I'm under the gun, possible tornado approaching, but have two cables installed to each location,
CAT5E or better, solid copper and not CCA. Cameras need to be no higher than 7.5' to get good identification shots. For good low light coverage looks to the Dahua 5442 series, tons of reviews here just use the search bar. Contact Andy from EmpireTech. He can put a system together for you. Be realistic in terms of performance/price. Good performance in low light is more expensive.
The tornado threat is gone with no tornado, it fell apart.
Anyhow, stay away from Reolink, Sv3C, Nest, Ring and all the other consumer grade, low end, crap. Lorex is Dahua rebranded with features removed to keep the price down. Kits come with, typically, 2.8mm lenses only. With a 2.8mm lens the subject needs to be within less than 15 feet to get a true identification shot.
Don't chase megapixels, chase sensor size. For a 2MP camera to have good night vision it needs a 1/2.8" sensor. For a 4MP camera to have good night vision it needs a 1/1.8" sensor. For an 8MP camera to have good night vision it needs a 1/1.2" sensor. Remember these are fractions and that can be deceiving. As an example a 4MP camera on the same sensor as a 2MP camera would need twice as much light to get as good video. An 8MP camera with that same sensor would need four times as much light.
The current go to camera for low light is the Dahua 5442 series. Round numbers are about $180 for a fixed lens turret and $220 for a varifocal bullet or turret. The turrets have built-in mics for audio while the bullets need an external mic but will take the audio and put it on the video stream.
