IPC-T5442TM-AS - what focal lenght is recommended, 2.8mm or 3.6mm?

[final]

Hi All.

I am new here as an active user (have been reading for some time).

Andy recommended me the IPC-T5442TM-AS camera, but I am not sure about the lens.
I have to monitor my porch - the door and the window, and the mounting position might not be optimal but it is basically the only option (see attached picture).
Should i go for 2.8 or 3.6mm?

Also, will person detection work with the Synology Surveillance Station? I want to get an notification email with a still image when someone is on my porch.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers

 

[Grierts]

Fellow newb here so take this with a grain of salt.

But if I am not mistaken the 2.8mm is going to offer a wider field of view . Meaning you will see more in the frame/shot/video. This could be good if you want to cover a wider area ( porch door window) the issues with a wider field of view , is that the detail in the shots suffer.

So if you want a better chance to ID a specific person you should go with the 3.6mm. lesser field of view, but the details will be more fine and identifiable.

Please some adult correct me if I am wrong.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Something else to consider, the 2.8 version of the 5442 cam has a wider field of view than a 5231-ze zoomed all the way out.

I think I saw a post here a while ago from somebody who posted pics of the field of view but I’ll be damned if I can that post now.

 

[mudflap5]

Maybe this will help....

Angle of View 2.8mm : Horizontal : 113°, Vertical: 60°

Angle of View 3.6mm : Horizontal : 89°, Vertical: 48°

 

[mudflap5]

• Lens ---------- Detect ---------- Observe ---------- Recognize ---------- Identify
• 2.8mm ------- 58m(190ft) ---- 23m(75ft) -------- 12m(39ft) ---------- 6m(20ft)
• 3.6mm ------- 72m(236ft) ---- 29m(95ft) -------- 14m(46ft) ---------- 7m(23ft)

 

[samplenhold]

While I do not have the 3.6mm version, below are caps from the 2.8mm and the 6mm versions of that cam. These shots are taken from the same position. See the test rig shot.



To get an idea of the distances and FOV, here is a shot from the street. The 6mm is on the left.

 

[Holbs]

If your concern is to identify faces, accurate motion detection, keep eye on front door visitors then 2.8mm will suffice in the 0--25' range.
If you wanted to do the same further away (to include driveway, for example) while sacrificing a narrower field of view, 3.6mm lens is what you want.
One thing I have learned, varifocals are super nice because that 1 camera position works for you today at 2.8mm but you may move it somewhere else later on and then may need 8mm.

 

[final]

Hi,

thanks to all for your answers!

I am aware of the relation of focal length and angle of view.
I am just unsure if either one or the other is better suited to my special situation (see the picture I attached).
The distances are (to my feeling) quite short. The camera would be under the roof looking partly down, but must be tilted more or less parallel to the wall with the door - and maybe 3.6mm will then not cover the window and the left side of the porch where people would enter. (all directions are given from the camera point of view)
But also I would want to avoid to much fish-eye effect. If thats not much of an issue, I feel 2.8 should do the job better in terms of covered area.
I do not need to identify faces. Just want to trigger a detection event to get a message to my phone that someone walks around in my garden.

 

[ncpilot]

I'm just starting out, relatively speaking, although I've spent hours (days?) scouring this forum for info.

Try using IPVM Camera Calculator V3 and check the blind spot box, there's quite a bit of unseeable area below a cam, even aimed down to the max. The website is really useful to see the differences and overlap in coverage of multiple cams...

I just received 6 cams (direct from Andy!), 4 of which will be the front of the house, one will aim back towards the house, the others looking out. You should consider that one cam is not enough... sigh, as others on the forum are more than happy to warn, the cams will multiply...

 

[sebastiantombs]

The three basic rules of video surveillance cameras-

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

 

[final]

@ncpilot - I tried, but Its not helping much a I cannot zoom in on the map as far as I would need to.

Anyway, I will just try out the 2.8mm for maximum FOV.
During the delivery time I will have to set up my NAS and get the LAN cable in place. Hopefully the setup will not take too long.
I think I might have a few questions then

 

[ncpilot]

Ah, Germany, your privacy rules probably prevent the nice close up aerial views we have in the US, I can clearly see my car in driveway when I zoomed in...

 

[IAmATeaf]

If the rectangle is your front/rear door then as pointed out you will have a blind spot under the camera which is where the door is.

 

[final]

If the rectangle is your front/rear door then as pointed out you will have a blind spot under the camera which is where the door is.

I am not sure why this should be so.
The rectangle is the back door. The cam is appr. 50cm to the right of the door and maybe 20cm out over the porch. The camera would be mounted upside down under the roof overhang (whatever the name of this is), pointing roughly in the direction of the window. Also I can tilt the cam - why should I not be able to see my door?

@ncpilot
living in a village, so no need for google to take high-res pictures I guess

 

[nowandthen]

Holbs eluded to the answer. Get a varifocal. Not much more money than a fixed lens. You can adjust the varifocal based on the area you want to see. Then, if you need/want, you can move it to another location and be able to adjust the field of view for that location. Why not get this?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C77TNY9/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A329YQ83EBQGJF&psc=1

This is from Andy's store on Amazon. You may save a few dollars by ordering directly from Andy via Ali-Express.

Edit: Just noticed you are in Germany. I'm guessing you can see the Amazon link I posted, if for some reason you cannot, the varifocal model number and description from Andy's Amazon posting is:
EmpireTech IPC-T5442T-ZE White 4MP IR Vari-Focal Eyeball Starlight Network Camera English Version

Focal Length ：2.7 mm-12 mm

When buying turrets in the future (called an eyeball in Andy's posting), I will never buy a fixed lens again. I will always buy the varifocal.

 

[final]

Hi,
thanks for your input. As Andy recommended the fixed focus one, the VF somehow never occured to me. Will keep this in mind next time.
BTW - amazon wants appr. 50$ import fee, so I would end up with quite some additional costs. Buying directly via Andy is the better option here.

As for the blind spot - I will post an update when the cam has arrived and is set up.

 

[final]

Hey to all.

I was - with no success - trying to connect to my camera.
Here is how I tried: I took my trusty old netbook with linux mint installed, connected the netbook via LAN cable to the POE switch, changed the IP manually into the 192.168.1.x range, and tried to connect to the cam via 192.168.1.108 with Firefox and Chromium.
But the camera was not found.

Any ideas? The setup is as follows: CAM ------ POE switch ------- Netbook
The indicators at the switch are all green.
Maybe Linux is not working?

 

[Holbs]

wait. changed IP manually to the 192.168.1.x range? does that mean you set it to DHCP?
if I manually set a IP camera to 192.168.1.198, I fully expect to not only PING that IP but also to connect to it.
if I manually set a IP camera to 192.168.1.x DHCP range, it could be variably 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255.

 

[final]

No, sorry for the confusion.
My home network has a different IP range. So I changed the IP address of the netbook to the range of the camera. For netmask I put 255.255.255.255 and i skipped the gateway as there is none with this small setup of just the cam, switch and netbook.

 

[Holbs]

oh gotcha. should be able to get into it. Can you PING .108? I am never quite sure about subnet mask numbers. I just go with the standard 255.255.255.0. Can skip the gateway since directly connecting to switch with no router.