Overwhelmed with options, need advice

[hevnsnt]

Hello all,

I came here to get some advice. I am looking to put up some cameras around my house and had decided to get the Arlo Pros. After some research and reading here, I have flipped my decision and want to buy some quality cameras, but I am overwhelmed at all the options and need some advice.

First off here is my house:
Overview:

Front:

I would like a camera that will provide me with:

• An alert on my phone that someone is approaching my front door
• An alert on my phone that someone is approaching my back door
• Being able to capture high quality video on motion
• A higher quality camera on the 3rd car garage corner to watch the street traffic
• Decent quality Night vision for Front Door and Back Door camera
• Cameras that "Blend in", I dont want my house looking like a prison. Smaller cameras are better. I do not live in a high crime area, but would like to have some detection and evidence if something were to occur.
• Mobile app to check in on the house at any time. The mobile app must also pass the 'Wife Test', which is why I was looking at Arlo Pro.
• Power over Ethernet powered

Anyone have any specific suggestions on cameras I should be looking at?

 

[ThomasPI]

I'm kind of in the same boat. First thing I knew was some general mounting locations so I jotted those down, then the need for good nighvision is obvious, jotted that down. Then I took a piece of scrap paper and drew up the lot lines and the placement of our "to be built" house into place. Once I had that figured out, then we looked at those areas we wanted to cover.

Backing up a bit, first thing we did was come up with a budget which is about $2500 for the project. So far, we are looking at the
IPC-HDBW4231F-AS use on the front door and back doors. Then the IPC-HDW5231R-Z or IPC-HFW5231E-Z5 for the remaining areas, possibly anyway. With camera size from what I can see, you're not going to fit good quality optics that would be required into a housing the size of a golf ball. Dahua seems to do a really good job with their designs and it is what it is. What ever you do, set up to record 24/7 or you may well catch the action that set the camera in motion to capture the culprits BUT, you may well MISS other valuable video footage that would be of value.


POE is absolutely the way to go and use Blue Iris on a dedicated desktop computer is the way I am going. Just passing on what little I learned so far. Spending time reading posts and looking at videos will give you a better idea.

 

[randytsuch]

The Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z is the current "standard" recommendation here these days.

Not cheap, but not real expensive either.
Does a great job at low light, which is when bad things happen.

My recommendation is to buy one, mount it on a 2x4 and figure out how to get it working so you can see the video on a PC or phone or tablet. Then try it out, but it where you are considering mounting cameras, and see how it looks. Try it at night time and day time, will look different at night.

Then you need to decide if you want to go with a Dahua NVR or PC with Blue Iris.

 

[VorlonFrog]

Seconding the suggestion of the varifocal Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z. For a fixed focus camera, the Dahua IPC-HDW4231EM-AS is a close second place.

 

[hevnsnt]

Thanks all, looks like I will buy a couple IPC-HDW5231R-Z. Do I need to buy any type of mounting gear?

 

[Shockwave199]

If you know that all of the cameras will be recording close range up to 15' max you can save a ton of money going for the fixed lens at 3.6mm 4231EM-AS. Any within that field of view further out will simply be situational awareness but when they get in the sweet spot approaching a door or window, a 3.6 will do the job well. Use a varifocal if you need to zoom in to an area in which the camera cannot be mounted close enough to the target area. Otherwise I'm open the opinion that varifocal is not needed for any location that actually has a small field of view for recording, such as back patios, and doors/windows where the camera is mounted close by.

 

[randytsuch]

For a first camera, I recommend getting a varifocal so you can see how things really look at different zooms.
Costs a little more, but gives you flexibility.

I bought a PFA137 round junction box to mount the 5231R-Z to. But it depends how you are going to mount it.
If you mount this to a wall, it will hold camera vertical. They make a different mount to hold horizontal on a wall.

 

[Frank Ecker]

People here seem to overwhelmingly prefer the turret as opposed to bullet. Can someone articulate possible reasons? Is it just the preferred form factor?

In my mounting scenario, bullet would physically work better. What might I be losing over the alternative turret?

 

[randytsuch]

So I have to admit having mostly bullets.
Main reason is I have heard is spiders, bullets are supposed to be more prone to spiders and their webs.
IR attracts them.

If I had it to do over, I would get turrets, although so far I haven't had spider issues, I only installed the system this winter.

Randy