Hello, new member from Washington St.

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Hello, there is so much confusing and useless information on the internet - happy to have found this forum.

A little background...
First started out because I broke both legs and was house bound. I really wanted to be able to see what was going on outside, so I got three cheap (Wansview) wireless cameras; I configured them and then had my brother mount them. I have a fairly solid wireless network - multiple access points and no competing wireless networks. Still, I was concerned about using wireless ip cameras. Happily, the (low bitrate) wireless cameras actually stream pretty good, and although there were quite a few drop outs, at least I had a little view of the outside world. I had a Synology DS that was used as a back-up media server, so I ended up using Synology Surveillance Station to monitor the cameras. Mostly these cameras just track the comings and goings of wildlife, or the occasional stray farm animal - aha, it was the neighbors horse that trampled through garden in the middle of the night.

Anyways, now that I can hobble around on my own, I'm trying to create a better setup. I've learned that using the internal IR LED's is a problem - besides spiders and insects, fog and/or high humidity causes terrible reflection issues. That makes using motion detection pretty much impossible. I am adding external IR illuminators to my setup and disabling the onboard IR. Getting away from the wireless and going to PoE. I tried a Foscam PoE cam and while it works fine, I can't disable the internal IR without disabling night mode. I have a Hikvision turret camera which is working pretty good. After finding this forum I've decided to try something by Dahua. I've just orderd one of the Starlight cameras from EmpireTech. Looking forward to getting that one up and running...

Anyways, glad to have this forum as a resource - I've already read the Cliff Notes, and Resource Guide(s).

Jim...
 

awsum140

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Built-in IR works fine with a turret style camera. If you're looking to provide some "deterrence", bullet style is fine, but the turrets actually have a lower profile, are harder to notice and easier to hide if you're trying for a "concealed" system. Above all, stay away from dome cameras for outdoor use. The dome reflects into the lens and tends to cloud/fog as it ages. If they're mounted away from direct sunlight, they can work, but even then the domes tend to cloud over time.
 
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