Advice on Dahuas to secure London backyard

[RedHering]

Hi all,

so my shed was broken into two weekends ago and the bikes stolen - very upset about this. Now its time to stop considering the neighbour's privacy and plaster my house in cameras and alarms.

My level of experience so far is:
-Synology 214 plus Foscam 9826 indoor IP camera (this is my only reference point for IP cameras)
-Logitech Circle 2
-Brand new Amazon Blink XT as knee-jerk reaction after the break-in happened.
-I've read the cliff notes.

Whats happened now is that i realised that even expensive smart cameras (the blink costs 200 pounds for two and the circle 2 like 150) are beaten at night hands down by my 5 year old Foscam camera...
So I am going to do the painful thing and return all these crappy smart cams and install IP cams in conjunction with poe to my synology NAS.

I want to cover two areas: one is my rear patio as can be seen from the two blink cameras I have currently installed there (one on the first floor, and the second one on the violated shed on the ground floor):




Secondly I want to cover the alley running behind my house:


After spending hours on this forum, I'm still not sure what the best cam for me is. Dahue just have TOO MANY CAMERAS
My budget is about 200 USD per camera and the dealer I've found in the UK is:
suppliers of top brands of CCTV cameras, Door Entry systems, Access Control systems, Intruder alarms.
They have quite a wide range.

So my questions are as follows
1) I need a wide angle for the first floor surveillance of the patio as the thief can climb over the wall at any point, so I need to stick with 2.8mm correct?
2) Given the relatively short distance to the wall, I'll need some kind of smart IR to avoid washing faces out (I want to be able to send a photo of the thief's face to the police next time!) Is it safe to assume that all of the Dahua's around that price tag have this? (There seems no way to filter their products for this particular feature unless i've missed it on their website)
3) I know Domes are not recommended due to IR issues etc. At the same time, I dont want a bullet as the cameras are not that far from the potential access routes of a thief and a bullet would be easy to snag with a rope and pull down i fear. So perhaps an outdoor turret is the way to go? IPC-HDW5231R-ZE?
4) For the alley behind the house specifically, again, camera could easily be snagged so i think a dome or turret required. However, given the narrowness of the alley, a 6mm lense should be good. That alley will never have any ambient light in it so Starvis might not be enough and instead will need a good IR

I hope the essay above makes sense, I'd appreciate any help!

 

[awsum140]

Consider using varifocal cameras since their focal length can be adjusted to suit each, individual, location. If you want a camera with microphone consider the HDW5231 series from Dahua at under $200 USD. If you don't need audio pick-up capabilities, the HDW2231R-ZS is, basically, the same camera with the same video capabilities. Both are 2MP and have excellent low/no visible light capabilities. I'd also suggest reading the Wiki, in the blue bar at the top of the page, and read the Cliff Notes in the Wiki. Also, contact Andy at Empire Technology, for good pricing and support. His email is listed in the Cliff Notes.

 

[looney2ns]

Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE

Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal

 

[petexa]

+1 for contacting Andy at Empire Technology, i'm also in the UK and Andy's turnaround time on the shipping is great. Best to email him and get a price.

I have both cameras that looney has suggested and the images are great.

 

[aristobrat]

A wide-angle lens is great for getting an overview shot of your entire back area, but unless someone is standing 3-4 meters or closer to the camera, you probably wouldn’t be able to ID anyone you didn’t already know. That’s the huge disadvantage to using wide-angle lens.

If I were in your spot, I’d do a wide-angle overview camera. You can use this camera to see what’s going on anywhere in your back, but you wouldn’t be able to use it to ID anyone. To ID folks, I’d do additional varifocals to zoom in tighter on the other areas... like the gate and the shed. When you zoom in tight with a varifocal (8mm-13mm), you should get a great image for ID’ing people, .. the image won’t be very wide though, but if you have a wide-angle overview cam, you can still see what they’re up to when they’re not in the view of these tighter cameras.

For the alley, whatever you end up going with, you’ll probably want to physically rotate the lens 90’. This will capture an image that’s taller and skinnier vs. wider and shorter. Taller and skinner is better for alleys... gets you more of the alley and less of the walls on the side... This 90’ rotation is often called “corridor mode” in some threads here.

By far the best low-light cameras are the ones that use the Sony STARVIS 2MP 1/2.8”. Note that Sony makes other STARVIS image sensors (different MP/sizes), but only only the 2MP 1/2.8” one does as well in low-light. Dahua and Hikvision are the only big manufactures I’ve seen make cameras with this sensor... none of the consumer-grade companies seem to be able to use this tech. Dahua calls their low-light cameras ‘Starlight’, and Hikvision calls theirs ‘Dark Fighter’.

I didn’t have a good experience using my cameras with my Synology. Granted, this was three years ago, but what it boiled down to was that my Dahua cameras supported “motion detection” and an additional feature called “IVS”, which was basically smarter motion detection that greatly reduced the number of false alarms (compared to regular motion detection). The problem was that Synology was not able to trigger recordings based on IVS alerts from the cameras. I lived with basic motion detection (and all of the false alerts) for a few months, then switched to a Dahua NVR (which could use the cameras IVS features). Ultimately I went with a PC running Blue Iris because I wanted my camera system to interface with my Home Automation system (for things like turning on outside lights based on motion from specific cameras).

Oh, another vote for using Andy/Empire Tech for your Dahua kit. He’s a super trusted vendor here who has sold thousands of Dahua cameras/NVRs/etc to forum members, shipping all over the world via DHL. He spends a good amount of time here, keeping the forum updated with the latest Dahua news, etc. That’s been a huge help because Dahua doesn’t sell directly to consumers, so getting news is hard if you’re not one of their professional resellers.

 

[Jagradang]

+1 for Andy, I'm in the UK too. Best deals, best prices and fantastic service.

I use 3x Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE and a dahua nvr they all really work great for my use. Will probably switch to blue iris when I can afford to (or when the nvr dies).

 

[xdq]

If you can get power to the yard you could install standard security floodlights or external infrared illuminators to avoid images being washed out. Standard lights are better as they'll help you get colour images.

If you do go with something like the Dahua 5231 starlights or equivalent, you could also look at leaving your area view camera in colour mode overnight to allow identification skin, hair and clothing colours.

I use a wedge camera at my front door, yes it's a dome which might degrade over time but it's a compact camera to mount on a vertical surface, eg next to your shed door.

Here are a few examples to give you an idea of the coverage you could get using the variable zooms and the potential quality in very low light.
Night time colour example 1

Night time colour example 2 - not sure what's up with the quality - they looked fine before exporting from BlueIris.

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