Is an upgrade worth it?

[Coal_Cracker]

I was thinking of upgrading my varifocal 5442EP ZE's to prime fixed focal length. Would there be a worthwhile investment here? I was also wondering how to know exactly what focal length I have my camera set to. When I log into the camera via the IP address and go into zoom and focus it just has a number eg. 920 for the two cams covering the vehicles.

At the same time I was wanting to add an overview camera (4K B180 cams) for off of the porch to cover the sidewalk and street, and possibly putting a tighter focus to the driveway cameras to get a closer zoom on the vehicles and focus less on the sidewalk and street. The third picture is off the side of the garage I'd probably just leave that alone. I have one other boobie cam I have to install on the porch to cover the the front door

What do you think?

 

[looney2ns]

I was thinking of upgrading my varifocal 5442EP ZE's to prime fixed focal length. Would there be a worthwhile investment here? I was also wondering how to know exactly what focal length I have my camera set to. When I log into the camera via the IP address and go into zoom and focus it just has a number eg. 920 for the two cams covering the vehicles.

At the same time I was wanting to add an overview camera (4K B180 cams) for off of the porch to cover the sidewalk and street, and possibly putting a tighter focus to the driveway cameras to get a closer zoom on the vehicles and focus less on the sidewalk and street. The third picture is off the side of the garage I'd probably just leave that alone. I have one other boobie cam I have to install on the porch to cover the the front door

What do you think?

See the lens calculator in the Wiki.
My 2cents, not that much of a difference between a vari-focal 5442, and a fixed lens version of the 5442.

 

[IAmATeaf]

With my vari versus fixed, I’ve found the fixed to perform slightly better at night.

 

[tmxv4128]

Both the fixed and varifocal will work well, but I have found the fixed to be more robust at night. If you have a dark environment and must rely on the built in IR, it's the fixed for the win. An advantage of the varifocal is that it will reach beyond the fixed, so if you need greater than the 6mm reach, choose the varifocal.

 

[Ri22o]

For reference, I have found that the fixed 3.6mm is similar to the varifocal when set to 4.5mm (according to the calculator)