2 locations possible for driveway cam - what do you think?

[davidelsbury]

Hello,
I have a turret covering my driveway providing a wide view of my property which does a great job. However, I would like to have something with a tighter field of view to cover the approach.

I could mount something with a longer lens up on the green part of my house which would pick up down towards the end of the drive. It would be nice to have something that can throw IR that way also -currently the gate acts as a big IR bounce and I wonder if a camera up above would be affected by that also.


I could alternately mount something on the corner of my garage which would fire across from the side as per the below pic (shot with my phone from the location proposed)

What would y'all do, do you think?
Cheers
D

 

[Old Timer]

I can't quite picture your setup.
Could you grab a pic from mapquest or google maps with a couple marks to show your plans?
Also mark the gate you want to cover.
I am think you would probably use a variable lens to crop it down to just your gate.

 

[davidelsbury]

Thanks for the reply.
The garage cam is the "Proposed 2" mark. Up to about 13 metres from the camera.
The "Proposed 1" is the green area on the top of my house. Up to about 19 Metres from the camera.
In the second pic the red zone is the area where I would be wanting to cover.

I guess I am just unsure about the feasability of covering it even with a variable angle camera from so far away?

 

[Old Timer]

It looks like you could cover it from proposed location 1 if there will not be any vehicles in the way.
I would use a varifocal lens to set it perfect, but you could measure the distance and width then use
this calculator to show what width you will cover.

Focal Length Calculator

Calculate the focal point of a camera to help determine the best size lens to order. Save & view your results later.

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Otherwise it would be nice to put the cameras on building labeled 12 and you would be nice and
close for good quality shots without a big zoom camera.
Do you have ethernet and power available there?

Here is a good read at a real computer and there are other tools, etc on the site if you browse.

Complete Newbie Guide for setting up your IP CAM

...

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[davidelsbury]

Thank you,
I;ve read the cliff notes previously. Just wanted another opinion I guess.

The building labelled 12 is another house - not mine - the only options I have are within my property which is basically the two I proposed.

Appreciate the help, I'll keep thinking about it.

Cheers
D

 

[bradner]

Thank you,
I;ve read the cliff notes previously. Just wanted another opinion I guess.

The building labelled 12 is another house - not mine - the only options I have are within my property which is basically the two I proposed.

Appreciate the help, I'll keep thinking about it.

Cheers
D

To give you an idea, I have a varifocal cam (Dahua IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E) full zoomed at 64mm viewing an area 33 meters away and I view an area about 3m wide x 3m high. You could likely easily cover that area with a cam that zooms to ~20 - 30mm or so. The straight on view minimizes horizontal movement greatly which increases your chances of having a clear image at night. I'd mount it as low as you practically could (2.5m high or so) to maximize the head on view too.

Oh, about the IR bounce off the gate- likely can't get away from that unfortunately. If you could mount an external IR illuminator on/around the gate somehow, that would be best as you wouldn't get bugs going to your camera and no IR bounce off the gate.

Looking at your pics again, mounting a varifocal beside your current cam should work if you use an external IR illuminator on the fence in front of your garage. You may need to disguise it somehow - possibly under the roof overhang of your garage near that fence by the gate...

The setup you're thinking of doing looks pretty straightforward since you have great sight lines. I'd even try mounting the cam in the "Proposed 2" spot because you should be able to angle it pretty easily too, and it would be closer to your target area. POE should be easy to get from your garage there too.

I'm adding on random thoughts as I review your pics - using Proposed 2, you'd be above the gate and shouldn't have IR bounce issues too if you keep the cam away from the IR reflecting on the overhang above it - and you may get away with a 12mm zoom cam which are quite common. Since #2 spot is a bit offset, you'll reduce headlight glare a bit at night but that's hard to avoid no matter what generally. I'm sold on #2 spot!