New setup - focal length advice

[LFletcher]

Hi,
I am in the process of renovating my house and as an afterthought thought it would be wise to install ip cameras.
I've run cat6 cable to the locations shown below;

Although not ideal positioning, hopefully it should be able to cover the majority of the house perimeter.

From the picture above the house, the front 4 cameras would be facing towards to road and the back 2 towards the rear garden.

My current thinking is to purchase Hikvision DS-2CD2342WD-I turrent cameras for each location marked on the diagrams (6 cameras in total).

From my initial research I was planning to use 4mm focal length on all but the camera mounted in the porch area.
I had seen 2.8mm recommended for the porch area, but looking at comparisons shots it seems to make more sense to use a 6mm lense - as the rest of the front of the house should hopefully be covered by the other 3 cameras, and by using the 6mm I should hopefully be able to get a good look at anyone who approached the front door.
After some additional reading, I'm now thinking it would be worthwhile using 6mm on all the cameras apart from the ones on the front and rear of house - for those I would stick to 2.8mm to cover the widest area.

The rough field of view would look somethin like this I imagine;

Does anyone see any issues with the above or can recommend better alternative options?

With regards to mounting, is there any reason to use a junction box or wall mount as opposed to just mounting directly on the exterior of the house?

It's also been mentioned that I should investigate additional IR illumination. Is this something that needs a dedicated device or would a security light be able to cover this requirement?

I've attached some additional location pictures to get a better understanding of their heights.

Thanks for your help

 

[fenderman]

Buy the starlight dahau varifocal turret. Solves you focal length problem, gives you audio, sd card storage and MUCH better low light performance.

 

[tangent]

If you haven't tried it check out: Camera Calculator / Design Software

For cameras consider this, it's a little expensive but the performance is impressive and tune the FOV as needed.
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

I'd prewire for a lower location on the back of the house too.

 

[Ryan00]

It looks like your going to mount those camera higher then 8 feet, which even with a 6mm lens is a bad idea. I have 6 of hik 2342 cameras, but mine are in 4mm and I have one 2.8 I might return. I'm not to sure about the 6mm model but, I know with the 4mm a person must be 2 feet from the camera to get a good face ID and I mean that literally . In the day time there great cameras good Quality image after you mess the settings for a bit, at night you will still need additional lighting . If your mounting on the soffit I would pick the lowest point.

 

[fenderman]

I know with the 4mm a person must be 2 feet from the camera to get a good face ID and I mean that literally .

Lets not exaggerate.... you can see that with a 4mm lens you can get a good ID from way more than two feet away.

 

[Ryan00]

Lets not exaggerate.... you can see that with a 4mm lens you can get a good ID from way more than two feet away.

I was talking about the hikvision 2342 camera, not the 6mm lens in general. What camera is this in the video ? I guess mounting has a lot to do with it too .

 

[nayr]

you dont get ID mounting high unless your using a PTZ and looking out at enough distance the angles are minimal.. (>60ft)

I believe someone in the Turret thread upgraded from that hik to the starlight dahua already and the quality was dramatic.

 

[fenderman]

I was talking about the hikvision 2342 camera, not the 6mm lens in general. What camera is this in the video ? I guess mounting has a lot to do with it too .

They are using a 4mp hikvision camera...see the description

 

[Ryan00]

Hikvision 2342 4mp 4mm mounted 8 feet high on soffit image was taken with 90% cloud coverage. In the day time,the person in the image is 3 feet from camera.One is the original not zoomed. The other photo is zoomed. The last photo is at night with a mr beams spotlight 300 lumens also had 3 800 lumens garage lights. 15 feet away

 

[fenderman]

Hikvision 2342 4mp 4mm mounted 8 feet high on soffit image was taken with 90% cloud coverage. In the day time,the person in the image is 3 feet from camera.One is the original not zoomed. The other photo is zoomed. The last photo is at night with a mr beams spotlight 300 lumens also had 3 800 lumens garage lights. 15 feet away

right, and you can easily identify him...as you would be at a greater distance...the night shot is simply the result of inadequate lighting for that camera. Also you likely have smart IR on..turn it off...

 

[Ryan00]

right, and you can easily identify him...as you would be at a greater distance...the night shot is simply the result of inadequate lighting for that camera. Also you likely have smart IR on..turn it off...

Ok I give you 5 feet in the day and 2 feet at night

 

[fenderman]

Ok I give you 5 feet in the day and 2 feet at night

You can go more than 5 feet in the day...and more than two feet at night if you have the proper settings and a bit of lighting...

 

[Ryan00]

You can go more than 5 feet in the day...and more than two feet at night if you have the proper settings and a bit of lighting...

Again this is a 4mm not a 6mm like the op wanted 6 should do a little better. Point is if you mount these cameras high you won't get a ID. I'll post night images

 

[phydeaux]

Have 2 ea 6mm Bullets (longse LBH24s200 / Be Safe BS-BH24S200) covering
Front porch 30 feet long, Front Door @ Mid Point.
Bullets mounted at ends of Porch Ceiling angled . Height of Mount approx 8 feet, This gives approx. 18 feet from Camera Lens to entrance of step up to the porch from the driveway.

I opted for the 6mm vs the standard (2.8 or 3.2mm) that was offered from where I bought And I'm happy I went with the 6mm. Used the Lens Calculator to help with decision.

 

[LFletcher]

Thanks for all the responses.

Are Dahua available in the UK? I couldn't find the model mentioned apart from on Ali Express.
I'd been drawn to the Hikvision range as I had heard support, updates, etc were good - I assume Dahua are similar?
I noticed they also do a 4MP version which is $20 more expensive, would there be any reason to go for this one versus the 2MP one?
Need to do some further reading on them.

Some further info on the usage of the cameras might be useful (based on the top down view);

Front left camera (height ~3m/10ft) - this is to cover the side entrance.
Front left of the middle camera (height ~3.4m/11ft) - this is to cover the majority of the drive.
Front porch camera (height ~2.2m/7ft) - this is to cover the front door.
Front right camera (height ~6m/20ft) - this is to cover the walkway down the side of the house. As this cable isn't run yet, I have the ability to get this lower, roughly 2.4m/8ft.
Rear right camera (height ~3m/10ft) - this is to cover the walkway down the side of the house if someone approached from the rear.
Rear soffit camera (height ~6m/20ft) - this is to cover the rear of the house. I can't change the height of this one or fit it any lower. I also can't put any additional cameras on any lower section of the rear of the house due to vaulted ceilings.

The height of the front porch also limits my ability to mount anything lower than 10ft on the front of the house.
Potentially silly question - would I need to have the ability to ID from the "Front left of the middle camera" as if anyone approached the house they would get caught with the one on the porch or down either side? I assume I'd only want to ID someone if they were trying to break into a car parked on the drive? Not saying this wouldn't be useful, but I suppose my primary concern was protecting the house.

I have concerns that if anyone tried to break into the property it would be via access from the front. There is a trainline at the back of the property which would make access difficult. That's my reasoning for concentrating the majority of the cameras on the front and down the sides.

I'd seen the focal length blog post and video on use-ip (referenced above) which is why I thought 6mm cameras would possibly be the better option for the lower cameras, but I'm open to better suggestions as I'm a complete novice with all of this.

 

[aristobrat]

My current thinking is to purchase Hikvision DS-2CD2342WD-I turrent cameras for each location marked on the diagrams (6 cameras in total).

That was the camera I was seriously considering. I already had one Hikvision (a 2.8mm 3MP dome) outdoors on my porch, I was very happy with its performance/image quality, I liked the amount of information/reviews I could find about most Hik cameras during the research phase, and I wanted all of my cameras to be the same brand.

Having said all of that, I've paused that plan and am on the wait list for one of those damn Dahua Starlight 2MP varifocal turrets. lol If it goes as well as I expect it to, I'll end up ordering more, and eventually replace the one Hikvision camera I currently have.

The low-light performance on the Starlight turret is amazing. It's also varifocal (motorized), so you can adjust the lens anywhere from 2.7mm to 12mm, which gives you the ability to get what's perfect for your needs. I was worried that daytime image quality (because it was "only" a 2MP camera) would be a tradeoff in order to get such great low-light performance, but from the shots I've seen, it seems on par with many 3MP/4MP cameras.

 

[aristobrat]

Are Dahua available in the UK? I couldn't find the model mentioned apart from on Ali Express.

It's a new model -- I've only seen it on Ali. @EMPIRETECANDY (Andy) sells on Ali and participates regularly on the forum here. Seems like most folks here have been ordering through him (either through private messages here, or through his Ali storefront). He appears to be getting them direct from Dahua, but they can't make them fast enough for how quickly he sells them. There is no support through Dahua when buying from Ali, but Andy has a record of standing behind the products he sells, and the community here really seems to be jumping on these Starlights and offing a lot of peer support. The version that he sells is firmware updatable, though.

 

[Ryan00]

right, and you can easily identify him...as you would be at a greater distance...the night shot is simply the result of inadequate lighting for that camera. Also you likely have smart IR on..turn it off...

How could you tell I had smart ir on ? Also why do you say turn it off ?

 

[fenderman]

How could you tell I had smart ir on ? Also why do you say turn it off ?

its a setting in the camera...it lowers the overall ir power..

 

[Ryan00]

its a setting in the camera...it lowers the overall ir power..

I understand how to turn it on/off I turned it on because it gave me more ir light without noise. You said to turn it off I'm just wondering why I should turn it off ? It didn't seem to lower it at all it seemed to brighten it.