Help Choosing 2 new IP Turret Cameras

[cwilson1996]

Recently, some unknown kids decided to fire upon the East side of my house and garage with some very colorful paintballs. Unfortunately, this area of my property has yet to be covered by cameras. I'm looking to place 2 turret cameras where you will see two white labels listed as 'camera 1' and 'camera 2'. Hoping to capture the entire parking slab, as well as most of the road out front, so if there ever comes a time where I can capture the make and model of a vehicle I will have that option. Any good suggestions? The other cameras you see are all Dahua 5442's by the way. Money really isn't an issue here too. Both cameras will be placed roughly 6-10 ft off the ground under some soffit.

 

[wittaj]

You need to identify the areas you want to cover and pick a camera designed to cover that distance. In some instances, it may be a 2MP or 4MP that is the right camera.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision works as well.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm or the 4K/X - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great auto-track PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A wide angle 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who.

One camera cannot be the be all, see all. Each one is selected for covering a specific area. Most of us here have different brands and types, from fixed cams, to varifocals, to PTZs, each one selected for it's primary purpose and to utilize the strength of that particular camera.

So you will need to identify the distance the camera would be from the activities you want to IDENTIFY on and purchase the correct camera for that distance as an optical zoom.

If you want to see things far away, you need optical zoom, digital zoom only works in the movies and TV...And the optical zoom is done real time - for a varifocal it is a set it and forget it. You cannot go to recorded video and optically zoom in later, at that point it is digital zoom, and the sensors on these cameras are so small which is why digital zoom doesn't work very well after the fact.

 

[cwilson1996]

Why is your 4th and 5th options the same?

 

[Rob2020]

Why is your 4th and 5th options the same?

Not Wittaj, the camera works well in both stated scenarios.

 

[wittaj]

Yep, 4th option is as a "regular camera" and the 5th option is to read plates - one camera cannot do both - the camera is either dedicated to read plates or is a camera to see things. This just happens to be one camera that can serve either role very well.

 

[cwilson1996]

Thanks for those recommendations. But i'm really looking for the turret style. Would you mind me asking if you guys had the option to capture the road in front of the detached garage, what would you choose?

 

[wittaj]

Hard to give a recommendation without knowing the distance.

I think most of us would prefer turrets as well, but turrets are only good for so far of a distance and unfortunately the turrets max out at the 12-13mm focal lengths and you need a bullet or PTZ for the higher focal lengths.

If you get a turret, you will be limited to the 5442-ZE and IDENTIFY will get tough past 30 feet at night.

So it comes down to what do you really want to capture.

You can paint the camera to match the house.

 

[cwilson1996]

Okay, so how about bullets? They would need to see a make and model about 100-150 ft out.

 

[wittaj]

That will be the 5241-Z12E or the 49225 PTZ

The 5442-Z4E is the same price as the Z12E, but it is only half the focal length of the Z12E.

 

[wittaj]

This is the Z4E at 50 feet fully zoomed in of a car:



Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my Z12E fully zoomed in. As you can see, you either get plates and nothing else, or you get to see everything. Camera needs to be ran at 1/2000 shutter to get plates at night, so the image is black except for the head/tail lights and plates.

 

[cwilson1996]

That's very clear on the license plate. How does the 2.8 imager effect this though? I will probably get two of these to face down each side of the road. Then have to get another 5442 to just stay on the driveway slab.

 

[wittaj]

What do you mean by How does the 2.8 imager effect this though?

 

[cwilson1996]

Never mind. I was thinking this was a 4mp camera. Sorry

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, unfortunately they haven't got 4MP past a 32mm optical zoom unless you go with a PTZ.

 

[mat200]

FYI - I only like 2.8mm lens cameras for cases where the suspect will be closer to the camera, such as by the door ..

Otherwise I look to get more "range" on the camera .. see the DORI section of the cliff notes

 

[garycrist]

Why not mount a 4MP PTZ on the roof? Andy has a 4MP 20X IIRC with a 1/1.8 sensor (they just came in).
BTW. no one ever looks up + one can also paint it too.

I used to have an antenna 26 ft long on top of a 40 ft push-up mast with 12 radials @45 degrees @The 40ft level. NONE of the neighbors
ever saw it until I pointed it out to them! People never look up!