Looking for 3rd camera advice..

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BigBlueSqueal

n3wb
Apr 21, 2025
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USA
I need to purchase a third camera. Which below do you recommend? Thanks

I have two IPC-T54IR-ZE 4mp varifocal cameras en route to my house, and I'm going to place them next to each other in the center of the front of my house to blanket coverage, probably setting each to 100 degree fov. The 4mp was chosen for its superior low light recording.

I need to buy a third camera for redundancy, to aim at the gate opening in my front yard. I need a clear, evidentiarily useful recording of a trespasser's face.

My driveway exits through the six foot fence on the right side of my yard. Someone could jump the fence, but I leave it open and at least in the front yard it's the only way anyone has come into the yard. My fence is perhaps 25 feet from the front of my house. I have a carport on the right side of my house that the driveway feeds straight into. The roof there is fairly sloped so that it's not difficult to reach the ceiling there except perhaps at the tallest point.

In theory I would really like a nice varifocal 4k camera but I understand it may suffer from poor low light recording. What third camera would you recommend?

IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3 $250 4mp 8x32 varifocal 1/1.8 bullet (Overkill at my short distance but i kinda want it)

IPC-B58IR-Z4E-S3 $300 4k 8x32 varifocal 1/1.8 bullet

IPC-B58IR-ZE-S3 $260 4k 2.7x12 varifocal 1/1.8 bullet

IPC-B54IR-ZE-S3 $230 4mp 2.7x12 varifocal 1/1.8 bullet

IPC-T58IR-ZE S3 $240 4k 2.7x12 varifocal 1/1.8 turret

IPC-T54IR-AS 6mm S3 $160 4mp fixed ultra low light 1/1.8 turret
 
BigBlueSqueal said:
What place does 4k occupy in your surveillance arsenal? What is the use case for 4k 1/1.8 varifocal or otherwise?
Click to expand...
None unless you have stadium quality light. The 4MP on the same sensor will beat it all night long.

Further most here feel 4MP represents the best overall value given the current technology being used.

And for many, the 4K on the 1/1.2" sensor has a shallow focus depth of say 17-23ish feet and anything shorter or further may be soft focus. YMMV based on your eyes and monitor. Many have gone down the 4K path and replaced the camera with a 4MP.

There is a saying here - chase sensor size, not MP.
 
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Given that the 8-32mm 4mp has a focus at 1.5 meters to possibly infinity (not sure on the infinity), aside from price is there any use case where it's not just the better camera over the 2.8-12? Obviously the bullet 2.8-12 can be used for up close, but setting that aside, say you want to get a good picture with evidentiary utility even in low light at a gate that's 25 feet away, any reason to not just get the longer range camera?

My coveting of the longer range camera for me is maybe in the future i can do something interesting with the extra zoom.

Btw, anyone know if 300$ varifocal hikvision 4k overcomes anything the dahua vf 4k falls short on? An acquaintance recommended the DS-2CD3688G2T-LIZS.

I believe these are my final questions, I greatly appreciate all of you lending your experience.
 
Personally at 25 feet, I want the zoom of the Z4E.

Hikvision and Dahua use the same chips, so it comes down to which GUI do you like better. What is the skill set of your acquaintance - do they use cameras on default/auto settings or do the dial them in - that makes a big difference as to their expertise. We all have acquaintances that recommend Ring lol.

If you haven't seen this, this thread is used as the go to for the new person here where we outline 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.
 
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Yes, i stumbled onto that thread previously, but admittedly my read was a bit cursory, but it drove home the point that less pixel density is important. I've been feverishly hoovering up information as quickly as possible before either outright sanctions or tariffs start jacking up prices. Don't have the time i thought i did. But tariffs are for another time heheh.

I assumed the 2mp on a 1/2.7 chip would be more dense than the 4mp on 1/1.8, but chat gpt ran the numbers and I was wrong:

Step 2: Calculate pixel density (pixels per mm²)
2 MP on a 1/2.8” sensor
2,000,000 pixels / 24.51 mm² ≈ 81,600 pixels/mm²
4 MP on a 1/1.8” sensor
4,000,000 pixels / 38.19 mm² ≈ 104,800 pixels/mm²

2mp superman zoom camera gives less density.

I believe I will get the z4e, and will continue reading these great threads. I was amazed people have several 250$ cameras for getting license plates, one for the plate and one for the car under different settings. One OG user here has over 20 dahua. I aspire to such greatness.

I come from software developer background and a bit of a prepper lite mentality, so I'm more enthusiastic about privacy than most regular folks, and reading about folks doing lpr here(i have future ambitions to do this) makes me smile. I think these are my people.

/Just ancillary stuff: I have a blue iris license but i plan to use frigate and have 2 google coral m2 TPUs that do 4 TOPS a piece and a HAILO-8 that does 25 TOPS, plan to use all 3 to do inference from my cameras, and I have a mikrotik cloud router for poe and poe++ as well as the gperx4 to split off 3 poe connections from cat6 running from a poe++ port. I'm coming from wyze cameras, I'll likely flash firmware to enable rstp to enable extra cheap streams from a few places where i only need it to see clearly 8 ft out. Need adapters to make poe accessible. Will dig out some 12 year old HV and Dahua bullet cams at 4mp and 5mp to supplement as well. Once i get the z4e I just need to buy a used PC that can handle the ffmpeg decoding and encoding.
 
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BigBlueSqueal said:
Given that the 8-32mm 4mp has a focus at 1.5 meters to possibly infinity (not sure on the infinity), aside from price is there any use case where it's not just the better camera over the 2.8-12? Obviously the bullet 2.8-12 can be used for up close, but setting that aside, say you want to get a good picture with evidentiary utility even in low light at a gate that's 25 feet away, any reason to not just get the longer range camera?

My coveting of the longer range camera for me is maybe in the future i can do something interesting with the extra zoom.

Btw, anyone know if 300$ varifocal hikvision 4k overcomes anything the dahua vf 4k falls short on? An acquaintance recommended the DS-2CD3688G2T-LIZS.

I believe these are my final questions, I greatly appreciate all of you lending your experience.
Click to expand...

Yes, in many cases you need both.

Here’s a 2.8-12mm VF thats priority is covering the driveway/vehicle
IMG_8775.jpeg

Right above it is a Z4 8-32mm for ID on the street. I need both shots. Either one by itself is lacking in ID coverage either near or far. Same as you originally indicated in your first post.
IMG_8776.jpeg
 
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That is the beauty of the higher optical zoom cameras is that you can install them a little higher and "flatten" the angle due to the distance.

This is the Z4E installed on 2nd story soffit looking down at the street that is an additional 10 feet below the first floor.

1745455613115.png
 
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JPmedia said:
Not to get off topic, but what electrical device(s) were being installed at the back gate when the screenshot was taken?
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In that capture I was actually working on the gate, trying to see if I could get it to swing inward so it wouldn't get in the way of the camera on the backside of the fence (one of the reasons for the electrical box).

The main purpose was to house network runs and a POE switch for a house/backyard facing camera and a gate/easement camera on the other side of the fence, but I also wanted to clean up my Christmas light extension cords so it also has an exterior Zwave outlet for that. My landscape lighting transformer is also there, and has some junctions inside the box for the various beds and lights.

The T54IR from that location that looks back at the house and yard.
Grass.jpg
 
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It depends on what you are aligning it to. It is truer to the left side of the house now than in that capture, but that makes it less true to everything else.
 
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