How do these camera locations look? (diagram attached)

Mr_D

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I've been lurking and researching for a while. I've tentatively settled on the ever-popular Dahua 5231R-Z 2MP starlight turrets. I've been playing with calculator.ipvm.com and a scale drawing of the house I already had in Google SketchUp. The colored lines represent potential camera locations and FOVs with the arcs being 50 ppf. (I used a protractor to measure the angles and look up the 50 ppf point on ipvm.com)

The cameras are numbered for discussion purposes. The red dots on the front of the house are alternate locations for cameras 2 and 3, having them aimed toward each other, rather than opposite directions. Thoughts?

Camera's 1 and 5 would be in corridor orientation to capture anyone coming up the sides of the house. The right side of the house has a chimney flanked by two tall & skinny windows. I'm not sure what to do with the area behind camera 5. The chimney partially blocks the view of the gate from a camera located anywhere behind it. Option 1 is to put another camera at the back corner aimed forward which would get a good view of anyone messing with the window behind the chimney. Option 2 is to put another camera on the opposite side of the chimney from camera 5, aimed backward.

The house has a 6' block wall surrounding the back and sides. The wall on the right (with the gate) is 10' from the house. The neighbor's house looks to be a bit closer to their side of the wall. The left-side wall is 7' from the house. Both neighbors' houses have bedroom windows facing my house, so the cameras will need to be aimed and zoomed to avoid those.

The back yard has no structures or storage sheds, but does back to a major street. The covered patio has a door, a window, and a sliding glass door.

The front door sits back in a mostly-uncovered atrium, for lack of a better word. The attached picture is an ultra-wide shot from just above the door. I plan on zooming the camera in on the arch to capture as little stucco and sky as possible.

The house has 8' ceilings and an attic throughout. So for most locations, I could mount just above that level and access the attic directly. I'm trying to avoid externally visible wires or conduits if at all possible.Camera-layout.jpg front door.jpg
 

mat200

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Looks good Mr D,

I would recommend the following, placing the camera by the front door lower - OR better adding another camera by the front door at about 5 feet high to the right of the front door in the right corner. ( I like the mini-dome wedge w/2.8mm lens for this )

Also after watching many videos on thieves targeting cars I would look at adding another camera by the garage ( so you would have one camera on each side ) and zoom it in so that you can get better image captures of anyone driving in front of your house, parking and then thieving.

It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some notes with you

Please check out @giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

I have also made notes which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!

Have fun joining us here.
 

Mr_D

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Thanks for the links. I'm still deciding on a recording solution so that'll help.

We park in the garage 99% of the time so that's not a concern, although if that changes I would likely add another camera to the other side of the garage.

I have a Ring doorbell to the right of the front door so there is already some video from a lower vantage point, albeit highly compressed. I could mount a camera to the left of the door. There's a closet behind that wall that I could drill into, then run a wire up into the attic. I really don't want wires or conduit all over the outside of the house and I'd like to avoid cutting/patching/painting drywall. The only issue with a camera to the left of the door is that it would be facing a wall and not be able to see out as far through the arch.
 

mat200

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Thanks for the links. I'm still deciding on a recording solution so that'll help.

We park in the garage 99% of the time so that's not a concern, although if that changes I would likely add another camera to the other side of the garage.

I have a Ring doorbell to the right of the front door so there is already some video from a lower vantage point, albeit highly compressed. I could mount a camera to the left of the door. There's a closet behind that wall that I could drill into, then run a wire up into the attic. I really don't want wires or conduit all over the outside of the house and I'd like to avoid cutting/patching/painting drywall. The only issue with a camera to the left of the door is that it would be facing a wall and not be able to see out as far through the arch.
Hi Mr_D,

If you plan to keep the house, it is not a bad idea to find the optimal spot covering the front door area. I know it maybe a pita to wire it up, however with some patience it can be very rewarding in the longer run.
( i.e. do not be scared of some drywall work, with some careful thought, planning, and the proper tools you can minimize this )

Great that you do park in the garage, that helps. Still coverage of the street can be useful to help ID suspect's cars - so I would still recommend doing that.
 

PatPend

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As a general rule try to have cameras "chase" each other such that each cam is in view of another, to create overlapping coverage. Not always possible but something to consider.

Also, where possible avoid aiming your cameras in a southerly direction towards the sun (northerly if you're in the southern hemisphere). If you must aim towards the sunny side, keep the sky out of the frame and use a bullet cam with a hood, or place back under an eve.
 

Mr_D

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OK, I've made some revisions based on feedback. I flipped the two cameras on the front of the house so that they chase each other around each side of the house until they meet in the front.

I took a test shot with a 35mm lens (equivalent FOV to a 6mm on the Dahua mini-wedge) at about chest height from the left side of the front door.

Luckily, the house faces north and has eaves all around so the sun's impact should be minimal.

Camera-layout2.jpg 20171126-001.jpg
 

mat200

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OK, I've made some revisions based on feedback. I flipped the two cameras on the front of the house so that they chase each other around each side of the house until they meet in the front.

I took a test shot with a 35mm lens (equivalent FOV to a 6mm on the Dahua mini-wedge) at about chest height from the left side of the front door.

Luckily, the house faces north and has eaves all around so the sun's impact should be minimal.

View attachment 23958 View attachment 23959
Looks good!
 
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