Looking for camera recommendations for driveway area.

[sdnomad]

I purchased a Dahua NVR5208-8P-4KS2E during Andy's black Friday sale but did not know what camera to order so I'm looking for recommendations. Should I go with a fixed lens or variable? I want to cover my 20' W x 30' L driveway and into the street. I want good human detection in my driveway area and vehicle loitering in the street. The area is generally lit with LED motion lights. Would the IPC-COLOR4K-X be a good choice?

 

[SouthernYankee]

standard camera recommendation. Get one good quality variable focus camera and test it at each location you plan on putting a camera. Test at night with motion, test with a "Bad guy" wearing a hoodie. Can you identify the bad guy for the cops, will the video stand up in court, if not then you need the change the camera, the lighting, or mounting position.


If setting up drive way cameras, if you park in the drive way , you will need a minimum of two cameras mounted no higher than the top of the garage on each side of the garage door.

 

[mat200]

I purchased a Dahua NVR5208-8P-4KS2E during Andy's black Friday sale but did not know what camera to order so I'm looking for recommendations. Should I go with a fixed lens or variable? I want to cover my 20' W x 30' L driveway and into the street. I want good human detection in my driveway area and vehicle loitering in the street. The area is generally lit with LED motion lights. Would the IPC-COLOR4K-X be a good choice?

Welcome @sdnomad

Plan to get more than one camera for this ..

 

[Flintstone61]

I wish i had bought a varifocal 1st. Now that I have 2, I wonder why I didn't do that first.
I might have a learning problem

 

[Flintstone61]

Don't buy the Jidetech PTZ. that's all I know.

 

[flynreelow]

first camera should always be a varifocal camera.

 

[wittaj]

You need to identify the areas you want to cover and pick a camera designed to cover that distance. In some instances, it may be a 2MP or 4MP that is the right camera. Unless you go to a PTZ, a 4K camera to get clean IDENTIFY captures at a distance is not on the market yet...

So after you decide if you want IDENTIFY ability or OBSERVE/RECOGNIZE ability, then you get the appropriate camera.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision works as well. These cameras meet all your requirements.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great auto-track PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A wide angle 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who.

One camera cannot be the be all, see all. Each one is selected for covering a specific area. Most of us here have different brands and types, from fixed cams, to varifocals, to PTZs, each one selected for it's primary purpose and to utilize the strength of that particular camera.

So you will need to identify the distance the camera would be from the activities you want to IDENTIFY on and purchase the correct camera for that distance as an optical zoom.

If you want to see things far away, you need optical zoom, digital zoom only works in the movies and TV...And the optical zoom is done real time - for a varifocal it is a set it and forget it. You cannot go to recorded video and optically zoom in later, at that point it is digital zoom, and the sensors on these cameras are so small which is why digital zoom doesn't work very well after the fact.

 

[sdnomad]

Looks like two IPC-T5442T-ZE cameras would be a good choice to cover the area. Can I expect them to work well at night in color with a bright LED illuminated area? Do they switch between infrared and color when the house LED motion lights turn on?

 

[wittaj]

It will depend on how far out you are trying to get coverage for. Most of us find that we have to force the camera in color if we want color. That comes at a sacrifice of clear pictures, so it is a balance act. I have 33,000 lumen radiating off my house and if I set the camera up for coverage 30 feet away, the camera says it doesn't have enough light and wants to go B/W.

Cameras work best with a consistent light source. Not many of us here operate them with motion sensor lights. So either leave lights on for color or go B/W with infrared. Using motion sensor lights, then the camera would get blinded momentarily as the light kicks on - just long enough to miss a good capture.

 

[sdnomad]

I'm not a fan of IR for the fact that you lose a lot of detail. I had a car break-in where the perp's clothes showed up as one white color. It wasn't until they stepped behind the glass of the car and the IR was blocked, you could see the front of his shirt was a giant American flag. Because of that, I would prefer to have color images. I'd like to hear from someone that used both the IPC-COLOR4K-X and IPC-T5442T-ZE. Does anyone use a IPC-T5442T-ZE strictly in color at night with LED floodlights? Does the IPC-T5442T-ZE have a clearer image or other features that make it the better choice?