New Build Advice

[Underfunded]

I'm working on speccing out a new DIY camera / NVR system for my house, currently don't have one. I'm planning on running POE / Cat6 to each location (exterior). Ultimately I envision a 6/7-ish camera build-out which will give me almost 360 coverage and very good coverage of main entrance/approach areas.

In my reading I'm trying to fight the megapixel hysteria, but am struggling. Ultimately I think I'll go with a mix of 2MP for the better low light and 4MP in areas where even at night I have very good lighting. To start I want to pick up a well rounded 4MP turret. I'll ultimately place it in a place overlooking my deck where a motion sensor will turn on my deck light as someone were to come up the stairs so visibility will be pretty good, however I will test this camera in some of my other desired locations to gauge effectiveness and the need to use a 2MP for desired results.

What would you recommend for a well rounded 4MP turret?

 

[SouthernYankee]

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I recommend Blue Iris on a standalone PC.

The Megapixel issues is with night Video quality, If you have a Lot, I mean lot of light a 8 MP will work. I recommend Startlight or darkfighter

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
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My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the cliff notes and other items in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (Store | IP Cam Talk) if you need good low light cameras.
2) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
3) Do not use wifi cameras.
4) Do not use cloud storage
5) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
6) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
7) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
8) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk)
9) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
10) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
11) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
12) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
13) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
14) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3

Cameras to look at
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW5231-ZE Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPC-T5442TM-AS Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
DS-2CD2325FWD-I

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A Review-Dahua IPC-K35A 3mp Cube Camera


Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

 

[aristobrat]

IMO, Dahua’s new 4MP Starlight models seem to do about as well in low-light as the 2MP Starlight models do. The firmware on the new 4MP Starlights is still young and doesn’t support SmartIR yet (which automatically turns down the IR as someone approaches the camera as to not wash them out — doesn’t always work perfectly but it usually helps), but that feature is supposed to be added at some point.

Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+

Also FWIW there isn’t a 4MP Starlight varifocal turret model. Have to use a bullet or done if you need varifocal.

 

[aristobrat]

Forgot to add that when motion lights come on at night it can take the camera a second or two to adjust and the video quality while it’s adjusting may make it not useful. FWIW

 

[mat200]

I'm working on speccing out a new DIY camera / NVR system for my house, currently don't have one. I'm planning on running POE / Cat6 to each location (exterior). Ultimately I envision a 6/7-ish camera build-out which will give me almost 360 coverage and very good coverage of main entrance/approach areas.

In my reading I'm trying to fight the megapixel hysteria, but am struggling. Ultimately I think I'll go with a mix of 2MP for the better low light and 4MP in areas where even at night I have very good lighting. To start I want to pick up a well rounded 4MP turret. I'll ultimately place it in a place overlooking my deck where a motion sensor will turn on my deck light as someone were to come up the stairs so visibility will be pretty good, however I will test this camera in some of my other desired locations to gauge effectiveness and the need to use a 2MP for desired results.

What would you recommend for a well rounded 4MP turret?

Welcome @Underfunded

Do double check the reviews by members here on any particular model before you purchase. The older 4MP models had smaller sensors and thus did poorly compared to the newer 4MP starlight+ models.