Just setup my 2nd 5231R-Z as a driveway cam!

[Philip Gonzales]

Here is where I mounted it. Just above the garage door.

20171025_200731_1508981926312 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

I made extra sure to not make a noob mistake of setting my camera up too high. And I Fucking put it close to the trip!!! Almost impossible to tighten the set screw now!! What an idiot I am lol. I'm going to try and cut one of those hex bits in half and hold it with some pliers to see if I can tighten the screw.

20171025_200815 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

Even though I hate the way it looks on monitors I decided to go with corridor mode as it seemed appropriate.

20171025_201951 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

What do you think? Anything I can do to improve the situation?

1508985142170 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

Also now I'm not too sure what to do with my front door cam? I just zoomed out all the way and said ehh overview camera I guess?

1508984956708 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

As always your input is always welcome. Even if it is to call me an idiot for mounting my camera too close to the trim!

 

[mat200]

Hi,

The Front Door Cam, I would make certain you can get a good ID shot with that camera out to your car door in your driveway, that way if anyone walks up to your front door you should have a good image hopefully.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Hi,

The Front Door Cam, I would make certain you can get a good ID shot with that camera out to your car door in your driveway, that way if anyone walks up to your front door you should have a good image hopefully.

Yeah I kind of want a more zoomed in one for the street but not sure. Seems kind of excessive. I guess if someone is on the sidewalk by the street I don't really need to ID him or her. Just in driveway and sidewalk that goes up to my door. I feel odd being zoomed out all the way on both of them. Like I know I should be zoomed in more but I guess if all I care about is the driveway and front door then I am OK?

 

[looney2ns]

Pics won't open, just upload them direct to here. Less hassle for everyone.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Pics won't open, just upload them direct to here. Less hassle for everyone.

@looney2ns Is this better? Is full image too big? Should I use thumbnail? A few minutes ago I did zoom in a little tighter on driveway to eliminate all the space in front of the bumper of the car and to get a little tighter of a shot.

 

[bp2008]

Yeah I kind of want a more zoomed in one for the street but not sure. Seems kind of excessive. I guess if someone is on the sidewalk by the street I don't really need to ID him or her.

That is what I thought until I caught kids throwing rocks at my front window.

 

[looney2ns]

Much better Philip.

 

[looney2ns]

Just my 2 cents, I would use landscape mode, and adjust the view down until you are just below the neighbors roof line. His driveway light may be affecting your exposure.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Just my 2 cents, I would use landscape mode, and adjust the view down until you are just below the neighbors roof line. His driveway light may be affecting your exposure.

Thanks @looney2ns I will give it a shot and see how it comes out.

 

[Kawboy12R]

I'd go landscape too. You don't need to see your own plate, you can take his light out of the picture (bright and aimed directly into your lens), plus you see more of the street, although that's fairly well covered already by the front door camera.

 

[mat200]

I'd go landscape too. You don't need to see your own plate, you can take his light out of the picture (bright and aimed directly into your lens), plus you see more of the street, although that's fairly well covered already by the front door camera.

@Kawboy12R @looney2ns do you know if it possible to mask out the light and get better night image results? ( in this case we can lower the camera angle, however sometimes we can not easily do that )

 

[Kawboy12R]

There's privacy masking in the camera->video->overlay section but I don't know if it'll change the gain or just not display the bright light while the scene is still artificially darkened.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Just my 2 cents, I would use landscape mode, and adjust the view down until you are just below the neighbors roof line. His driveway light may be affecting your exposure.

I'd go landscape too. You don't need to see your own plate, you can take his light out of the picture (bright and aimed directly into your lens), plus you see more of the street, although that's fairly well covered already by the front door camera.

Well I tried it in landscape and I wasn't a fan. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.

Zoomed out all the way



I think I zoomed in by like one click on this one if I remember correctly. Hmm I kind of like this view now. What do you guys think? Did I make it better or worse?



I flipped it back into corridor mode but now I am thinking about putting it in landscape mode again. What would you do?

There's privacy masking in the camera->video->overlay section but I don't know if it'll change the gain or just not display the bright light while the scene is still artificially darkened.

I'll give that a try.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Landscape but zoomed in more.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Landscape but zoomed in more.

Man I don't know. I just can't decide. I like the vertical because if someone snuck in front on the car they would have to pass in front of the camera. On landscape mode someone could walk into the garage and as long as they stayed in front of the car I wouldn't even have a motion trigger. Vertical is pretty narrow around the car too though.

I kind of like how both the images mind of go together.
Man I am so indecisive!

 

[bigredfish]

I would stick with landcape in that second pic (slight zoom) and angle the camera down a bit more to cover the front of the car and not worry about the yard across the street at all. Front door cam I'd angle as far to the left as possible to get as much of your car and walk in the picture for facial ID on someone walking up to your door.

THEN get you an overview cam for the street on a corner of the house or garage. Most folks try to capture too much area with too few cams in my opinion and end up with a bunch of compromises as to ID quality. Been there done that myself early on.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

@looney2ns @Kawboy12R @bigredfish

OK, so Landscape with a bit of zoom. I like it. Vertical mode was too narrow. I walked in front of the garage and the video wasn't even usable. I did some quick comparison in horizontal mode and this was much better.

@bigredfish
Do you think I should angle even further down?

Thanks a bunch to everyone who is assisting. I think it is looking better already.

 

[Kawboy12R]

I'd angle up a hair and a bit more zoom.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

I'd angle up a hair and a bit more zoom.

Did I zoom in too far? I moved it up but then zoomed in. Should I zoom out a hair or leave it as is? Surely you don't want me to zoom in more? Or do You? Lol

 

[Philip Gonzales]

I would stick with landcape in that second pic (slight zoom) and angle the camera down a bit more to cover the front of the car and not worry about the yard across the street at all. Front door cam I'd angle as far to the left as possible to get as much of your car and walk in the picture for facial ID on someone walking up to your door.

THEN get you an overview cam for the street on a corner of the house or garage. Most folks try to capture too much area with too few cams in my opinion and end up with a bunch of compromises as to ID quality. Been there done that myself early on.

I think I'm going to set my front door cam back up like this. Look OK? Or should I tweak it more?