You need to decide what you want the system to provide - to be able to IDENTIFY or OBSERVE what is going on.
An all-on-one box system kit for $400 will NEVER be able to IDENTIFY at 100 feet. It is all about the focal length measured in mm and the cheap commercial systems provide the small focal length, wide angle view that is useless for any distance IDENTIFY purposes.
Here are a few guidelines and considerations as you piece something together.
It is simple LOL do not chase MP - do not buy a 4MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/1.8" sensor. Do not buy a 2MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/2.8" sensor. Do not buy a 4K (8MP) camera on anything smaller than a 1/1.2" sensor.
Unfortunately, most 4k cams are on the same sensor as a 2MP and thus the 2MP will kick its butt all night long as the 4k will need 4 times the light than the 2MP... 4k on the wrong sensor will do very poor at night unless you have stadium quality lighting (well a lot of lighting LOL). Starlight, ColorVu, Full Color, etc. are simply marketing terms, so don't be sold on those names.
To identify someone with the wide-angle 2.8mm lens that most people opt for (and what is in most kits), someone would have to be within 13 feet of the camera, but realistically within 10 feet after you dial it in to eliminate motion blur at night.
My neighbor was bragging to me how he only needed his four 2.8mm fixed lens 4k Lorex cams to see his entire property and the street and his whole backyard. His car was sitting in the driveway practically touching the garage door and his video quality was useless to ID the perp not even 10 feet away.
Meanwhile my 2MP varifocal optically zoomed in to the public sidewalk provided the money shot to the police to get my neighbors all their stuff back. Nobody else had video that could provide anything useful, other than what time this motion blur ghost was at their car. That neighbor with the 4k started to replace with 2MP models based on what he saw my do compared to his.
Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision works as well.
- 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
- 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
- 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
- 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
- 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
- 49225 PTZ - great PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.
You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A wide angle 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who.
One camera cannot be the be all, see all. Each one is selected for covering a specific area. Most of us here have different brands and types, from fixed cams, to varifocals, to PTZs, each one selected for it's primary purpose and to utilize the strength of that particular camera.
You would be better off purchasing one
good camera at the sub $200 range and slowly build up from there.
Many of us here started with the $400 crap all-in-one box kit. I started with the 4-camera pack and was like "I can place one on each corner of the house and see my whole property and the whole neighborhood." A newbie loves the wide angle "I can see the whole neighborhood" of the fixed wide angle lens. Consumer grade cameras you buy at the big box stores cater to that mindset. Once that novelty wears off and you want to IDENTIFY, then that is when the varifocal becomes a benefit over the fixed lens.
You get lured in to thinking that is great because you are watching it and you see a neighbor go by and you are like "Look at that I can tell that is Heather out walking." and "Yeah I can tell our neighbor 4 down just passed by".
Little do we realize how much WE can identify a known person just by hair style, clothing, walking pace, gait, etc.
Then one day the door checker comes by. Total stranger. Totally useless video other than what time the door checking happened.
Then you realize that this wide-angle see the whole neighborhood comes at a cost and that cost is not being able to IDENTIFY who did it. These 2.8mm wide angle cameras are great overview cameras or to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet of the camera. At 40 feet out you need a different camera.
So then we start adding more cameras and varifocal cameras so that we can optically zoom in to pinch points and other areas of interest to get the clean IDENTIFY captures of someone. While the varifocals are great at helping to identify at a distance, they come at a cost of a reduced field of view.
Of the brands you mentioned, Lorex would be the one to go with IF you really decide you want to buy an all in one kit. Lorex is Dahua OEM, but usually cheaper build quality and lower quality sensors, but when you decide to upgrade, you can still use some of the equipment in less sensitive places.
This is the quality from reolinks:
Is this person a ghost or missing a leg?
You cannot get much closer to the camera than this and look at that blur (but the things not moving look great and detailed)...
And my fave from their marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture. Could this provide anything useful for the police? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two columns:
Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the camera can't see you
The Reolinks will only be able to let you know what time something happened in the middle of the night (maybe). Look at this unofficial thread and the countless examples people have provided of the the lack of quality they get from these cameras at night...
Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...
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