Tips and tricks for cameras when having lightning on house

[kolbasz]

Again, only you can decide that.

My front porch has two sets of lights. Coach lights and pot lights. They each have a switch at the front door. I replaced the switch with auto-timers that adjust for the daily change in the rise and setting of the sun. They come on automatically and shut off the same. No one ever touches those switches since there is no reason to. The only time I have had them turn off was during power outages. And only a few of those outages were at night. So even though my BI server and POE switches are on UPS and last about 30 minutes, those cams will not have good color video. Some will switch to IR as I have them set that way. For the very few times that has happened in the last two years, I do not worry about it.

I have multiple cams that cover the front of the house. That includes the driveway. I do not expect one cam to do everything. Each has a job and was chosen for its functionality to perform that job. It has been my experience that the front door is the main access point for perps getting into the type of house we live in, either for burglary or home invasion. So along the front of my house I have a total of 11 cams, not including the LPR cams. I have 4 cams around the front door. I have two cams that look along the front of the porch. I have three cams that cover the driveway and another that gives a view of the driveway. If you come in through the front door, or the windows on the front porch, or hit my car on the driveway, I have you on multiple cams. One of them should be able to give me a good shot of you.

You can't have a 100% error free system. It is up to you to decide what is important and what jobs you expect your system to perform.

Agreed. I plan to order a shelly 1 for the rocker switch that is there now and implement it into a similar plan that can adjust accordingly with the rising/setting sun and adjust on its own. Color there is key.

While I will likely never get to the point of 11 cameras at the front of the house, breakdowns like this are useful to making decisions to adding another or simply explaining something to my wife. So, can you speak to some of the decisions you have made, both camera specific (job and function) and positioning? Not sure if this thread is the right place or not, but hearing a story like this camera, to the lower left of my front door does x and this does y can help drive my implementation.

My front door (first camera) was a 5442, It is a good camera, but in this spot I do wonder if it was the specifically right camera here. While I am not sure what will replace it, if anything, I do know I will want 1-2, 5442 at the front of the driveway, so either way, it will not be wasted.

 

[samplenhold]

Not sure if this thread is the right place or not,

Don't want to hijack the OP's thread. Maybe I will do a thread talking about planning an choices. But it would take some thought to do it right. I have been thinking of doing a couple of 'case study' type of threads around installing my LPR cams. But again, to do it right takes quiet a bit of thought and time.

 

[Plarsson]

Don't want to hijack the OP's thread. Maybe I will do a thread talking about planning an choices. But it would take some thought to do it right. I have been thinking of doing a couple of 'case study' type of threads around installing my LPR cams. But again, to do it right takes quiet a bit of thought and time.

No worries, Im interested as well

 

[kolbasz]

Don't want to hijack the OP's thread. Maybe I will do a thread talking about planning an choices. But it would take some thought to do it right. I have been thinking of doing a couple of 'case study' type of threads around installing my LPR cams. But again, to do it right takes quiet a bit of thought and time.

makes sense, let be step back a bit, what is the purpose of the knee high camera to the lower left?

 

[looney2ns]

Looking at these pictures raises a new question about strategy.

What is the ideal strategy, exterior light illuminating the yard or IR. I ask because I noticed my IR video is quite crap at night, so I turned it off and it seemed as though the image actually improved. While still B/W, I saw farther into the yard. The caveat, my doorbell cam has terrible night vision and when the camera IR is off, this image is then black.

My main camera is the IPC-t5442t-ze, so the better night vision is expected. I could further illuminate the front by turning on the house lights, something I never do. The front of the house is always dark at night, so do I change to a strategy that turns the front light on as opposed to the camera going ot night mode with IR?

Also, while looking to improve night imaging, I saw a post recently that mentioned that I should be using manual shutter speeds vs auto, is this a true statement and if so, is it a lot of trial and error to pick the right number?

View attachment 73643View attachment 73648

Most any camera will not give you the best performance if you leave it set to auto. Each location is different and the camera needs to be adjusted for those variables.
See this: Common issues with camera image | IP Cam Talk

 

[looney2ns]

makes sense, let be step back a bit, what is the purpose of the knee high camera to the lower left?

So you can possible get a face shot of someone that is wearing a hat or hoodie pulled down a ways over their face by looking up.
Most people also look down when walking up a step.
Don't permanently mount any camera without thoroughly testing the location first for a minimum of 24hrs or longer.
This for beside the door possibly. Front door ID camera IPC-HDBW4231F MiniWedge

 

[samplenhold]

what is the purpose of the knee high camera to the lower left?

That one is a left over from the original cheap WIFI cams I bought BEFORE I found IPCAMTALK. It goes offline several times a day. But I like the view it gives me from that position. But not enough to replace it with a better cam. That would mean running a fourth cat5e around the door frame and though the wall into my office to the POE switch there.

This is a cap of the six cams that cover the front door/porch. I started out with the four around the door and just recently added the two that view along the porch. Those were added since I was running cat5e for the LPR, I might as well run more and put more cams there, well because, why not?



So I started with a single Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-ZE back in August of 2018. I took the recommendations that @looney2ns and @SouthernYankee and @bigredfish gave me about getting just one cam and test spots before buying more. I knew that without major work to the porch, there was no way for me to get cable to the outside of the door frame. I am retired and prefer to do these kind of things myself rather than paying someone to do it. It has become a hobby for me. Doing it yourself is really the only way to fully understand the system and be able to get exactly what you want. I went the Blue Iris route also. If I have questions or issues, I will work it out until I figure it out or can't and then ask here. So far this has worked for me and I have learned a lot.

So the testing at the front door gave me a lot of info. Since I had to mount the cams inside behind the glass, IR was not in the program. That meant having to run the porch lights all night long. Also, put brighter, higher temp LED lights in. Also have to keep the windows clean. Since the front door faces south, and there are some trees, and the pot light is centered in the door area, there are changing lighting considerations. Shadows cause issues with getting a good face shot. Also, I noticed that since the area right up against the door is narrow, people that come up to the door don't always look straight forward. Usually their head is turned one way or the other. So to increase the odds of getting a good face cap, I knew that one cam was not going to work. So I got three IPC-HDBW4231FP-AS MiniWedge cams in 3.6mm. Two are mounted at face level on either side of the door, and the third is mounted at knee level on the right side. I left the WIFI cam on the left side since it was already there. I chose 3.6mm based on testing with the varifocal. That gave me the best FOV in the lenses that the MiniWedge was offered in.

So why that cam? Well the IR could be turned off. It is a nice low-profile cam. It could be mounted sideways since the lens twists and turns and the video could be flipped 90, 180, and 270 degrees. It was 2MP on a 1/2.8" Starvis CMOS, which was the then current good sensor. It was also only $116 at the time. I could have put the same 5231 varifocal turret that I tested with, but the miniwedge did not stick out as much and the 5231 was $166 at the time. I really felt that the 5231 was more cam than needed.

The positioning was chosen to give me good face shots. Two at face level and then the two at knee level looking a bit up. People's heads are always moving. In my tests those height gave me the best chance of getting a good face shot. I had left the 5231 turret in the front door, along with two of those WIFI cams, there for several weeks in different lighting conditions, to convince myself those were viable positions. Then as proof of concept, I bought one MiniWedge and tested it in various positions in the front door windows for a month. Then I bought the other two and did the permanent installs. As Looney said, a shot from below of the face gives a different perspective and can mitigate the issues with folks wearing caps and looking down.

Hope this helps and sorry if this hijacks the thread, but @Plarsson had said he was interested too.

 

[kolbasz]

That one is a left over from the original cheap WIFI cams I bought BEFORE I found IPCAMTALK. It goes offline several times a day. But I like the view it gives me from that position. But not enough to replace it with a better cam. That would mean running a fourth cat5e around the door frame and though the wall into my office to the POE switch there.

This is a cap of the six cams that cover the front door/porch. I started out with the four around the door and just recently added the two that view along the porch. Those were added since I was running cat5e for the LPR, I might as well run more and put more cams there, well because, why not?

View attachment 73708

So I started with a single Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-ZE back in August of 2018. I took the recommendations that @looney2ns and @SouthernYankee and @bigredfish gave me about getting just one cam and test spots before buying more. I knew that without major work to the porch, there was no way for me to get cable to the outside of the door frame. I am retired and prefer to do these kind of things myself rather than paying someone to do it. It has become a hobby for me. Doing it yourself is really the only way to fully understand the system and be able to get exactly what you want. I went the Blue Iris route also. If I have questions or issues, I will work it out until I figure it out or can't and then ask here. So far this has worked for me and I have learned a lot.

So the testing at the front door gave me a lot of info. Since I had to mount the cams inside behind the glass, IR was not in the program. That meant having to run the porch lights all night long. Also, put brighter, higher temp LED lights in. Also have to keep the windows clean. Since the front door faces south, and there are some trees, and the pot light is centered in the door area, there are changing lighting considerations. Shadows cause issues with getting a good face shot. Also, I noticed that since the area right up against the door is narrow, people that come up to the door don't always look straight forward. Usually their head is turned one way or the other. So to increase the odds of getting a good face cap, I knew that one cam was not going to work. So I got three IPC-HDBW4231FP-AS MiniWedge cams in 3.6mm. Two are mounted at face level on either side of the door, and the third is mounted at knee level on the right side. I left the WIFI cam on the left side since it was already there. I chose 3.6mm based on testing with the varifocal. That gave me the best FOV in the lenses that the MiniWedge was offered in.

So why that cam? Well the IR could be turned off. It is a nice low-profile cam. It could be mounted sideways since the lens twists and turns and the video could be flipped 90, 180, and 270 degrees. It was 2MP on a 1/2.8" Starvis CMOS, which was the then current good sensor. It was also only $116 at the time. I could have put the same 5231 varifocal turret that I tested with, but the miniwedge did not stick out as much and the 5231 was $166 at the time. I really felt that the 5231 was more cam than needed.

The positioning was chosen to give me good face shots. Two at face level and then the two at knee level looking a bit up. People's heads are always moving. In my tests those height gave me the best chance of getting a good face shot. I had left the 5231 turret in the front door, along with two of those WIFI cams, there for several weeks in different lighting conditions, to convince myself those were viable positions. Then as proof of concept, I bought one MiniWedge and tested it in various positions in the front door windows for a month. Then I bought the other two and did the permanent installs. As Looney said, a shot from below of the face gives a different perspective and can mitigate the issues with folks wearing caps and looking down.

Hope this helps and sorry if this hijacks the thread, but @Plarsson had said he was interested too.

This is awesome, I never would ha e given any consideration to lower cameras like that.

Now it just gets the mind going about how to add more cameras. Rely on a main wired and add a cheaper wireless one like ezviz. Or, run another wire or invest in a unifi flex switch to split the one poe into multiple.

My main one is at 7' now and it is good. The doorbell is straight on but struggles at night, so really thinking on all ends. Lowering the main means to replace the aluminum panel that has a hole in it now just to lower a foot. Thought about the other mount that brings the camera out as that would lower is a few inches.

Tons and tons of options and hearing ideas and stories like yours really help make sense of strategies.

Thank you

 

[samplenhold]

Rely on a main wired and add a cheaper wireless one like ezviz

The cheap WIFI cam that I have in that position is NOT relied upon. All the others are hard wired and it is those I rely on.

Yes, as your understanding of cams and perps evolves, so does one's plan. My plan was very simple in the beginning. Never would I imagine that I would have 21 cams and still be planning more.