Front Door Camera Placement Question

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It can be difficult to decide on what cameras to place where and what lens to choose. Each camera placement has a job. Some are overview, some are LPR, some are meant to ID the face of a perp at choke points on your property, like the front door or driveway.

In choosing a camera, most folks here would prefer to use a varifocal camera. That way you set it exactly the way you want it and leave it. No guessing on which lens to get. But sometimes the camera that one desires only come in a fixed lens. So then you have to do your best.

The way I approached this when I was starting out was to buy just one camera and set it on a test rig (see cliff notes for test rig), move it around and see what the view was. This helped me design my setup. I got a lot of insight by reading reviews, comments, and helpful critique by folks like @bigredfish @SouthernYankee and @looney2ns (and others).

So if there is no varifocal camera that you are interested in, and you are partial to the 3.8mm, buy one to start out and put it on a test rig and try it out. You may find it is perfect for your driveway, or you may decide that he 6mm would be better. If there is a varifocal camera you are interested in, buy that and use it to determine what fixed lens options will work in different spots.

Realize that what most of us want is to be able to know who did something, not just what happened. To ID a face, you need it to be a good size in your image (# pixels). Her is a snapshot of a door checker in my driveway taken with a 2MP varifocal set at about 7mm. This was posted on the police FB page and the guy was ID'ed and arrested.

4-15-2020 4-13-02am.jpg

Until you get your feet wet, I would not buy a bunch of cameras to start out.
 
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