New Setup - What would you do?

[Cary]

Hi everyone,
Dipping my toes into this as a bit of a hobby, so will be piecing this together as I go.
I'm looking to start off with less cameras but high quality as I start and build from there. I don't believe I'll ever have more than 6-8 cameras, so an 8 port PoE router should be fine.

Here are my current plans to get started:
Will be using a dedicated desktop running Blue Iris. (already own)
Looking to pick up a decent PoE router and 1 or 2 cameras to begin working with and learning on, then expand from there as I go. I'm fairly tech savvy, but have no experience with security cams.

If some of you were going to piece a setup together how would you start to do it?

I am thinking about starting off with a doorbell camera. I saw in the forums BI supports: dbell, doorbird, beward were supported.
Any thoughts between these three? Would I be better off placing a camera on my front porch instead? (I would prefer not to due to the required cable run and other aesthetics, but will if it's a much better alternative)

Then would be adding a camera that needs to monitor my rear porch entrance (180+ degree viewing preferred, but not required), proceeding from there.

Thanks!

 

[mat200]

Hi everyone,
Dipping my toes into this as a bit of a hobby, so will be piecing this together as I go.
I'm looking to start off with less cameras but high quality as I start and build from there...

I am thinking about starting off with a doorbell camera. ..

Then would be adding a camera that needs to monitor my rear porch entrance (180+ degree viewing preferred, but not required), proceeding from there.

Thanks!

Welcome Cary,

Remember to use the cliff notes in the wiki as a reference and guide.
IPCamTalk WiKi | IP Cam Talk

A 180 FOV is really not as great as you might imaging having as it dilutes the pixels and thus you get a super short ID range and distorted image.

Check out numerous reviews members have done here on cameras, from doorbell related products to cameras at face level next to the door, to the popular Dahua 2MP OEM starlight cameras, to various 8MP cameras.

Also remember to check out the vendor section as well as the wanted to sell classified section.

 

[Cary]

I've been checking out the Wiki, it's got a lot of great info.
Planning on my first camera being an IPC-HDW5231R-ZE.

Not sure if there is much difference on the PoE switches. I see a lot of price differences, so I'm not sure if there is a highly recommended one around here?

 

[mat200]

I've been checking out the Wiki, it's got a lot of great info.
Planning on my first camera being an IPC-HDW5231R-ZE.

Not sure if there is much difference on the PoE routers. I see a lot of price differences, so I'm not sure if there is a highly recommended one around here?

HI Cary,

Do look at the list of PoE switches - ( POE router would be something completely different ) - some will prefer a particular brand, so maybe useful to look at a few brands and models on the list and search here for discussions on them ( if any ) as well as check rating at Amazon.

In general the ports can be 10/100Mbps. If a larger switch you want an uplink port rated for 1G ( 1000Mbps )