I've been reading a lot here on this forum and decided to get rid of my current Unifi camera system in favour of probably Blue Iris and Dahua cameras. I'm trying to figure out the best positioning for my new cameras to replace existing ones, and cover additional areas too. I've been keeping an eye on those new 180 degree cameras and I'm wondering if they could be a nice addition to my project as well.
I've created a plan and highlighted in red the house (mid terraced house), the garden in yellow. The cameras are all numbered, where I have some of these cameras already in place using a mixture of Unifi G3 flex Unifi G3 bullets Camera G3 Bullet
My existing camera set up following the numbering as per plan:
1- Unifi G3 Flex
Not very good at night, it could be a bit wider horizontally to be able to capture parcels delivered and identify people at 5 metres. I'm wondering if I should get a turret camera here, from what I'm reading the Dahua 5442 models are good value. Would it give considerable better quality at night?
Day capture is pretty good
2- Unifi G3 Flex
This one is quite high up, about 7 metres up pointing down as I wanted to get a larger field of view to detect things a bit further away, but it does not work very well. I was thinking about replacing this camera with a 180 degree camera like the IPC-Color4K-B180 , but I'm not sure it is a good option due to lack of IR, and being 7 metres high up. I could lower it, but that means laying a new network cable, not the end of the world. There are 2 lamp posts on either side of the house about 20 metres away that could help with the "colour" model of this camera at night.
3- Unifi G3 Bullet
This camera got the IR filter stuck, so I cannot get night vision. The idea is to have an overall view of the garden, it could have a narrower field of view, I guess 3.6 or 6mm lens? I'm learning a bit more about focal length and angles now
4- Unifi G3 Flex
This camera is just to help identification further down the garden, it work pretty well as it is so I may just remove it from Unifi protect and use in standalone mode and add it to blue iris. It is not great at night
5- This camera doesn't exist yet
I was thinking about adding another 180 degree camera here, but this area is pitch black at night, it is an access road to the back side of some houses and I need to cover the whole thing, the Dahua 180 camera work here? Do I need its lights on all the time? I was wondering if it could pick up movement and then switch the lights on the camera, or perhaps some auxiliary lights.
6- Unifi G3 Flex
This camera is pretty bad at night, the lenses got something inside and gives me a lot of glare in IR mode. I'm thinking about replacing it with a turret camera, the position it a but further back to have a wider field of detection
Do you guys have any suggestions or ideas please?
I'm slowly shortlisting some cameras from Empiretech, it would be great to have some thoughts on what I'm planning
I've created a plan and highlighted in red the house (mid terraced house), the garden in yellow. The cameras are all numbered, where I have some of these cameras already in place using a mixture of Unifi G3 flex Unifi G3 bullets Camera G3 Bullet
My existing camera set up following the numbering as per plan:
1- Unifi G3 Flex
Not very good at night, it could be a bit wider horizontally to be able to capture parcels delivered and identify people at 5 metres. I'm wondering if I should get a turret camera here, from what I'm reading the Dahua 5442 models are good value. Would it give considerable better quality at night?
Day capture is pretty good
2- Unifi G3 Flex
This one is quite high up, about 7 metres up pointing down as I wanted to get a larger field of view to detect things a bit further away, but it does not work very well. I was thinking about replacing this camera with a 180 degree camera like the IPC-Color4K-B180 , but I'm not sure it is a good option due to lack of IR, and being 7 metres high up. I could lower it, but that means laying a new network cable, not the end of the world. There are 2 lamp posts on either side of the house about 20 metres away that could help with the "colour" model of this camera at night.
3- Unifi G3 Bullet
This camera got the IR filter stuck, so I cannot get night vision. The idea is to have an overall view of the garden, it could have a narrower field of view, I guess 3.6 or 6mm lens? I'm learning a bit more about focal length and angles now
4- Unifi G3 Flex
This camera is just to help identification further down the garden, it work pretty well as it is so I may just remove it from Unifi protect and use in standalone mode and add it to blue iris. It is not great at night
5- This camera doesn't exist yet
I was thinking about adding another 180 degree camera here, but this area is pitch black at night, it is an access road to the back side of some houses and I need to cover the whole thing, the Dahua 180 camera work here? Do I need its lights on all the time? I was wondering if it could pick up movement and then switch the lights on the camera, or perhaps some auxiliary lights.
6- Unifi G3 Flex
This camera is pretty bad at night, the lenses got something inside and gives me a lot of glare in IR mode. I'm thinking about replacing it with a turret camera, the position it a but further back to have a wider field of detection
Do you guys have any suggestions or ideas please?
I'm slowly shortlisting some cameras from Empiretech, it would be great to have some thoughts on what I'm planning
| Model | Camera type | Resolution in MP | sensor size | Aliexpress |
| IPC-Color4K-B180 | Bullet | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 215.00 |
| IPC-Color4K-T | Turret | 8 | 1/1.2" | £ 190.00 |
| IPC-T5442T-ZE | Turret | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 158.00 |
| IPC-T5241H-AS-PV | Turret | 2 | 1/2.8" | £ 105.00 |
| IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED | Turret | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 125.00 |
| IPC-B5442E-SE | Bullet | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 132.00 |
| IPC-T5442TM-AS | Turret | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 132.00 |
| DS-2CD2347G2-LU | Turret | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 142.00 |
| HFW5442T-ASE-NI | Bullet | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 143.00 |
| DS-2CD2087G2-LU | Bullet | 8 | 1/1.2" | £ 181.00 |
| IPC-B5442E-ZE | Bullet | 4 | 1/1.8" | £ 192.00 |
| IPC-Color4K-X | Bullet | 8 | 1/1.2" | £ 207.00 |
| IPC-T5241H-AS-PV | Turret | 2 | 1/2.8" | £ 105.00 |
