Hi all,
I'm about to upgrade my aging switch to a gigabit with PoE, so I'm thinking about camera upgrades as well.
I currently have a single ancient PTZ in my garage, and a couple (unreliable) wireless cams here and there.
I'd like to replace them all with more solid equipment. None of these are for "security", per se. They are more for general observation and keeping aware of what's going on around me. I have no need for facial recognition, but I probably will install Blue Iris or similar on my home server to handle recording and such. My budget is fairly low, and I'll likely be buying these one at a time, in the order listed. I'm putting a general max price after each cam, but of course I'm open to cheaper options, or maybe a bit higher if there's a compelling reason.
Here's what I need:
1x PTZ cam in garage. ~$200. This will be the "primary" camera. It can be an indoor cam, since it will be mounted well inside and protected from the elements, but not in a climate-controlled space. I do need it to have a decent zoom, since I want it to be able to see inside the garage normally, but also zoom out through the doorway to observe the driveway on occasion. This will also require some real WDR to handle the lighting/exposure difference. This is something my current cam struggles with. It also needs IR, since animals like to come into my garage to cause trouble in the evenings, and I'd like to see when they do.
1x PTZ cam on the front porch ($100-150) to watch the front yard/road/mailbox/etc... This one will be protected, but not really indoors. I'm not sure if I can get away with an indoor cam or not here. I'd like to have a little bit of a zoom, but it's not super critical. Low light performance isn't key here either, so maybe a higher res sensor on this one, if the price is reasonable?
1x PTZ cam to cover the back yard ($100-150). This one is mostly just to watch the wildlife and keep and eye on my shop to make sure I shut off the lights. lol I'm not quite sure how I'll mount it yet. The simplest would be on my rear porch, but that would limit the viewing angles. If I do a soffit mount, it would obviously need to be a full outdoor cam, and I may have trouble running the cable for that, since my roofline runs the wrong way for access. I'll have to ponder that one. I have a very wide back yard, so I thought the PTZ would be nice to be able to sweep the view to the part I wanted to see. A nice zoom would be cool, but not critical. We get wild turkeys in the back field, but I'm not really expecting to be able to watch them on the cam.
I'm hoping to be able to connect all these via PoE to my new switch. Am I reasonable in my wish list, or totally off base?
What model(s) would you suggest to fill these requirements? I'm fine with each one being a different model if that's the best fit.
thanks in advance,
-E
I'm about to upgrade my aging switch to a gigabit with PoE, so I'm thinking about camera upgrades as well.
I currently have a single ancient PTZ in my garage, and a couple (unreliable) wireless cams here and there.
I'd like to replace them all with more solid equipment. None of these are for "security", per se. They are more for general observation and keeping aware of what's going on around me. I have no need for facial recognition, but I probably will install Blue Iris or similar on my home server to handle recording and such. My budget is fairly low, and I'll likely be buying these one at a time, in the order listed. I'm putting a general max price after each cam, but of course I'm open to cheaper options, or maybe a bit higher if there's a compelling reason.
Here's what I need:
1x PTZ cam in garage. ~$200. This will be the "primary" camera. It can be an indoor cam, since it will be mounted well inside and protected from the elements, but not in a climate-controlled space. I do need it to have a decent zoom, since I want it to be able to see inside the garage normally, but also zoom out through the doorway to observe the driveway on occasion. This will also require some real WDR to handle the lighting/exposure difference. This is something my current cam struggles with. It also needs IR, since animals like to come into my garage to cause trouble in the evenings, and I'd like to see when they do.
1x PTZ cam on the front porch ($100-150) to watch the front yard/road/mailbox/etc... This one will be protected, but not really indoors. I'm not sure if I can get away with an indoor cam or not here. I'd like to have a little bit of a zoom, but it's not super critical. Low light performance isn't key here either, so maybe a higher res sensor on this one, if the price is reasonable?
1x PTZ cam to cover the back yard ($100-150). This one is mostly just to watch the wildlife and keep and eye on my shop to make sure I shut off the lights. lol I'm not quite sure how I'll mount it yet. The simplest would be on my rear porch, but that would limit the viewing angles. If I do a soffit mount, it would obviously need to be a full outdoor cam, and I may have trouble running the cable for that, since my roofline runs the wrong way for access. I'll have to ponder that one. I have a very wide back yard, so I thought the PTZ would be nice to be able to sweep the view to the part I wanted to see. A nice zoom would be cool, but not critical. We get wild turkeys in the back field, but I'm not really expecting to be able to watch them on the cam.
I'm hoping to be able to connect all these via PoE to my new switch. Am I reasonable in my wish list, or totally off base?
What model(s) would you suggest to fill these requirements? I'm fine with each one being a different model if that's the best fit.
thanks in advance,
-E