Newbie

[Shayyyy]

Hi all, I am interested in getting some poe cams for security purposes for my house. I am currently reading through the forum, and there is loads of information
I am looking for exterior cams and i would like them to cover the 4 sides of the house (motorised/tracking would be great). Ideally i would like recording to sd and cloud. What can you reccomend?
Thank you

 

[bigredfish]

There are many factors to consider for each camera placement. Not one size fits all. It will take a lot of questions and some time to know the answer.

That said, focus on the 5442 series which is the current go-to workhorse camera for many of us. Get one variable focus model and temporary mount it at your locations to get and idea of whether it will adequately provide the coverage you need, whether you need more IR, whether color at night is possible, in EACH location. They will all likely be different

Here's the turret version from our favorite supplier

EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Var

4-MP 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, low luminance, and high definition image. Outputs max. 4MP (2688×1520) @25/30 fps. Built-in IR LED, and the max. illumination distance is 40 m. ROI, SVC, SMART H.264+/H.265+, AI H.264/H.265, encoding after filter, flexible coding, applicable to various bandwidth...

empiretech01.com

* Biggest and most common mistake by noobs (I was once one) is trying to do too much with too few cameras.

 

[wittaj]

+1 Above!

Some additional comments to your thoughts.

A PTZ is a great compliment to an existing system of fixed lens cameras. If you have a PTZ as primary coverage of a side of a house it will miss a lot. The camera will be looking left and miss anything coming from the right as an example. So you get good coverage with fixed cams, then add PTZ to compliment.

You do not want to be using cloud storage.

And for coverage for a whole house, you do not want to be managing it via SD cards. You will want an NVR of some sort.

 

[Shayyyy]

Thanks for the tips! I was thinking of a PTZ at first, but its true that it would miss parts whilst it is panning. With an nvr do the cams have to be directly connected to it with ethernet, ir is it enough that they are all connected to the same network? What do you guys think of two lens cameras? Do they cover a good 180?

 

[wittaj]

That is the benefit of IP cameras - you can buy an NVR with POE ports that run all the cameras to the back of the NVR or you can buy an NVR without POE ports and just one network cable and the cameras come in from various switches.

The two-lens 180 cameras are great OVERVIEW cameras, but are poor at IDENTIFY. Not because they are 180, but because of the small focal length.

You need to get the right focal length camera for the distance to IDENTIFY.

See this thread for the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value in terms of price and performance day and night.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

 

[bigredfish]

You can also buy an NVR with built in PoE ports and only use some of them, and connect to others elsewhere on the network via IP, you can do Both.
So little downside to buying one WITH PoE ports

 

[mat200]

Hi all, I am interested in getting some poe cams for security purposes for my house. I am currently reading through the forum, and there is loads of information
I am looking for exterior cams and i would like them to cover the 4 sides of the house (motorised/tracking would be great). Ideally i would like recording to sd and cloud. What can you reccomend?
Thank you

Welcome @Shayyyy

To cover 4 sides of the house ..

Typically with an attached garage facing the front, plan to have ( for a start .. )

2 cameras covering the driveway,
1 camera covering each side of the house
2 cameras covering the front of the house
2 cameras covering the front door

depending on the layout of the house, some cameras can do double duty .. so many get away with 6 cameras covering the front of the house

As we are already near 8 ports, I typically recommend 16 ports / channels if you plan to get an NVR