Secure my house

[Eli Sechler]

I am wanting to set up a security system on the outside of my house. I have an idea of how many cameras i am going to to need (8) total one being a door bell camera, and 2 being on the inside of the house. So looking like i would need a 8 channel system. I am just wanting insight on what others would do and possibly what cameras to use etc. Some of the cameras are going to be located on the 2nd floor under the soffit (which i know is a no no for identifying purpose but really just want them for an over sight of my yard. Again what would be the best cameras for that scenario? Mounted roughly 20ft in the air? Also looking for a good camera to face down my driveway, Driveway is roughly 160ft long 25ft wide. I attached the layout of my house and red boxes where i am thinking i should mount them to get best coverage around my house. I did not include a red box for a drive way camera. I was looking at this lorex system on there website 4K 8-channel 2TB Wired NVR System with 8 Smart Deterrence Cameras . Budget is not really an issue but i would like to keep it under 1k if possible. The must haves are the ability to have access to an app on the phone with real time motion detection as well a NVR POE system to record. All advise is welcome

 

[samplenhold]

You really need to define why you want a cam in each position, what you want from that view. More info is needed as to what the surrounding area is, like you stated that your driveway is 160ft long. That tells me that you are not in an urban or suburban location. So your monitoring needs will be different than mine.

There is nothing wrong with having some cams mounted on your 2nd floor soffits as long as you realize they will NOT give you anything of value with respect to getting an ID on a perp.

The kit you linked has eight of the same cams. They are all 4K cams and are very wide angle views, 2.8mm F1.6 lens. They would be fine for an overview cam, but unless you mount them at face height no more than 15 feet from the potential perp, you will not get a face shot that will help ID the perp. Also, there is no mention of which sensor is used, that tells me that it is probably not a large sensor for a 4K cam. Do not expect good color low light performance no matter what the marketing propaganda states.

Smartphone cam shots from your plan's cam positions, posted here, would help folks give you some input.

Please read the WIKI and Cliff Notes and pay close attention to the part about not chasing pixel count.

 

[samplenhold]

Also see what @Timokreon has to say about Lorex in this thread:

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[wittaj]

Keep in mind the Lorex all in a box kit is a very stripped down version with less than ideal MP/sensor ratios among other things, like bandwidth limited NVR and lesser quality. It is built cheap to sell cheap.

When we had a thief come thru here and get into a lot of cars, the police couldn't use one video or photo from anyone's system but mine. Not even my other neighbors Costco Lorex $1,300 8MP system provided useful info - the cams just didn't cut it at night.

His system wasn't even a year old and after that event has started replacing with cameras purchased from @EMPIRETECANDY here based on my recommendation and seeing my results. Andy's cameras were literally plug-n-play with the Lorex NVR. By the time we got inside, the cameras were already showing on his monitor. He is still shocked a 2MP camera performs better than his 4k cameras and he cannot figure out why- it is because his 8MP Lorex system was on the same size sensor as the 2MP so his cameras need over 4 times the light. Sensor size and optical zoom is more important than MP.

See this thread I put together demonstrating the value of focal length over MP, complete with camera recommendations based on distance to an object with which you would want to IDENTIFY.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

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[Eli Sechler]

You really need to define why you want a cam in each position, what you want from that view. More info is needed as to what the surrounding area is, like you stated that your driveway is 160ft long. That tells me that you are not in an urban or suburban location. So your monitoring needs will be different than mine.

There is nothing wrong with having some cams mounted on your 2nd floor soffits as long as you realize they will NOT give you anything of value with respect to getting an ID on a perp.

The kit you linked has eight of the same cams. They are all 4K cams and are very wide angle views, 2.8mm F1.6 lens. They would be fine for an overview cam, but unless you mount them at face height no more than 15 feet from the potential perp, you will not get a face shot that will help ID the perp. Also, there is no mention of which sensor is used, that tells me that it is probably not a large sensor for a 4K cam. Do not expect good color low light performance no matter what the marketing propaganda states.

Smartphone cam shots from your plan's cam positions, posted here, would help folks give you some input.

Please read the WIKI and Cliff Notes and pay close attention to the part about not chasing pixel count.

So i went ahead and took some photos around the house to give you an idea on what i am working with. Pretty much these are all the angles i want to cover. The back yard and side of the house i am more or less looking for a general overhead view of the yard. Down the driveway I would like to be able to pick up faces and drivers license plates if i have too. Then on the front door i figured a door bell camera would probably be sufficient there

 

[mat200]

So i went ahead and took some photos around the house to give you an idea on what i am working with. Pretty much these are all the angles i want to cover. The back yard and side of the house i am more or less looking for a general overhead view of the yard. Down the driveway I would like to be able to pick up faces and drivers license plates if i have too. Then on the front door i figured a door bell camera would probably be sufficient there

FYI - Andy has some good deals right now, I would look at the various suggestions and at least pick up a couple of cameras from Andy that folks here like. ( Dahua OEM )

Good time to save money on a few cameras.

You can add them to a Dahua OEM NVR or Blue Iris if you like.

iirc, the cameras you listed in that Lorex kit are Dahua OEM .. so you can replace 1-2 of those with a Dahua OEM camera from Andy if you like to get better low light image capture.

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[mattp]

Okay,
I'll try to break this down for you. I think @wittaj and the others have given you enough information to figure it out, but it may not sink in because you are new to this. If you get the Lorex cameras (or any wide angle cameras) you'll only be able to identify in an area like this:

And those Lorex cameras are TERRIBLE at night.
And if you place them up on a soffit, good luck!
What you would do better with is to use multiple cameras. Maybe like below.
Have 1 camera like this covering the area in orange (will require a varifocal "zoom" camera):

And then another camera like so:


Over the driveway, you may use a wide angle camera and a camera zoomed in to where the cars are parked.
I started like you and thought I could get away with 8 cameras...I now have that Lorex system boxed up and ready to sell. I am now using mostly varifocal cameras I bought from @EMPIRETECANDY. 6mm isn't enough for me putting these cameras up on my soffits. I have 12 cameras, and need to install a couple more.

Just my 2 cents, I'm sure the others on here will give you better advice.