finding my perfect setup for under $1000

G

GKyle840

Young grasshopper
Dec 18, 2018
93
18
Ohio
I have recently decided that I want to invest in cameras for my home as I live on the edge of a small park and have a walkway that is next to my side yard. this means there are a lot of people during the day and night that walk next to my home.
I would like to place 4 cameras on my house that allow me to see the walkway, my yard, the street where my trailer is parked and the park behind my house.
I recently purchased a unifi G3 setup and played around with it a good bit without actually mounting the cameras to the house. it seems like a nice system however the IR light and the cameras are not up to my expectations at night time and I would like the option to zoom in. I like all of the features of the unifi system and the ease of setting everything up though.
here is what I am looking for in my system.
1. must be able to see a live feed from my phone
2. must have motion detection to start recording
3. must have a clear night time picture whether it be color or B/W
4. must be able to record to my dedicated computer hard drive and erase older recordings if it fills
5. would like 1080 or greater resolution
6. I would prefer a bullet style camera but am open to others
7. I would like to be able to zoom in
8. I plan to run cat 6 cable for Poe but am open to other option if needed

I welcome all suggestions and will provide any more info that is needed.
 
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GKyle840 said:
I have recently decided that I want to invest in cameras for my home as I live on the edge of a small park and have a walkway that is next to my side yard. this means there are a lot of people during the day and night that walk next to my home.
I would like to place 4 cameras on my house that allow me to see the walkway, my yard, the street where my trailer is parked and the park behind my house.
I recently purchased a unifi G3 setup and played around with it a good bit without actually mounting the cameras to the house. it seems like a nice system however the IR light and the cameras are not up to my expectations at night time and I would like the option to zoom in. I like all of the features of the unifi system and the ease of setting everything up though.
here is what I am looking for in my system.
1. must be able to see a live feed from my phone
2. must have motion detection to start recording
3. must have a clear night time picture whether it be color or B/W
4. must be able to record to my dedicated computer hard drive and erase older recordings if it fills
5. would like 1080 or greater resolution
6. I would prefer a bullet style camera but am open to others
7. I would like to be able to zoom in
8. I plan to run cat 6 cable for Poe but am open to other option if needed

I welcome all suggestions and will provide any more info that is needed.
Click to expand...

Welcome @GKyle840

If you are not under threat immediately take some time and review the cliff notes as well as see the reviews members have been doing with various camera models.

Note - if you want to zoom in and out a lot - look for something like a PTZ camera. There is a type of camera called a varifocal - but it is designed to customize a FOV and keep it at that setting. The newer models have a motor and gears inside of the camera - the older models must be manually set ( we do not see many of those now ).
 
Welcome to the forum.

Please read the cliff notes and other items in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read,study,plan before spending money

No Wifi cameras. Bullet cameras collect bugs, a great place for spiders. Dome cameras collect dirt and water vapor. The recommend cameras are Turret. The night time cameras use the 2mp dahua starlight camera. Do not get caught up in the more pixels the better, this is not true, especially at night.

Be careful of cameras on EBAY or AMAZON. If the camera indicates that it is not upgradable it is a chinese hack.

There are some recommended suppliers for cameras.
 
that looks like a really nice camera but I think it is a bit out of my budget. I want to keep it around $1000 for 4 cameras, cat6 cable, switch and whatever else I may need. I dont really need to zoom in and out if the PTZ cameras are out of my price range. I would like to be able to optically change the zoom or field of view but it does not have to be done once I find the level of zoom I want to keep the camera at. the most important factor is a good image and especially a clear image at night at at a decent range. the G3s that I am returning would only go out maybe 60 or 70 feet at night and even that was not very clear or well lit up.
 
GKyle840 said:
that looks like a really nice camera but I think it is a bit out of my budget. I want to keep it around $1000 for 4 cameras, cat6 cable, switch and whatever else I may need. I dont really need to zoom in and out if the PTZ cameras are out of my price range. I would like to be able to optically change the zoom or field of view but it does not have to be done once I find the level of zoom I want to keep the camera at. the most important factor is a good image and especially a clear image at night at at a decent range. the G3s that I am returning would only go out maybe 60 or 70 feet at night and even that was not very clear or well lit up.
Click to expand...

@GKyle840

"the most important factor is a good image and especially a clear image at night at at a decent range"

1) If you need the best image at night then look at the 2MP Dahua OEM starlight models.
2) Decent range - a lot depends on the ambient light available at night, and often the ranges tend to be significantly shorter than you may have imagined before getting in to this field. Also see the DORI info in the cliff notes on this.

For example
ID spec distance and associated area max covered calculations ( 100ppf+ ):

This is the theoretical max based on raw pixels from the horizontal resolution and the horizontal FOV. Calculations based on data provided in ads / spec sheets. Some vendors like to play games and list diagonal FOV instead of horizontal FOV as that number is bigger and not clarify that it is diagonal FOV.
Actual real world results will be decreased due to the quality of the camera ( glass vs plastic lens, compression quality, sw/firmware,... ), installation view, as well as environmental conditions ( low light, haze, fog, glare off snow, water rain,.. ).

Practical meaning: Place your cameras in such a manner that any suspect / subject you wish to potentially ID is within this ID spec distance, as well as in a placement which will give you a high likelihood of obtaining a good facial image ( mount camera 8 feet or less high ).

..

Dahua IPC-HDW4231EM-AS starlight fixed lens 1080p 1920x1080 w/2.8mm lens H 110° 10 feet 95.94 sqft
Dahua IPC-HDW4231EM-AS starlight fixed lens 1080p 1920x1080 w/3.6mm lens H 87° 12.65 feet 121.43 sqft
Dahua IPC-HDW4231EM-AS starlight fixed lens 1080p 1920x1080 w/6mm lens H 51° 21.58 feet 207.16 sqft


The PTZ mentioned with the 25x optical zoom of course has a lot more "range" ( and at that deal price it is only $100 more than some of the more popular dahua oem 2MP varifocal cameras IPC-HDW523x - about $170 usd )
 
I recommend the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS camera. ~$132 from Andy at Empire Tech. They do everything on your list although the zoom is varifocal and not really meant for a lot of zoom in/out but it does work if not needed too often. Use $60 Blue Iris with $10 phone app on a $150 PC and your 5 camera system is just under $1000. This will give you the best night time performance for the dollar.

BTW, this camera is the same as the $170 HWD-5231 but without audio which is not very useful on the 5231 anyway.
Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
 
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anijet said:
I recommend the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS camera. ~$130 from Andy at Empire Tech. They do everything on your list although the zoom is varifocal and not really meant for a lot of zoom in/out but it does work if not needed too often. Use $60 Blue Iris on a $150 PC and your 5 camera system is just under $1000. This will give you the best night time performance for the dollar.

BTW, this camera is the same as the $170 HWD-5231 but without audio which is not very useful on the 5231 anyway.
Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
Click to expand...
The audio is fine on the 5231, if it sounds garbled, disable the noise filter.
 
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anijet said:
I recommend the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS camera. ~$130 from Andy at Empire Tech. They do everything on your list although the zoom is varifocal and not really meant for a lot of zoom in/out but it does work if not needed too often. Use $60 Blue Iris on a $150 PC and your 5 camera system is just under $1000. This will give you the best night time performance for the dollar.

BTW, this camera is the same as the $170 HWD-5231 but without audio ...
Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
Click to expand...

Anijet has some very good recommendations, just wanted to note - the difference between the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS and IPC-HDW5231x models is a bit more nuanced * than just the audio recording. Still for the price the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS is one of my favorite options when I do not need audio.

* - ( that is the 52xx series has a bit more power to process - thus extra stream, additional IVS features )
 
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A PTZ camera is only good if you are there to operate it. If you use auto tracking or scanning it is more than likely will be looking in the wrong direction when you need it. It is recommended that you use multiple cameras. Start with a single variable focus camera (IPC-HDW5231R-ZE) and a test setup, A 5 gallon bucket filled with rocks, holding a 2x4 8, 10 ft. mount the camera to that check the type of lens you need also it will help determine the mounting location.

A good source and recommend is Andy at Empire Technologies. he is a member of this forum. There is a store on amazon and Aliexpress, he has outstanding shipping and excellent service.
https://www.amazon.com/s?tag=ipctk-...3EBQGJF&merchant=A329YQ83EBQGJF&redirect=true
Empire Technology Co., Ltd - Small Orders Online Store, Hot Selling and more on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

Another item are you going to use an NVR or a VMS like BlueIris. BI runs on a PC. If going with an NVR it is best to stay with one that is the same vendor as the cameras.
 
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I will look into the IPC-HDW2231R-ZS.
You mention Andy. Is he in the US?
Any idea what his shipping times are?
 
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He has the HDW5231R for $176.99 but is out of the HDW2231R. How would these compare to the G3 during the day? At night?
 
Research on this forum. There are very good reviews. Also look at the camera specs
 
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I read up a good bit on the camera but dont really understand most of the specs. The only camera I have ever seen before is the M3 and I cant find any comparison of it and the HDW5231R. The M3 has good reviews on other websites but I am unable to find a comparison between it and the HDW5231R anywhere.
 
IMO, the newer $299 Unifi G3 Pro is based on the design of Dahua's $180 5231R-ZE.

Their low-light performance should be pretty similar because they're both optimized for that... Less pixels (2MP, not 4MP, not 4K) combined with the same larger image sensor. Dahua calls the sensor by its name ... Sony STARVIS ... Unifi calls it by its product number, IMX290.

I didn't catch which G3 camera specifically you're testing, but if it's not the G3-Pro, I don't think it will compare favorably to a Dahua Starlight model (like the 5231R-ZE) in terms of low-light performance.

There's a thread here where the OP has some sort of Unifi cameras and also a 5231, so you might be able to get some input from him.

I'm not sure how much ambient light you have around your house, but here are two pics from around mine. In the first pic, while the camera's IR is on (it's a 5231R-Z), there camera is pretty much only using the light from the street light which is 100ft away on the far side of the street.

Cam1.jpeg

On the porch pic below, the camera's IR is turned completely off. This camera is the $180 Starlight mini PTZ, SD1A203T-GN.

Cam3.jpeg
 
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My camera is not the pro, just the normal G3. judging by your pics, your camera blows my regular G3 out of the water.
 
One more question before I try and order a fee of these. My internet is not the fastest in the world (uverse) what is the minimum speed in order to be able to stream my video?
 
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