Think I need a better camera. Car prowl

[Roger]

Had a visit from a scumbag last night. Accidentally left my door unlocked so that is on me. Have a Amcrest IP8M-2496E running Dahua firmware. I use the Sunrise Sunset script to set it to BW at night. Light in driveway is LED on a motion sensor. Need to figure out a better camera for night vision. Any suggestions?

 

[bigredfish]

Some suggestions..

• Lower the camera. Its about 2ft too high. You;ll get better face ID
• 8MP cameras dont do as well in low light in general due to the sensor size vs number of pixels. 2-4MP cameras generally do much better in low light
• IR so strong it washes out the details. Dont know if this camera has SmartIR or at minimum the ability to tweak Gain and Exp to tone down the IR
• Your floods seem to be aimed to the left and didnt really light up the perp that much
• Assume you have a sister crossing camera on the other side of the garage?

Recommend the Dahua 5442 series

This is the 5442 in B&W with IR and my driveway coach lights on (This was during testing and I could even lower the brightness on it more)
(switch youtube player to 1440)

Color (switch youtube player to 1440)


And my old 2MP analog CVI camera

 

[Roger]

Some suggestions..

• Lower the camera. Its about 2ft too high. You;ll get better face ID
• 8MP cameras dont do as well in low light in general due to the sensor size vs number of pixels. 2-4MP cameras generally do much better in low light
• IR so strong it washes out the details. Dont know if this camera has SmartIR or at minimum the ability to tweak Gain and Exp to tone down the IR
• Your floods seem to be aimed to the left and didnt really light up the perp that much
• Assume you have a sister crossing camera on the other side of the garage?

Recommend the Dahua 5442 series

This is the 5442 in B&W with IR and my driveway coach lights on (This was during testing and I could even lower the brightness on it more)
(switch youtube player to 1440)

Color (switch youtube player to 1440)


And my old 2MP analog CVI camera
View attachment 68403

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a T5442 in the back yard. Think I might go with the varifocal model in the front.
Don't have a good place to mount the camera so it is lower.
Have set camera to smart IR. Will go out tonight and see if it is better.
Might need to add floodlights on other side of garage door to get even illumination. That flood is more to light the sidewalk path then for security. Guess I need to rethink that some.

 

[bigredfish]

Id look at the fixed 3.6mm (I have bullets) as it is slightly better than the VF. You are trying to capture a pretty big area with one camera, suggest tighter focus for coverage of the drive and your vehicles, dont need to see the whole street and neighbors.

 

[mat200]

Had a visit from a scumbag last night. Accidentally left my door unlocked so that is on me. Have a Amcrest IP8M-2496E running Dahua firmware. I use the Sunrise Sunset script to set it to BW at night. Light in driveway is LED on a motion sensor. Need to figure out a better camera for night vision. Any suggestions?

Indeed @Roger

Looks like you need
1) More cameras
2) Better cameras for low light
3) better angle on suspects.

I recommend at least 2 cameras covering your driveway, one on each side of the garage door.

 

[looney2ns]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a T5442 in the back yard. Think I might go with the varifocal model in the front.
Don't have a good place to mount the camera so it is lower.
Have set camera to smart IR. Will go out tonight and see if it is better.
Might need to add floodlights on other side of garage door to get even illumination. That flood is more to light the sidewalk path then for security. Guess I need to rethink that some.

Show us a picture of the front of your garage.

 

[looney2ns]

Had a visit from a scumbag last night. Accidentally left my door unlocked so that is on me. Have a Amcrest IP8M-2496E running Dahua firmware. I use the Sunrise Sunset script to set it to BW at night. Light in driveway is LED on a motion sensor. Need to figure out a better camera for night vision. Any suggestions?

Common issues with camera image | IP Cam Talk

 

[samplenhold]

I agree with everything stated above. A few observations.

The motion light had zero impact on the perp's actions.

Even if the pic was perfectly exposed, the field of view is too wide and the cam mounted too high to get a decent face shot.

You need a second cam on the other side of the garage door. From that position, the cam would have given a perfect frontal face shot.

With no color at night, you have no clothing info or description of the person's skin or tats.

 

[djernie]

So sad some of these kids, mom will say he is a good kid he wouldn't do that. Pisses me off.

 

[looney2ns]

So sad some of these kids, mom will say he is a good kid he wouldn't do that. Pisses me off.

I ran a movie theatre for over 25 yrs. When I would sell tickets, I could see the kids getting out of their parents cars, and could watch the horns grow out of many of them as they walked the 50ft to the window. They would either:
1-They would buy a ticket, and not enter the building. Sometimes they would reappear about the time the movie was over, lots of times they didn't. Ticket was proof to mom.
2-Hang around out front until parents car was out of sight, the kid would leave and not come back. Went to the local shopping strip behind me and cause'd havoc.
3-Actually get ticket, come in, then cause me hell. Kicked a lot of them out. When the parents arrived, I could see why the little brat acted the way he/she did.
I was the bad guy because I interrupted their kid free evening.
This was 25 yrs ago, I can't imagine dealing with it today. Upper class socioeconomic area.