I came, I read, I'm lost...

samplenhold said:
Don't try and buy the whole system at one time. Get that 5442 varifocal and use a test rig as described in the Cliff Notes to test specific placements. Do not run wires or mount the cam until you have tested the exact position, day and night, with a person walking around in the cam view.

Put some LED bulbs in your driveway and front porch lights and keep them on all night, use a timer. I use 5000k temperature 500 lumens bulb in the coach lights and 5000k 1750 lumens in the pot lights on my porch. Even if you can't get good enough lighting for color at night, the visible light will help with the IR picture.

If you have that view on your fence that you would really like to have, realize that you can mask the video. See my still below. I did not want my cam pointing into my back neighbor's pool. You would not see much, but it just seems creepy to me to record that.

View attachment 83358

@wittaj has given you some good info on sensor size. Here is a little more. It is not that a 4MP cam is 'better' than an 4K cam per se. Low light performance is based on how much light gets to each pixel. So if a cam has a 1/1.8" sensor (0.555 inches), each pixel would get much more light to it if there were only 4MP spread across it than 8MP from a 4K cam. Of course other things are at play here, like shutter speed, aperture setting, and the lens used. But most 4K cams in the prosumer lines are on 1/2.8" (0.357 inches) or smaller sensors. So that 4K cam on one of those sensors will get even less light per pixel than the 4MP on 1/1.8" sensor. The wider the aperture, the more light gets in but the depth of field is less so focus becomes an issue. To get more light to the sensor, the shutter can be slowed down, but that will impart motion blur. You can up the gain, but that imparts noise. It is no different than sports photography. There are trade offs that need to be made. So getting a big sensor and less pixels is the easiest way to maximize the light to each pixel without imparting negative issues.

There is nothing wrong with having a wide angle cam, one that we call an overview cam, provided that you realize it is just that, an overview cam. It will not give you any facial info but can supply other data like clothing color, markings and logos, vehicle info, perp direction of travel, etc.
Click to expand...
I think one overview camera would be ideal. I didn’t know about the masking whil recording thank you. I’m going to watch for a computer on eBay and order up the one varifocal for the time being.
Thanks for all the great info everyone.
 
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Jhonyquest97 said:
Well I did learn a lot so it's not all that bad and maybe not lost but unsure.. I'm ditching the nest cloud based garbage and began the dive into a POE system. I live in a ranch house so fairly straight forward about 50 ft from the street. We have no street lights and no sidewalks. Our neighbors are about 50 feet between homes as well. On the right side of the house we have an entry gate but if i put a camera directly on it, it will also be filming right into my neighbors window so thats not really ideal. I could do a corner of the house as pictured or maybe on the outside corner of the fence itself facing our front yard? Picture of house is below (sorry about the weird panorama pic). I would just like some input on if this would be adequate or suggestions on what cameras may be better? I want to ID people plain and simple. We had someone light fireworks off in the front when we first moved in about 10 feet from the door and couldn't even see who it was.
From left to right,
Red - 8mp starlight lite varifocal turret
Blue - 4MP Extreme Low Light IP w/ LED - Turret (I wouldnt be using the flood light option, There's a light in front of the garage.)
Green - 4MP Starlight Turret IP Camera - 3.6mm (would 2.8mm be better for a front door?)
Blue - 4MP Extreme Low Light IP w/ LED - Turret

I will be running blue iris on a dell optiflex from ebay as suggested and cat6 throughout the house.

Thanks in advance, I know this is a redundant question but it's a big investment and i don't want to be wrong here.
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any future considerations of putting garage carriage lights on the left/right side of garage doors? I did that for my 2 car garage that only had a single flood light dead center above the door. I then put 2 cameras right under the carriage lights to cover the driveway. Just cause I had an extra camera, I put one dead center above door as well :)
You have trees out front, and bushes. If had spare $$$, I would consider a high over watch camera. Possibly a PTZ.
At 50', 2.8mm lens cameras (example: Dahua 5442 series) would be hard pressed to catch motion. As other's suggest, varifocal is the way to go as only couple dollars more than fixed lens.
For front door camera, I really like the Dahua VTO villa camera/intercom. Kinda like Ring but can be connected to Blue Iris for 100% local use. I still have to tinker with my setup as I received it but then a couple days later had serious security issues arise that delayed that tinkering. I installed it and set it up with basic functions. I like it so far.
Any consideration of running network cable (or 2..or 3) out to lamp post for a hidden birdhouse camera?
 
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Holbs said:
any future considerations of putting garage carriage lights on the left/right side of garage doors? I did that for my 2 car garage that only had a single flood light dead center above the door. I then put 2 cameras right under the carriage lights to cover the driveway. Just cause I had an extra camera, I put one dead center above door as well :)
You have trees out front, and bushes. If had spare $$$, I would consider a high over watch camera. Possibly a PTZ.
At 50', 2.8mm lens cameras (example: Dahua 5442 series) would be hard pressed to catch motion. As other's suggest, varifocal is the way to go as only couple dollars more than fixed lens.
For front door camera, I really like the Dahua VTO villa camera/intercom. Kinda like Ring but can be connected to Blue Iris for 100% local use. I still have to tinker with my setup as I received it but then a couple days later had serious security issues arise that delayed that tinkering. I installed it and set it up with basic functions. I like it so far.
Any consideration of running network cable (or 2..or 3) out to lamp post for a hidden birdhouse camera?
Click to expand...
Theres actually already a carriage light in between the garage doors but I have issues with the best cam not going to night vision with it on. Then the camera only sees as far as 10 feet or so.
I would LOVE to have a camera hidden at the street! Any suggestions? I will be re landscaping that area with the new driveway this summer so I’m open to anything.
 
The three basic rules of surveillance cameras -

Rule #1 - Cameras multiply like rabbits.
Rule #2 - Cameras are more addictive than drugs.
Rule #3 - You never have enough cameras.

Mailbox hide

Mailbox Hide Cam Swap, Lucky Fitment

The box had a 6mm bullet facing the house with a 6mm looking South and a 2.8 looking North. I decided I wanted to change the cam facing West (to the house) for two reasons: I want a wider FoV to monitor the full width of the lot and ALSO I want to have an audio source (mic) at the mailbox. I...
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Utility hide

Mailbox Camera

A few months ago I was taking out the trash and while walking down the driveway I noticed a car stopping at our mailbox, opening it and driving away. It was dark so I know it was not the rural mail carrier. We live in a rural area and have had occasions of missing mail in the past. We don't have...
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Plus there's a few threads showing bird house hides.
 
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Jhonyquest97 said:
Theres actually already a carriage light in between the garage doors but I have issues with the best cam not going to night vision with it on. Then the camera only sees as far as 10 feet or so.
I would LOVE to have a camera hidden at the street! Any suggestions? I will be re landscaping that area with the new driveway this summer so I’m open to anything.
Click to expand...

That is just an issue with settings at that point. A better camera can adjust settings that you probably cannot with the camera you have...

Here is great option someone did - made a landscaping light a camera!
1614205175066.png

In ground camera placement ideas

Looking for some camera options to install pointing left and right in the spot marked below. We originally wanted to install a fence and mount the cameras on the fence but decided not to build the fence so I have two CAT6 burial runs under the rocks. Would love to see some ideas of what people...
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Jhonyquest97 said:
Theres actually already a carriage light in between the garage doors but I have issues with the best cam not going to night vision with it on. Then the camera only sees as far as 10 feet or so.
I would LOVE to have a camera hidden at the street! Any suggestions? I will be re landscaping that area with the new driveway this summer so I’m open to anything.
Click to expand...

So I roughly have installed a 5442 6mm birdhouse camera on lamp post 50' from my front door....with tire slashing incursion discussion

Broke the roof a little, will fix later. Gotta add some green leaves or fake ivy as well. But for now, it is working. 6' height aimed right down the street where it is the only entrance (it's slightly crooked for time being). It's primary purpose is to catch faces as folks walk towards my...
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first couple of posts to see what I did for my lamp post single camera in birdhouse. I would much prefer to make my own but my wood working shop is jammed to either side of garage to store my work vehicle during my security crisis. But it works :) I have additional garland and other fake vines to put on post soon. Also, I have a LPR camera to put on post which I have a metal mailbox to modify for it.
This forum post mentioned above also talks about the wiring out to the post.
 
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