Is my camera too far away

[raptor_]

I just setup my DS-2CD2342WD-I 2.8mm, but its pretty zoomed out and hard to make out detail on someone far away at night, plus I lowed the sensitivity for motion but now it seems to keep tripping on bugs.

Should I switch it with something else that is more zoomed in? I like having a view of most of the front of the house but it doesn't do any good if I can't see detail. I am also going to put at least one more camera on the other side of the house.

 

[nayr]

yes.. its totally inappropriate for a driveway cam to be a full 1/3rd roof and your entire front yard.. its too high too, you can leave that there if you want a good overview of everything, but nothing interesting will happen on your roof so its alot of wasted pixels and storage.. but its not an ID camera, for ID put one on the front of your garage, no higher than 9ft off the ground with a 6-8mm lens.. If you put a camera with more zoom this high you'd have to hope the criminal looks up before you get his face.. all it will take is a baseball cap to remove this cameras angle.

use: https://ipvm.com/calculator and keep PPF > 100 to maintain any hope for a night time ID.. your 2.8mm camera might be able to identify someone up to 15ft away, so you better hope they climb up on the roof.. your driveway is longer than that so moving it down still wont help much.

 

[raptor_]

I actually ordered the wrong camera, I was going to get a 4mm but not sure if that would of made much of a difference mounted that high up. I was going to mount at the garage but there is a light between the doors and was worried that would mess up the image. I didn't actually test it there with the light on so not sure if it would of messed it up or not. I also thought mounting it higher would help prevent tampering with it. But that camera in that spot doesn't seem like it would be very effective, maybe I will look at getting another to mount lower and keep this one there to help get an overall view and just get a couple others for closer, more detailed views.

Thanks for your help

 

[nayr]

that choke point between your vehicles is the sweet spot, the night prowlers always take that path to give them cover from passing traffic.. they can check all vehicles without walking around.

as long as the lights on your garage are not in frame, they will actually help your image.. not hurt it.. a 1080p cam w/8mm lens is good for ID to about 30ft at night and work well in cooridor mode down that choke point.. especially if you have an overview camera up high to track activities when they leave the choke point (ie start on your neighbor's car).. your driveway cam dont need to see hoods and roofs of cars, its the doors and side windows that you need to watch, so use all the zoom you can get away with on the hotspots for best chance of ID.

 

[Del Boy]

Yes, it's a common mistake raptor to get 2.8mm. As a general rule of thumb no camera mounted above the ground floor (1st floor in USA) should be 2.8mm. You should be looking at either 4mm or 6mm.

Ideally you need a 4mm camera here as an overview camera and you can then move your 2.8mm camera below the ground floor roof.