bigredfish
Known around here
They are the largest security camera manufacturer in the world.
Generally speaking yes, though I don’t use their equipment.
For various reasons over the years, mostly due to supply, Dahua (ranked the #2 largest) has become the most popular manufacturer here on this forum.
There are many similarities between them.
Without going down a list part by part I’d say it’s mostly a Ford vs Chevy thing
Generally speaking yes, though I don’t use their equipment.
For various reasons over the years, mostly due to supply, Dahua (ranked the #2 largest) has become the most popular manufacturer here on this forum.
There are many similarities between them.
Without going down a list part by part I’d say it’s mostly a Ford vs Chevy thing
bigredfish
Known around here
LOL, I don’t have that much free time today.
An NVR with good bandwidth capacity. Typically look at a 16 ch for home use. They’re not much more than 8ch and cameras tend to multiply like rabbits. I have 12 cameras at my little 1200sq ft box at the swamp.
Cameras should be considered scene specific. Don’t get talked into one size fits all. Some scenes need wide Overview, some need longer focus on choke points for facial ID or license plates.
For example:
You need a fairly tight 3.6mm for your entry doorway but it won’t be worth crap to ID stuff on the street
You need a longer lens, varifocal for choke points at the edge of your property where it’s most likely for bad guys to enter
You need a specialized camera for license plates and a placement conducive to seeing plates at the right angle and distance.
Most like a dedicated Overview camera with wide coverage to help provide context to the highly focused choke point cameras. You need both.
Best is to show a aerial view of your house so people can point out specific recommendations for the various locations and take into account angles and obstructions
An NVR with good bandwidth capacity. Typically look at a 16 ch for home use. They’re not much more than 8ch and cameras tend to multiply like rabbits. I have 12 cameras at my little 1200sq ft box at the swamp.
Cameras should be considered scene specific. Don’t get talked into one size fits all. Some scenes need wide Overview, some need longer focus on choke points for facial ID or license plates.
For example:
You need a fairly tight 3.6mm for your entry doorway but it won’t be worth crap to ID stuff on the street
You need a longer lens, varifocal for choke points at the edge of your property where it’s most likely for bad guys to enter
You need a specialized camera for license plates and a placement conducive to seeing plates at the right angle and distance.
Most like a dedicated Overview camera with wide coverage to help provide context to the highly focused choke point cameras. You need both.
Best is to show a aerial view of your house so people can point out specific recommendations for the various locations and take into account angles and obstructions
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You need a specialized camera for license plates and an installation location that is appropriate to seeing plates at the right angle and distance.
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update: so I got the models the installer gave me a quote for. the camera is the Hikvision IPC-T260HA-LUF/SL and he would providing 3 cameras. the NVR is the 4 channel version of Hikvision NVR-108MH-C/8P. What do you think of this combination? looking at the specs, I will not be getting 4k videos with this. to get a 4k video, the camera would need an 8.3mp sensor. this camera has 6mp sensor. the NVR says if it recording 3 video feeds, it will record at an equivalent of 4mp. the other question I have (among many) is that if all the cameras are plugged into this NVR and I have the NVR plugged into my router, will I be able to view the videos using my Windows 10/11 computer? I don't want to rely on using a phone or ipad to view these videos.
can you give me a model number of a hikvision camera that does this? the installer would be putting a camera at the front entrance and a camera above the garage. so would this camera be the one to put above the garage? if so, would it show anything else? I would want this camera to see pretty much everything. I don't want to put too many cameras.
You need to slow down. I would wait on committing to any cameras until you do more research and you need to read.
You either need a camera that works for your install location, or an install location that works for your camera.
Where are you wanting to capture license plates? In your driveway? On the street?
You also need to read BigRed's post again.
The mentality a lot of people have is they want to see everything, but when it comes time to use their capture as evidence, they lack the detail. It also doesn't help that most Box and Cloud systems will come with 2.8mm cameras and only exacerbate the problem.
One camera cannot do it all. Several incorrectly spec'd cameras isn't the solution either. 2.8mm isn’t always the answer, but neither is 32mm.
You cannot see everything and still see details. Getting good details does not allow you to see everything; it is a give and take.
This is why a good system will have cameras that complement each other, and work well in low light. This is also why a PTZ is a complement to a good, already established system and should not be heavily relied on by itself.
When planning your system and layout start by focusing on choke points and set up fields of view to capture details and give the ability to ID. This means all this camera will be able to do/see is the very narrow scope of its job. You can then deploy a more general overview cam to give context to the details. This overview cam can support one or more of your choke point ID cams. Most people tend to start with 1-3 FOVs at/around their front door.
For instance, as an extreme example. I am deploying this camera. It's only job is to see people walking down the path behind my house. This is what I see 99% of the time when I look at the feed.
However, this is what I see when someone walks down the path, 95' feet away.
I then have these two cameras I can use to get a better idea/context of what they were doing and where they may have come from or gone to. The kill zone is between the green lines and the camera is on the fence at the bottom, center of the picture. You can see someone just entering the KZ and the 3.6mm focal length of this cam gives absolutely no details other than it might be a person.
This is the person in the above wide angle shot, and there is no way you would have been able to tell it was a male, in a red, flannel shirt, with sunglasses, and a receding hairline.
You should look at your system as an investment. Let's say the whole thing has cost me $5000. That is a lot of money, but I now have a higher chance of catching the vandals, thieves, stranger dangerers, etc that come around my house and, because of this, have a greater chance of recovering my loss. If I had not made the investment I would likely be out my loss PLUS adding on the cost of the system for the next time it might happen. We get posts all of the time with people reacting to a loss Stolen Lawn Equipment and Tools
Buy once, cry once, and get experience and knowledge along the way.
I have learned a lot since joining and try to pay it forward when possible. This is a post I put together with images from my journey showing the differences between focal lengths, install heights, changing fields of view, etc.
ipcamtalk.com
I also have cameras to capture license plates. This is what they see pretty much all of the time, unless a car drives down the road and the plate is captured. I don't even have them on my monitor because their FOV is useless for anything else but plate captures.
You either need a camera that works for your install location, or an install location that works for your camera.
Where are you wanting to capture license plates? In your driveway? On the street?
You also need to read BigRed's post again.
The mentality a lot of people have is they want to see everything, but when it comes time to use their capture as evidence, they lack the detail. It also doesn't help that most Box and Cloud systems will come with 2.8mm cameras and only exacerbate the problem.
One camera cannot do it all. Several incorrectly spec'd cameras isn't the solution either. 2.8mm isn’t always the answer, but neither is 32mm.
You cannot see everything and still see details. Getting good details does not allow you to see everything; it is a give and take.
This is why a good system will have cameras that complement each other, and work well in low light. This is also why a PTZ is a complement to a good, already established system and should not be heavily relied on by itself.
When planning your system and layout start by focusing on choke points and set up fields of view to capture details and give the ability to ID. This means all this camera will be able to do/see is the very narrow scope of its job. You can then deploy a more general overview cam to give context to the details. This overview cam can support one or more of your choke point ID cams. Most people tend to start with 1-3 FOVs at/around their front door.
For instance, as an extreme example. I am deploying this camera. It's only job is to see people walking down the path behind my house. This is what I see 99% of the time when I look at the feed.
However, this is what I see when someone walks down the path, 95' feet away.
I then have these two cameras I can use to get a better idea/context of what they were doing and where they may have come from or gone to. The kill zone is between the green lines and the camera is on the fence at the bottom, center of the picture. You can see someone just entering the KZ and the 3.6mm focal length of this cam gives absolutely no details other than it might be a person.
This is the person in the above wide angle shot, and there is no way you would have been able to tell it was a male, in a red, flannel shirt, with sunglasses, and a receding hairline.
You should look at your system as an investment. Let's say the whole thing has cost me $5000. That is a lot of money, but I now have a higher chance of catching the vandals, thieves, stranger dangerers, etc that come around my house and, because of this, have a greater chance of recovering my loss. If I had not made the investment I would likely be out my loss PLUS adding on the cost of the system for the next time it might happen. We get posts all of the time with people reacting to a loss Stolen Lawn Equipment and Tools
Buy once, cry once, and get experience and knowledge along the way.
I have learned a lot since joining and try to pay it forward when possible. This is a post I put together with images from my journey showing the differences between focal lengths, install heights, changing fields of view, etc.
"I want 2.8mm cameras everywhere to see everything..." - This is why you need specific FOVs with purposeful focal lengths.
I am treating this as a living document and will update it with new captures, information, etc from time to time since the journey and knowledge gained never ends. Even though it was originally posted in May of 2023, it is still very much relevant. I have gained a lot of knowledge since I...
I also have cameras to capture license plates. This is what they see pretty much all of the time, unless a car drives down the road and the plate is captured. I don't even have them on my monitor because their FOV is useless for anything else but plate captures.
thanks for the in depth post. but I don't really have the time to do all the research. But I do get and agree with capturing license plates and other useful information. my home is pretty standard. if anyone comes to the house, they would be coming from the front. right now we want two cameras at the front of the house, one at the entrance and one above the garage. I don't think my wife will want more than that. but I think its a good idea to have 3 cameras in the front. one at the entrance to capture someone coming to the door, one on the left edge of my house pointing diagonal to capture a car coming from the left and a camera on the right edge of the house pointing diagonal to capture a car coming from the right. but these two cameras can't just capture license plates. I need them capture more. the feed from those two cameras should also capture people walking onto the property as well, from the left and the right. I know there is no one focal length that would accomplish this, but what focal length would give me the best results?
What your installer is offering/suggesting is not what anyone will recommend here.
They don't meet the ideally MP/sensor ratio for good optics at night and will only serve as overview cameras.
As others gave said, if you want to read plates you will need to dedicate a camera to just that duty.
Buy once, cry once.
They don't meet the ideally MP/sensor ratio for good optics at night and will only serve as overview cameras.
As others gave said, if you want to read plates you will need to dedicate a camera to just that duty.
Buy once, cry once.
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 16,550
- 27,821
Welcome @jvpix.com ..
DVR, I would recommend going IP PoE with a NVR instead.
If DVR vs NVR is new to you, do take sometime to learn more before you spend too much.
Best at this time is to get ONE good varifocal 4MP IP PoE camera, a good quality cat5e/6 cable, a small PoE switch and setup a test rig and start learning.
Here's the models you've mentioned.
( note the highlighted specs I have posted )
NVR-108MH-C
NEW8-ch 1U 4K NVR
- Up to 8-ch IP camera inputs
- H.265+/H.265/H.264+/H.264 video formats
- Up to 1-ch@8 MP/3-ch@4 MP/6-ch@1080p decoding capacity
- Up to 80 Mbps incoming bandwidth
IPC-T260HA-LUF/SL
6 MP Smart Hybrid Light MD 2.0 Fixed Turret Network Camera
- High quality imaging with 6 MP resolution
- Support Human and Vehicle Detection
- Smart Hybrid Light: advanced technology with long range
- Efficient H.265+ compression technology
- Support on-board storage up to 512 GB (SD card slot)
- Provide real-time security via built-in two-way audio
- Water and dust resistant (IP67)
Q: "can you give me a model number of a hikvision camera that does this? the installer would be putting a camera at the front entrance and a camera above the garage. so would this camera be the one to put above the garage? .. I would want this camera to see pretty much everything. I don't want to put too many cameras."
A: DS-2SF8C848MXG1-EL(W)(Y)/26
TandemVu 8C Series Panoramic 8 MP 48X DarkFighter Network Speed Dome
Just a couple of these and you're covered, meets the specs of not too many cameras and functionally will give what you want in terms of coverage imho.
So, based on what you've posted the question I have is
What are your requirements ?
What do you functionally want to accomplish ?
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mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 16,550
- 27,821
Q: "thanks for the in depth post. but I don't really have the time to do all the research."
A: Your ( and I assume wife's ) expectations and assumptions exceed the capabilities of what is available today.
You can take the time to learn what to get, or buy a setup today and learn tomorrow and replace what you bought the first few times around.
It's OK, to buy "learner" products, we've all done that. I have a box of junk cameras which I learned a lot on.
( Hikvision is a decent brand, they make a ton of models - some better than others, so I would not call these models junk - but still imho a learner set. )
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