Camera Placement Recommendations

[flyboyusa]

Looking for any input from the forum experts as to recommendation for camera model & placement to monitor cars pulling up, people getting out as well as car traffic driving in front of the house and just overall monitoring of activity in the front of our house.
I'm looking to stick with Dahua and price isn't too much of a concern, I want to spend whatever is needed to get the right equipment for the job.
Would a PTZ be relevant here? Has anyone setup a PTZ such that it locks onto moving cars driving in front of a house and follows & zooms in to obtain a solid identification of the car and/or license plate number? Traffic is generally driving slow, 10 mph approx..
If the opinion is that PTZ is overly complicated or would be an eyesore, then what would you recommend for a stationary? Maybe a starlight turret?
The existing analog ancient dome that's there now will be coming down.

 

[tangent]

Say no to domes. Put a turret style of camera in the soffit so it has a little protection from direct sun, the Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) is a good choice. More than 1 camera is generally required if you really want good coverage, you're better off with cameras / zoom that provides a narrower field of view and can actually id somebody. I'd put another one of these or a starlight wedge style camera by your front door.

A PTZ costs a lot more than a fixed camera, models with auto tracking are more. Auto tracking can be useful but don't expect hollywood results. You're probably better off with another fixed camera with a big zoom for watching cars, you'll need to angle the camera if you want a chance of catching a plate (perpendicular to your driveway isn't very useful).

 

[j4co]

I agree with last sentence of previous poster. I have a 20x ptz zoomed in on my car parked at the road side at 90 degree angle to the road. I have recording of the person who is suspected of the car part theft we have in the neighborhood here, and it is not easy to identify him from the side.

As some info for you:
- look up the thread with auto tracking examples and the remark people make there. It seems to be in general: nice if it works, but do not trust it to work all the time.

- you need to make a list of all the things you NEED to have and investigate which solutions fit these needs. If it is a nice to have only, it might come (partly) with one of the needed solutions.

For example, licence plate recording. Seperate section on this forum, read some threads there to see what works for people, and watch the review of Nyar of the Dahua 5x zoom that is upcoming (IPC-HFW5431E-Z5) which might be a camera that fits when you can place it close enough.
Look at the birdhouse nyar made, that is one example to place it close to the road.

- in general you need to determine the choke points where people pass, calculate which lens you would need to get enough pixels for recognition. The starlight turret will be one of the best for the average install i think.
Take one for every entry point to the house, and aim it so that a person who approaches the house can be identified. The methods for looking up the best position are descibed on the forum. Basically long ethernet cable, and some movable pole so you can hold camera at different positions to test.

- ptz for multiple targets seems to work best with external sensors triggering a preset. Again nayr has explained how it works for him. Finding the correct sensors might be a challenge, Optex is considered to be a good brand.

 

[SyconsciousAu]

Has anyone setup a PTZ such that it locks onto moving cars driving in front of a house and follows & zooms in to obtain a solid identification of the car and/or license plate number?

I have a ptz with auto tracking. Unfortunately it is a little hit and miss. On a windy day it will "see" movement and start tracking trees. Even when set to a preset where there are no trees, if the object being tracked moves past a moving tree then the camera will often track the tree instead. As was pointed out Nayr uses physical sensors to call presets with great success. I have used hot spots on the substreams of my existing cameras as virtual sensors which call presets. Effective but more prone to false alarms.

There is a whole sub forum dedicated to license plate recognition. You need a dedicated camera to reliably capture plates day and night. When you say you want to ID the car what is your end game? Do you just want to reliably identify the make model, determine the colour 24/7, or see who is driving? All are possible with the right equipment.

 

[flyboyusa]

I have a ptz with auto tracking. Unfortunately it is a little hit and miss. On a windy day it will "see" movement and start tracking trees. Even when set to a preset where there are no trees, if the object being tracked moves past a moving tree then the camera will often track the tree instead. As was pointed out Nayr uses physical sensors to call presets with great success. I have used hot spots on the substreams of my existing cameras as virtual sensors which call presets. Effective but more prone to false alarms.

There is a whole sub forum dedicated to license plate recognition. You need a dedicated camera to reliably capture plates day and night. When you say you want to ID the car what is your end game? Do you just want to reliably identify the make model, determine the colour 24/7, or see who is driving? All are possible with the right equipment.

Thanks for these details about phantom tracking, good to know. I guess I'm really looking for a way to have the PTZ cam lock onto the vehicle, zoom in to a point that the vehicle mostly fills the frame, then pan along with this vehicle as long as possible.
I'd be happy with enough detail to ID make and model and possibly number of occupants. It sounds like getting LP characters would be best left to a dedicated static camera aimed, focused and exposed at a static spatial point so as to be able to capture proper level of detail to read off LP characters.
The only other thing I'm concerned about with the Dahua PTZ Cams is just the size and aesthetic of having one mounted at either corner of our garage. I think I could maybe go with one of the white face units and paint it with color matched paint to blend into our siding and this would help it blend in. Have you seen anyone paint the upper dome and lower white portions of a Dahua PTZ?


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[SyconsciousAu]

I'd be happy with enough detail to ID make and model and possibly number of occupants.

For occupants you will need a polarising filter which means you will need a box camera. You can get threaded CCTV lenses though the easiest option is to wedge a filter between the lens and the front of the housing. They will eliminate the glare on glass allowing you to see through at the expense of about 1 F-Stop in light. Remember that the inside of a car will generally be darker than the scene outside so faces will often be in shadow. When using a DSLR you can overcome this with multiple exposures with different settings but I don't think they make a CCTV camera at any price that will overcome this yet. If you have the option of capturing the cars as they drive into the sun it will improve your chances of an ID shot on the occupants.

The only other thing I'm concerned about with the Dahua PTZ Cams is just the size and aesthetic of having one mounted at either corner of our garage. I think I could maybe go with one of the white face units and paint it with color matched paint to blend into our siding and this would help it blend in. Have you seen anyone paint the upper dome and lower white portions of a Dahua PTZ?

Plasti Dipped Huisun 10x Mini PTZ

That's a thread about a bloke who did exactly that to his huisun PTZ and I have seen the bigger PTZ speed domes (pretty sure it was a Hikvision) painted matt black before which makes them far less conspicuous when they are up a pole in a tree line. If you were really keen you could do a disruptive pattern to break up the outline.

 

[flyboyusa]

Excellent info thanks. I'm experienced with the polarizing filter from my DSLR photography experience as well as the HDR post processing and exposure techniques. Appreciate the feedback


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[SyconsciousAu]

my DSLR photography experience

That will serve you well. All the same principles apply and if you understand how the various aspects interact then you can fine tune for the best results, assuming the equipment has the capability.