Need some help for small business.

[Meatwallet]

Hello all, new member here.

I'm looking for some help with my small business. I own a small golf shop that could use some better cameras. I don't want to break the bank so the best bang for the buck would be great. I have one outdoor area that is covered that needs a camera for the vending machines and entrance to the business. I would also need three for the three separate areas of the shop, each only being 1000 sqft max. I will be using the Blueiris software.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bp2008]

Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I is my personal favorite, and very cost-effective. You will see that one recommended in just about every thread asking for a camera recommendation.

Hikvision DS-2CD2332-I (note the one-digit difference in model number) is a few $ more but provides a different physical body and can be had with a wider field of view if you ask for a 2.8mm lens on it. Otherwise it is nearly identical.

These cost close to $85 each on aliexpress.com, with free shipping that takes weeks, not days. You effectively get no warranty on them due to the high cost of sending them back to China. Also when you buy these Chinese versions you should not try to update the firmware as this will revert them to Chinese language in their interfaces. You can get them faster in the USA by buying from an amazon.com seller (making sure they actually ship FROM the USA) but you will pay extra and they will still be the Chinese versions in most cases.


A few things you should also be aware of. If you've just been using Blue Iris with non-HD cams up until now, these multi-megapixel cameras will use a lot more CPU time. If the CPU is not very powerful, you may find that Blue Iris performs very poorly. If you are unsure, find your CPU on http://cpubenchmark.net/ and look at the score. I would recommend nothing less than a score of 5000 though you can probably get away with a 3000-5000 scoring CPU if you reduce the frame rate on the cameras a lot.

These cameras are best powered by PoE, so you will probably want a standard 802.3af PoE switch if you don't have one already.

These cameras do not come with network cables.