Please help me choose some cameras

[SoConfused]

I have been reading about IP cameras for days now and still am no closer to narrowing down what I want to buy. There are just too many choices and I don't know what would work best for us - Just a really bad case of analysis paralysis.

I have a Synology NAS and will be using Surveillance Station for my NVR. I have a 5,000 sqft shop space with employees, and a front door/gate I'd like to monitor (During the day and at night, to catch anyone entering the property. My primary goal indoors is to catch theft of small parts, because the parts are easily pocketable and very expensive. So I need to be able to not only identify a face, but also identify that someone has taken something from a drawer and put it into their pocket. My shop space is approximately 50'x100'.

Outdoors, I'd like a camera over the front door, facing our entry gate. For this camera, we have a large street lamp over the gate, so it's illuminated pretty well already. It would be great to be able to read a license plate at night from this camera. The distance from the door to the gate is about 30'.

I was thinking on the inside of the building, 6 cameras. One in each corner and one in the middle of each long wall. This is as much a deterrent as anything, so just having the cameras recording will probably stop most employee theft. For the exterior, I was thinking the 1 camera over the door, and possibly another camera to give a broad overview of our parking lot.

So all in all, I think I'm looking at 6-8 indoor cameras, the gate camera, and the parking lot camera. I'd like to spend less than $2,000 on the cameras. It's important that the footage be usable when we need it, but I also don't want to break the bank - I've already spent a ton on the NAS and hard drives.

I appreciate any advice you have for me. I've just become overwhelmed with the options here and I'm not sure what path is best any more.

 

[mat200]

I have been reading about IP cameras for days now and still am no closer to narrowing down what I want to buy. There are just too many choices and I don't know what would work best for us - Just a really bad case of analysis paralysis.

I have a Synology NAS and will be using Surveillance Station for my NVR. I have a 5,000 sqft shop space with employees, and a front door/gate I'd like to monitor (During the day and at night, to catch anyone entering the property. My primary goal indoors is to catch theft of small parts, because the parts are easily pocketable and very expensive. So I need to be able to not only identify a face, but also identify that someone has taken something from a drawer and put it into their pocket. My shop space is approximately 50'x100'.

Outdoors, I'd like a camera over the front door, facing our entry gate. For this camera, we have a large street lamp over the gate, so it's illuminated pretty well already. It would be great to be able to read a license plate at night from this camera. The distance from the door to the gate is about 30'.

I was thinking on the inside of the building, 6 cameras. One in each corner and one in the middle of each long wall. This is as much a deterrent as anything, so just having the cameras recording will probably stop most employee theft. For the exterior, I was thinking the 1 camera over the door, and possibly another camera to give a broad overview of our parking lot.

So all in all, I think I'm looking at 6-8 indoor cameras, the gate camera, and the parking lot camera. I'd like to spend less than $2,000 on the cameras. It's important that the footage be usable when we need it, but I also don't want to break the bank - I've already spent a ton on the NAS and hard drives.

I appreciate any advice you have for me. I've just become overwhelmed with the options here and I'm not sure what path is best any more.

Welcome @SoConfused

5000 sq ft, primary goal catch theft of small parts.

You're gonna need a lot of pixels for that, that is a lot more cameras imho.

Suggest getting ONE good varifocal camera and testing it, and seeing how it can help you.
Test mount it, test to see if you can catch someone pocketing merchandise.

Also, do consider other traditional methods to reduce inventory loss.

 

[SoConfused]

I probably rushed too much in writing my message. The parts storage is concentrated in one specific small area and that happens to be one of the corners, so any halfway decent camera would suffice. The rest of the cameras are just to get a broad overview of the shop area for insurance and employee monitoring purposes. Inventory loss preventiln is a main goal, but that's really coverable by the single camera that will be in that area.

We mainly just want to get the premises recorded for whatever may come our way.

I had considered purchasing a variable focus camera for testing purposes, but I'm on a tight deadline avd don't really have time to do that. That's why I'm looking for some good general purpose recommendations here, because I need to get it up and running within the next two weeks.

 

[mat200]

I probably rushed too much in writing my message. The parts storage is concentrated in one specific small area and that happens to be one of the corners, so any halfway decent camera would suffice. The rest of the cameras are just to get a broad overview of the shop area for insurance and employee monitoring purposes. Inventory loss preventiln is a main goal, but that's really coverable by the single camera that will be in that area.

We mainly just want to get the premises recorded for whatever may come our way.

I had considered purchasing a variable focus camera for testing purposes, but I'm on a tight deadline avd don't really have time to do that. That's why I'm looking for some good general purpose recommendations here, because I need to get it up and running within the next two weeks.

Well, with a tight deadline you're going to have challenges making a good selection.

Look for SouthernYankee's welcome message and executive summary notes, he's got some models worth considering in it.

 

[Mike A.]

Well, with a tight deadline you're going to have challenges making a good selection...

Yep. As someone I worked with once said, "We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it over."

Study up a little and make good decisions going in; otherwise, you'll likely end up with things that you'll want to change and spending more money. Your budget is reasonable for some good cams. If you really have to do it that fast then maybe emphasize flexibility - Get some variable focus cams that can be used for a variety of purposes. You'll probably want more anyway so you can repurpose those once you're into it and know better what you need for specific locations.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

For business places use dome is better, esp in the shop, customer is not happy a turret or a bullet watching on him, indoor will be no problem for the Light issues.

 

[looney2ns]

This would fit most of your requirements.
Review-OEM Loryta IPC-T5442T-ZE Varifocal 4mp camera (Dahua) | IP Cam Talk