Local criminal action

[wittaj]

Take a look at this chart - to identify someone with the 2.8mm lens that is popular, someone would have to be within 13 feet of the camera, but realistically within 10 feet after you dial it in to your settings.

As others have said, the varifocals are intended to be a set it and forget it and they are motorized and you can zoom in from the app or the computer, but as someone mentioned, since there is not pan or tilt, it is useless to try to zoom live as it zooms to the middle of the image.

Regarding a tighter field of view that would allow someone as you mentioned would then be able to come up to it and disable it, that is what redundant cameras are for. Always have one camera in view of another so if someone tries to disable, you still get them. Many here have 3 or more cameras just at their front door.

Why I Like Redundant Views/Multiple Cam Views

A lot of newbies ask for help with their camera setups and most think that they can get by with a single cam to cover quite a bit of area. While that is possible if all you are interested in is a wide-angle overview, it usually will not give you a great chance of getting a face shot good enough...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[bigredfish]

Guardline units may be a bit of overkill for the feeder I was referencing the original human intruder

 

[looney2ns]

This could work to replace my existing sensor floodlight right next to that door. It would have a very close up view of anyone approaching the door and perhaps be a bit of a deterrent. Anyone here have one?

Amcrest SmartHome 1080p WiFi Outdoor Security Camera with Floodlight, Built-in Siren Alarm, 2000lm Floodlight, Two-Way Audio, 114° View, IP65 Weatherproof, MicroSD & Smart Cloud Storage, ASH26-W

Avoid wifi cams.
Study this attachment and the links contained therein.

 

[Raylo32]

Oh, I did that a long time ago. I trained him for awhile with that shock treatment but it was temporary. Now I have a long arm hanger with another pot in between. I have another long arm hanger with a seed bird feeder and even with the long arm he was swinging it around... smart little bastard. So I put guy wires on either side to prevent it from swinging. He has scraped almost all of the paint off that arm trying.

You will need to move the feeder father away from anything he can climb to get to it. Or the @bigredfish way.

 

[Raylo32]

Sure, but if it was AI "smart" they could have it zoom to and maintain the smallest FOV that still has the target.

Further, the drive mechanism of a varifcocal is not designed for constant use and will probably wear out fairly quickly if used as a zoom style camera.

 

[wittaj]

Sure, but if it was AI "smart" they could have it zoom to and maintain the smallest FOV that still has the target.

Even if the varifocal is AI smart, it will not zoom automatically. You set a varifocal to provide a field of view for the area you want to cover.

The goal of the varifocal is to get a nice, clean, tight shot of the subject, which means the overall field of view of the camera is usually fairly tight.

If you want it to zoom in and out based on AI, then you need an autotrack PTZ.