Camera Recommendations

A

AsWorstest

n3wb
Jun 1, 2025
5
1
Canada
I have posted the same thread in general discussion but unfortunately no replies in almost 24 hours.

Greetings users of ipcamtalk. Newbie here, but been a lurker for a little while.

I apologize in advance if this thread annoys anybody or is always asked, but I'm truly stumped and overwhelmed with all the different options.

I'm getting my home renovated, and it's in the demolition and cleaning stage. I have ran CAT6 to 8 places of where I would like to install cameras. I would like 2 cameras on each corner of the house, and capturing a view of 90° opposite of each other (hope that makes sense).

My home is very basic, small and square shaped. I have attached a rough sketch of my property, with the cameras being the small circles and a "V" lines coming out representing their field of view on each corner.

What I am looking for in my cameras requirements are the following;

  • - - For front and back of home, I would like a dome/turret vandal-proof style, with decent diagonal field of view.
  • - - For the sides of the home, I would like the bullet style cameras with a long vertical field of view. This is important as I would like to minimize capturing my neighbours properties.
  • - - I would like all the cameras to be able to have good night vision and capturing any motion smoothly, able to read license plates would be a bonus.
  • - - Able to handle southern Ontario Canada seasons would be ideal.
  • - - My budget is $200 CAD ($145 USD) per camera (preferably cheaper).

When I first dived into this, I of course went with Reolink. After hours of reading and watching videos, I'm not sure I want go with them and be locked into their ecosystem.

I think I would like to go the Blueiris/Frigate route.

I'm leaning towards Hikvision and Dahua cameras, but there's just so many options within those 2, let alone other brands.

Any advice and recommendations would be appreciated.

Bonus recommendation if possible. I also need a decent POE switch, I'm thinking of grabbing a TP-Link TL-SG2428P, what do you think?

Thanks again folks.
 

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T54IR-ZE will get you to 12mm and allow you to adjust for length of the 9' width to the property line. This will be the most recommended camera by 90% of the forum.

A varifocal bullet that zooms more than the T54IR-ZE will be above your budget, but the B54IR-Z4E is what would be recommended.

You will need a dedicated camera to read license plates. Every camera should be set up with a purpose and not be expected to do more than the reason for which it was deployed.
 
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wittaj said:
It is best to have a mix of cameras, each one selected for the goal of the camera.

I have some varifocals for IDENTIFY at distance and pinch points, and OVERVIEW cameras so I can see what is going on with one field of view.

As far as cameras, without knowing what your goals of the camera is, this thread is used as the go to for the new person here outlining the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value/best bang for the buck in terms of price and performance day and night. It might be a 2MP camera in some instances. Many here feel 4MP is the current sweet spot for these cameras.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

And coupled with that thread is this great thread which will show why all of the same 2.8 or 3.6mm cameras is the wrong choice (these are the common focal lengths consumer brands sell):

i-want-2-8mm-cameras-everywhere-to-see-everything-this-is-why-you-need-specific-fovs-with-purposeful-focal-lengths.70053/

We would encourage you to look at those threads in detail.

It will probably raise more questions than answers LOL.

Many of us purchase from trusted member @EMPIRETECANDY, a vendor here with an Amazon store, his own webpage, and via DM.

He sells Dahua OEM for cheaper than you can buy label Dahua.
Click to expand...
Because I am lazy and don't want to just re-type the same thing @wittaj already posts all the time.
 
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+1 above - the post linked above has the most common camera recommendations. They will also survive your cold.

For plates, you would have to set the camera up specifically to read plates. You need the proper camera with OPTICAL zoom for the distance you are covering and the angle to get plates.

Regarding plates, keep in mind that this is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. You will need two cameras. For LPR we need to OPTICALLY zoom in tight to make the plate as large as possible. For most of us, all you see is the not much more than a vehicle in the entire frame. Now maybe in the right location during the day it might be able to see some other things, but not at night.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my 2MP 5241-Z12E camera (that is all that is needed for plates):

1675078711764.png



See the LPR subforum for more details.
 
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Ri22o said:
T54IR-ZE will get you to 12mm and allow you to adjust for length of the 9' width to the property line. This will be the most recommended camera by 90% of the forum.

A varifocal bullet that zooms more than the T54IR-ZE will be above your budget, but the B54IR-Z4E is what would be recommended.

You will need a dedicated camera to read license plates. Every camera should be set up with a purpose and not be expected to do more than the reason for which it was deployed.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I'll look into your recommendations and other reply as well. Very helpful.
 
wittaj said:
+1 above - the post linked above has the most common camera recommendations. They will also survive your cold.

For plates, you would have to set the camera up specifically to read plates. You need the proper camera with OPTICAL zoom for the distance you are covering and the angle to get plates.

Regarding plates, keep in mind that this is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. You will need two cameras. For LPR we need to OPTICALLY zoom in tight to make the plate as large as possible. For most of us, all you see is the not much more than a vehicle in the entire frame. Now maybe in the right location during the day it might be able to see some other things, but not at night.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my 2MP 5241-Z12E camera (that is all that is needed for plates):

1675078711764.png



See the LPR subforum for more details.
Click to expand...
Reading plates isn't a high priority. I just thought there might specific cameras I'm not aware of that are able in my budget. Thanks for your reply. Very helpful information.
 
AsWorstest said:
I did delete it yes. I am still figuring out this forum, and thought the category I posted in was not very active, so I posted here, hope that's ok.
Click to expand...

Regardless of which forum you post in, it will be seen. Better to do a bump post than create multiple threads.

When you see recent posts, you will see it shows all the subforums latest posts:

1748872408587.png
 
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AsWorstest said:
Reading plates isn't a high priority. I just thought there might specific cameras I'm not aware of that are able in my budget. Thanks for your reply. Very helpful information.
Click to expand...
If you are able to get it close enough to the road, the T54IR-ZE could work, but most either use the B54IR-Z4E or B52IR-Z12E. The Z4 is 4MP, but only gets to 32mm. The Z12E is 2MP, but reaches out at 60mm.
 
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AsWorstest said:
Reading plates isn't a high priority. I just thought there might specific cameras I'm not aware of that are able in my budget. Thanks for your reply. Very helpful information.
Click to expand...

These cameras are not like what we see in TV and movies.

With enough light at night, a $200ish camera could do it, but most of us don't have stadium quality light.
 
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These are in my post linked above, but wanted to add them here as well. My T54IR is not meant for reading plates, but I have saved some images just to show license plate captures at distances.

T54IR-ZE at 12mm

40'
12mm 40ft Plate.jpg

75'
12mm 75ft.jpg

And this is the B52IR-Z12E. I don't know what the focal length is set to.

142'
142ft.jpg
 
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^Just keep in mind the first two will not reliably read a plate at night as the camera isn't set up to read plates.

The last picture will read a plate at night, but all you will see is the plate because the camera was set up to read plates.
 
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