Planning camera placement for 2-story home (high soffits)

[eptesicus]

Please see the bottom of this post for pictures of my home for reference.

I'm planning on adding cameras to my home and am looking at the Amcrest IP8M-T2499EW turrent cams in both the 2.8mm and 4mm variants. For the exterior of my house, I want to get 4-6 cameras, however, I'm having difficulty planning placement, mainly due to the high soffits all around, as there's only soffits on the first floor at the porch, and that's it. I'm thought about placing cameras on the white corner trim of the siding, about 9-10 ft up from the ground, but they'll stick out and be pretty obvious. For the back yard, I suppose it won't be too much of a problem, but I was considering one on the left side of the garage door, about 2 feet or so above the light, and I have a feeling it'll stick out too much. If I decide to install cameras on the vinyl siding trim along the corners, I'll see if I can run cat6 from the soffits, tucked behind the trim to hide it and protect it from the elements.

My initial plan is to:

• have one on the left edge of the house, a couple feet above the garage, sweeping the vehicles and covering immediately in front of the garage door. Unsure here on 2.8mm or 4mm. Getting quality footage of vehicles in the street would be nice as well, but of course, license plates would be difficult without a quality, dedicated camera for that.
• have one to the right back corner of the front porch, covering the front door and window. I had thought about a 2.8mm here to cover all of the porch, and the driveway. Since it's not getting oncoming faces, except for maybe if people walk on the driveway, then turn onto the sidewalk up to the door, I thought maybe a 4mm would be ideal instead, to get better quality facial features. Again, I'm undecided here.
• have a number of cameras covering the back yard. It'd be nice to have 100% coverage for my dog, but I know that'll be difficult, especially given that the fence is attached to the house about 15-25 feet up from the back of the house... I think I'll have to do 2-3 back here, trying to cover as much of the back as possible, with also having a camera covering the gate.

Aside from that, I'm really not too sure.

With all that being said...

• Where would you install the cameras (how far up if not under a soffit)?
• Would you chose 2.8 or 4mm for its location?

I appreciate your help here. I installed 13x Hikvision 4MP cameras at my parent's place about 4-5 years ago (17 there now with the use of some interior wireless cams), and they've been working great. With that amount of cameras, and really only having 1 story, placement was very easy. However, with a 2-story house, and the soffits being way up high in the air (and not to mention my much smaller budget than my folk's), I'm really second-guessing placement and lens size/viewing angle.

Additional info: I have plenty of Cat6, and already have the hardware in place for a Blue Iris server, aside from a POE switch or rackmount injector to use in conjunction with my 48-port switch, the only hardware I really need are the POE cameras.


Home pictures for reference:

 

[looney2ns]

Study the Wiki and Cliff Notes.
The goal is to ID who did it, not just what happened.
Camera mounted higher than 7-8ft will likely not get a face ID.
2.8mm lens is worthless out doors except next to the front door for face ID's. See the IPVM calculator in the Cliff notes.
Look at the many reviews here on cams.
You need two cams at your driveway, one on each side of the overhead door at about 7ft, overlapping their view with each other.
Stick with Varifocal turret cams.
House on a slab or crawl?
Again, on a real computer study the above links.
Buy once, cry once.

 

[mat200]

Please see the bottom of this post for pictures of my home for reference.

I'm planning on adding cameras to my home and am looking at the Amcrest IP8M-T2499EW turrent cams in both the 2.8mm and 4mm variants. For the exterior of my house, I want to get 4-6 cameras, however, I'm having difficulty planning placement, mainly due to the high soffits all around, as there's only soffits on the first floor at the porch, and that's it. I'm thought about placing cameras on the white corner trim of the siding, about 9-10 ft up from the ground, but they'll stick out and be pretty obvious. For the back yard, I suppose it won't be too much of a problem, but I was considering one on the left side of the garage door, about 2 feet or so above the light, and I have a feeling it'll stick out too much. If I decide to install cameras on the vinyl siding trim along the corners, I'll see if I can run cat6 from the soffits, tucked behind the trim to hide it and protect it from the elements.

My initial plan is to:

• have one on the left edge of the house, a couple feet above the garage, sweeping the vehicles and covering immediately in front of the garage door. Unsure here on 2.8mm or 4mm. Getting quality footage of vehicles in the street would be nice as well, but of course, license plates would be difficult without a quality, dedicated camera for that.
• have one to the right back corner of the front porch, covering the front door and window. I had thought about a 2.8mm here to cover all of the porch, and the driveway. Since it's not getting oncoming faces, except for maybe if people walk on the driveway, then turn onto the sidewalk up to the door, I thought maybe a 4mm would be ideal instead, to get better quality facial features. Again, I'm undecided here.
• have a number of cameras covering the back yard. It'd be nice to have 100% coverage for my dog, but I know that'll be difficult, especially given that the fence is attached to the house about 15-25 feet up from the back of the house... I think I'll have to do 2-3 back here, trying to cover as much of the back as possible, with also having a camera covering the gate.

Aside from that, I'm really not too sure.

With all that being said...

• Where would you install the cameras (how far up if not under a soffit)?
• Would you chose 2.8 or 4mm for its location?

I appreciate your help here. I installed 13x Hikvision 4MP cameras at my parent's place about 4-5 years ago (17 there now with the use of some interior wireless cams), and they've been working great. With that amount of cameras, and really only having 1 story, placement was very easy. However, with a 2-story house, and the soffits being way up high in the air (and not to mention my much smaller budget than my folk's), I'm really second-guessing placement and lens size/viewing angle.

Additional info: I have plenty of Cat6, and already have the hardware in place for a Blue Iris server, aside from a POE switch or rackmount injector to use in conjunction with my 48-port switch, the only hardware I really need are the POE cameras.


Home pictures for reference:

HI @eptesicus

You have an attached garage with drywall which has not yet been fully cleaned up.

My suggestion:
Use that space as an opportunity to open up the dry way in key spots to get at least 4-5 camera positions to cover your front, and front door approach. ( you can have most cameras from there mounted 6-8 feet high without too many issues - just need to ID the studs and framing, should be easy enough with a stud finder and unpainted dry way.