Critique camera selection, placement, and image quality

ozcam

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What do you guys think about the camera selection, placement, and image quality? Would a different camera or placement work better here? Where would you put a 2nd camera?
It is Lorex LNB8111.

Thanks a lot!
 

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bigredfish

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You might want to post a few of them here, many won't download files from and unknown source with 1 post.
 

Mike A.

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Would be much better if lower. Like at or just above the garage door. You'll get a much better angle on people and you'll have a greater view toward the horizon to capture much more.

You likely could tweak some of the settings to get a more clear image. But the location is more significant. Fix that first.
 

Mike A.

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Images shown here:

[Posted above now]
 
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ozcam

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Thanks! Should it be high enough though so that no one could jump up and grab it? Maybe at the level of the top of the entrance door?

Where would you put a 2nd camera?

I tried different settings and this is the best image I could get.
 
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Mike A.

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Wouldn't worry too much about someone getting to it. In some other use cases maybe but here a secondary or tertiary consideration vs being in a good location to capture the view that you want.

How about under the bay window? Can you get wiring there? Or maybe to the right of where the siding cuts in at the left side of the garage door for another?

Yeah, get things set up first and then you can play with the image quality. You need to balance things to capture motion well too. i.e., You can set up a great static image but won't work well with any motion.
 
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mat200

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What do you guys think about the camera selection, placement, and image quality? Would a different camera or placement work better here? Where would you put a 2nd camera?
It is Lorex LNB8111.

Thanks a lot!
Hi @ozcam

What is the functional goal of the camera?

To see if your car is parked there?

or ??
 
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Welcome to the forum. It would be wise to read the Cliff Notes and checkout the WIKI. Lots of info there for you.

No one can make an informed recommendation to you until you define what you want out of the view. As @mat200 said, do you just want to see if a car is there? If you want to be able to ID a person, the only thing you will see from that placement is the top of their head. Nos I have heard that male pattern baldness is almost as good as a fingerprint, I doubt that could be mapped from an IP cam.

What are you trying to achieve?
 

ozcam

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I don't have a very specific goal. This is kind of a hobby for me & I want to have a footage if something happens concerning my house. Since we always park in the garage capturing the driveway is not that important. 24h video monitoring stickers on all entrance doors and visible cameras hopefully is a pretty good deterrent already.

I would like to get a 2nd camera somewhere on the right side of the house. However, getting wire to that area looks like a nightmare. I have not yet figured it out other than routing the wire direct over the vinyl siding to the left part of the roof which is easier accessible.
 

Old Timer

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Vinyl siding is easy to pop up and run a cable under it. Just don't do it on old brittle siding.

I would think a camera beside the door about 7' up to capture someone coming to the door. A lot of criminals
will come to the door just to see if someone is home. If you answer the door, they make up an excuse to be there,
if not, they know they have free reign over the place.
I like 2 cameras one on each side of the driveway to crisscross the drive to help get a good picture of whats happening.
Then look at other places of entry (doors, windows) for your next cameras.
 

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As has been mentioned, at that height you'll never get anything meaningful enough to make an ID of who is doing what.

Start reading the Wiki, in the blue bar at the top of the page. A few basic pointers in the mean time -

The smaller the lux number the better the low light performance. 0.002 is better than 0.02
The smaller the "F" of the lens the better the low light performance. F1.4 is better than F1.8
The larger the sensor the better the low light performance. 1/1.8" is better (bigger) than 1/2.7"
The higher the megapixels for the same size sensor the worse the low light performance. A 4MP camera with a 1/1.8" sensor will perform better than a 8MP camera with that same 1/1.8" sensor.

Don't believe all the marketing hype no matter who makes the camera. Don't believe those nice night time captures they all use. Look for videos, with motion, to determine low light performance. Rule of thumb, the shutter speed needs to be at 1/60 or higher to get night video without blurring.

Read the reviews here, most include both still shots and video.

The 5442 series of cameras by Dahua is the current "king of the hill". They are 4MP and capable of color with some ambient light at night. The 2231 series is a less expensive alternative in 2MP and does not have audio capabilities, no built in microphone, but is easier on the budget. The 3241T-ZAS has similar specs as the 2231 and has audio. There are also cameras available from the IPCT Store right here on the forum and from Nelly's Security who has a thread in the vendors section.
 
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SouthernYankee

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The purpose of a security camera is to id the bad guy and have it stand up in court. Your camera is useless. Test you camera at night, have a person wearing a hoodie, baseball cap and a covid mask walk you to your front door. can you identify them ? If not your camera is in the wrong place. In general cameras should be mounted no higher than 7 ft.


The first camera I would mount is under the lip of the over hanging window point back at the stairs coming up to the the front door. The next is a door bell camera. If you park in the drive in front of the garage door, two cameras one on each side of the garage door, no higher than the top of the door. If you do not park in that drive way, then one camera mount to side with the stairs to the house.

Mount one camera at the back lip of the house, next to the back deck point at your car door.

If the camera dies getting the picture of the bad guy, then it did its job. Most of my cameras are in the view of another camera. You break one of my cameras I have video of it.
Bad guys do not give a crap about stickers, That tells them what to look for.
 

bigredfish

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Generally there are two kinds of cameras, Overview that tells you something happened, and Focused that tells you who did it.

There was a thread not long ago where we were talking about what LE needs when it comes to video. A number of LEOs mentioned in that thread, and those of us who have had the need for video related to a crime will tell you that really only two things matter:
  • Facial ID
  • License Plate
 

ozcam

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Thanks guys! The placement of the camera is bad and also the Lorex camera sucks with these parameters:
  • S/N Ratio ≥42dB (AGC OFF)
  • 0.5 lux without IR 0.3 lux with IR
  • Image Sensor 1/2.5"
I have Lorex NVR with PoE. Is there any specific requirement for NVRs to work with Dahua cameras? I wonder whether I would be able to connect Dahua cameras to my Lorex NVR.
 

mat200

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Thanks guys! The placement of the camera is bad and also the Lorex camera sucks with these parameters:
  • S/N Ratio ≥42dB (AGC OFF)
  • 0.5 lux without IR 0.3 lux with IR
  • Image Sensor 1/2.5"
I have Lorex NVR with PoE. Is there any specific requirement for NVRs to work with Dahua cameras? I wonder whether I would be able to connect Dahua cameras to my Lorex NVR.
FYI - looks like a Dahua OEM NVR

So you should be able to get Dahua OEM IP PoE cameras to work with it.

Plan to need to
Sync : IP numbers, Port, User / Password, and substream info

Look for a Lorex related thread on that topic here at ipcamtalk




1609720509000.png
 

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For the back of the house, where would you place cameras and which ones would you recommend? Your helps is appreciated!
You have a great place for a camera under your deck pointed at your back door!
I would buy a camera with a vari-focal (zoom) lens and a test board to place it around while your kid/wife walks around
during the day and at night, so you can see how well it works each place and what lens you will need to cover the area
you want to cover. You will find that cameras grow like rabbits, so don't limit yourself on growth in the future. I started
with one camera in 1995, and have more then 30 now, spread over 7 buildings.
 
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