from your smartphone while mounting and aiming it (or afterward for that matter). DS-2CD4A26FWD-IZH is the bullet model with heater. No wireless unless you connect it to a wireless bridge like Ubiquiti's Nanostation line.
Even cheap Hiks will also write to a NAS. Many also have internal SD card slots so if someone comes in and steals your NAS or NVR then you'll have footage saved in the cameras to recover later or you can run a headless system and check things later with a laptop or something.
There are cheaper turret options with the same great low-light sensor as the Darkfighters if you're avoiding bullets. Longse and some others have it with a 5mp turret or bullet and 5mm lens but they might whip up different lenses for you if you ask.
Check out this thread if you want to save some money over what Hikvision puts out but have a less finished product at least as far as options and firmware goes.
