For those with soffit higher than 8ft, how are you mounting cams?

[kool_zero]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for any users that have soffit higher than 8ft up. I want to know if you are mounting your cameras to the soffit anyways, and if so, what kind of image you are getting.

I know that anything that high typically only catches the tops of heads, but hanging cameras lower on the home I think would make a home look goofy. I have a brick home, but the same question applies to any structure. I just wanted to see what others have done in this scenario. My soffit is quite a bit higher than 8ft.

 

[GCoco]

My wife limits the camera to soffits, patio/porch ceilings, and trees. I have multiple cameras looking everywhere in an attempt to catch a face. I also capture license plates and the vehicle. I am not in a neighborhood. Mounting high limits your ability to catch a face, but even with a camera mounted 4 feet high a bad guy can block his face. My theory is put as many as you can afford and hope to catch what you need or even better have them think “it ain’t worth the risk”.

 

[kool_zero]

Yeah, I am in a neighborhood (the first house as you enter), and my wife wants them all attached to the soffits. I have 7 currently, and am going to see what I can do picture wise. I will probably be purchasing several more in the near future.

 

[looney2ns]

 

[kool_zero]

Well, it is blatantly obvious, but it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. I'm just still not sure about attempting that look all around the house haha.

 

[GCoco]

I’m sure your wife would love it. I recommend that you hold it up there and ask her before getting the drill out.

 

[kool_zero]

I’m sure your wife would love it. I recommend that you hold it up there and ask her before getting the drill out.

It was a no from her. So higher we go.

 

[guykuo]

Letting her determine optimal camera position... sure if she knows how to optimize function.

Reminds me of something my wife shared with me.

See all those guys that are so happy they go approval for their man cave?
They think they won, but don't realize they gave up the other 90% of the house.
​

You don't have to leave the camera body all white. Paint them to blend in.

 

[J Sigmo]

She might appreciate being able to see who's at the door. See what she thinks when you put it that way.

Being able to see who's at the door before she bothers to answer it is the one prime reason my wife wanted a security camera system.

 

[mat200]

It was a no from her. So higher we go.

Hi @kool_zero

I highly recommend not deciding on any locations / positions for the cameras until you've had a chance to properly test them.

Often people who are unaware think "just install them high in the soffits" as they look ok there are not mindful of what they are really deciding on.

1st - agree with your Wife what the purpose of the security cameras are for.

For me, one of the purposes is to potentially ID any suspect as well as awareness.

IF your wife agrees that is important - IDing a suspect, then test your locations with a camera - both during the day and night time. Have a friend play prowler with a hoodie and baseball cap - have them not look up at the cameras - but just do normal prowling. Don't tell your wife who it is... ask her to review the footage with you and ask her to ID the person. ( hopefully someone who is average height / weight so she doesn't guess based on non-facial info. )

 

[Ubiware]

I ended up at 8ft with my cameras. Initially, I wanted to go higher, but it just made a lot more functional sense at 8ft.

 

[bababouy]

If you don't want to drill holes in the brick, you can come out of the soffit with a conduit and drop down to a usable height, then mount the camera to a junction box. In the case of the picture above, I would recommend coming out of the soffit on the side of the house, then dropping down and mounting the junction box on the side where it meets the front of the house. This way you don't have anything on the front brickwork. Here is a pic of the side of my house and the pipe work. My roof is concrete so I had to stay underneath the over hang and drop down to 8ft with pipe. These are Dahua 3mp verifocal bullets.

 

[tangent]

Well, it is blatantly obvious, but it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. I'm just still not sure about attempting that look all around the house haha.

You don't have to have all of your cameras low and in your face, but it can be very helpful to have at least a couple that are lower.

I've been meaning to make a better graphic for this, but here's what I made in mspaint in a couple minutes:



The higher the camera, the farther away it needs to look to get a useful image. As a result you need to zoom in a lot and have a much narrower field of view. If you aren't using a varifocal camera this likely means a 6-12mm lens. When you put your cameras too high you can easily end up with bald spot camera or worse a crotch camera.

People often make the mistake of mounting cameras too high and with too wide of a field of view. I'd rather have video that can identify someone.
Around the garage and front door are two locations lower cameras are especially helpful.

My suggestion would be to experiment with camera locations and height, mounting the camera to a 2x4 in a bucket of rocks. Put on a hoodie and baseball cap and walk around at night. Involve your wife in the process so you can come to the realization that lower cameras are far more useful together.

 

[guykuo]

If you select a turret style camera rather than a bullet, the majority of people don't even recognize it as a camera. Initially, feared it would be too distracting a sight, but the recorded reaction of 80% people don't even realize it is a camera.

Our front entrance soffit is two stories up. An eye level camera in corridor configuration captures the entire entrance area. The recessed entry configuration also forces people into good camera position even before they can realize there is a camera.