Help with suggestions on camera for entrance

Sybertiger

Sybertiger

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Jun 30, 2018
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Orlando
As you can see below, my front door/entrance is atypical of a lot of homes. Most homes are built with the doorbell next to the door facing the walkway. The way my house is designed there isn't sufficient room for a doorbell and therefore it's on the right side. One would assume a security camera next to or above the door would provide the best view of incoming visitors.

Wondering if any of you have a similar situation and wanted to see what you did or perhaps you have some suggestions for a typical style of camera. Seems like most of the doorbell cameras would not be a good fit for my house. I also have the desire to see packages at the door and perhaps literature left on or below the door. I was thinking about maybe a dual camera setup like Dahau IPC-HDBW4231F-E2-M. Not thrilled about domes because of possible nighttime glare but that's a tradeoff and I have turret cams around other places in front of the house.

You can see I have an old Nutone intercom doorbell which isn't worth a chit...doorbell works great but intercom sux. It's run off of standard doorbell type wiring and is powered by a typical doorbell transformer. Replacing it with an IP cam doorbell would have the camera pointing the wrong way.

The walls on this house are standard Florida CMU concrete block so it's no picnic running wire to the middle of the wall. Likely, you have to rip into the drywall on the interior side to run wire then patch it back up and paint.

So, what's a good camera and/or doorbell or other setup for this situation?

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I would mount<
one camera in the door bell
another camera behind the pillar arch pointed at the door.
 
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SouthernYankee said:
I would mount<
one camera in the door bell
another camera behind the pillar arch pointed at the door.
Click to expand...


The good: a dedicated "package" cam not visible from the walkway or street.
The bad: only good for packages and a very severe angle from the top.

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looney2ns said:
The dual lens cam you mentioned would work well if you can get WAF approval.
Test all locations prior to permanent mounting with a 5gal bucket, 2x4 and rocks for ballast.

Or, the IPC-HDBW4231F-AS | Dahua MiniWedge is only 4.17" in dia. Would it fit in the space between the door trim and the corner?
In 2.8mm lens, and in corridor mode, you'd be surprised what it can see.
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Do you think the miniwedge at your proposed location would see the entire front porch area including up against the door?
The good news is "my house, my rules" although if the g/f doesn't like that then she has a condo down the road where she can make her rules....:headbang:
 
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One location to put the "boobie cam" would be on the ceiling of the porch behind the porch light that never gets turned on. Here are 4 different angles label A - D (pics taken with my cell phone at the ceiling up against the window above the door). For the Dual cam you'd have one pointing straight down to see packages and letters/solicitations. Unfortunately the ceiling is 12' 3" but the angles shown below seem to be workable. What do y'all think? I wonder what boobie cam would look like from the street...weird?

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Sybertiger said:
Do you think the miniwedge at your proposed location would see the entire front porch area including up against the door?
The good news is "my house, my rules" although if the g/f doesn't like that but then again she has a condo down the road where she can make the rules....:headbang:
Click to expand...

Hi @Sybertiger

I really like the mini-dome wedge at face level next to the front door.
 
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mat200 said:
Hi @Sybertiger

I really like the mini-dome wedge at face level next to the front door.
Click to expand...

@mat200 You have one, do you think it would see his entire front area he's concerned with? I think it'd be darn close.

Anything mounted higher than 8ft, will really struggle to get a face id.
Most people will never notice the boobie cam standing right next to it, let alone from the street.
 
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looney2ns said:
@mat200 You have one, do you think it would see his entire front area he's concerned with? I think it'd be darn close.

Anything mounted higher than 8ft, will really struggle to get a face id.
Most people will never notice the boobie cam standing right next to it, let alone from the street.
Click to expand...

Hi @looney2ns

At face level you will not see the bottom foot area of the door with just one lens, thus why the dual lens model you reviewed is superior as one can be pointed straight on to capture a facial image, and the other lens down to capture any package drop.

Another option is to have the one higher camera to look down, and the 1 lens mini-dome wedge at face level.

Either way - I think 2 cameras or the 2 lens camera is the way to go to cover the front door as it is such an important location.

For me it is very critical to get a good facial ID of anyone walking up to the front door, and the only way to really do that is at eye level due to people who like to wear caps and hoodies.
 
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Yup, from the street it's highly unlikely you'd notice boobie cam anywhere around the front porch. It's smaller than the porch light on the ceiling above the door.

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Any chance some of y'all with the mini-wedge cam mounted at the front door can post a picture of your camera so we can see where it is mounted and how it angled?
 
Sybertiger said:
Any chance some of y'all with the mini-wedge cam mounted at the front door can post a picture of your camera so we can see where it is mounted and how it angled?
Click to expand...

Hi @Sybertiger

I have mine at 5-5.5 feet high adjacent to the door frame.
 
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