Recommendations for improving recording in this area?

[Jurassicrollercoasternerd]

So I have a combination of 2MP Starlight turrets and some crappy 4MP's I bought originally. I'm always trying to improve the images shot over my driveway sense we seem to have "visitors" 3-4 times a year. I'll link to the most recent video from last nights visitors as well as include my settings here. I've tried searching around for some info on how to tweak my camera settings, but the only couple of threads I found basically said to leave the default settings alone with tweaking the sharpness of the image.

Ideally I'd love to get some better facial features out of the images. the camera is mounted rather high up (see install photo). I also really like having my general overview shot of the driveway.

I'm thinking my best bet may be to purchase another camera, mount it below the current camera, and zoom that camera in directly on the cars instead of getting an overview shot? However, I'm not sure what cam I should use? I haven't been able to find a "Cam of the year" thread again like I did when I originally bought my starlight(s).

Cam Settings:

Installation Location:


Camera Footage: Dropbox - DW.20190127_051500_1.avi

 

[bigredfish]

Camera is too high and not zoomed in enough. Common mistake, most people try to do too much with one camera. You want overview AND facial ID, that means 2 cameras. No setting is going to fix your problem.

I would add this for zoomed in at the cars.
https://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/productDetail/14181

 

[Q™]

One of "The Laws of Looney" states, do you want to see what happened, or who did it." As BRF states, "most people try to do too much with one camera." If you want both "overview" and "facial recognition," you're going to need multiple cameras.

 

[pozzello]

another suggestion (in addition to another cam zoomed in more on the driveway entrance, perhaps) is to turn that existing cam sideways into corridor mode.
it won't get you closer to their faces, but will give you less of the neighbor's yard and more of your driveway...

 

[mat200]

Indeed Mo' Cameras!

You may also want to setup an alarm sensor

 

[looney2ns]

Study this: cliff Notes
Learn to use this, keeping PPF>100 IPVM Camera Calculator V3
Cams mounted higher than 8ft, will make it hard to ID a face. Lower is better.

 

[Jurassicrollercoasternerd]

Thanks to all for the replies and comments. Been a busy couple of weeks round here, so haven't had a chance to study the cliff notes, but I'll get to them one day.

As I suspected, the best bet is going to be running another camera at that location. My 4MP cameras suck at night, so repurposing those cameras are out of the question without a LOT of other work. I had one of the 35MM Starlights, but thought honestly it was too close of a zoom, even when zoomed all the way out.

My house has old asbestos siding encapsulated in the vinyl siding, so I try not to disturb that in anyways, hence the high camera location. With that in mind, is it going to be better to keep the camera mounted high and zoom in, or go ahead and mount the camera lower and point it more directly at their face?

Would 12MM Zoom be enough there? Or Should I go for the 35MM compatible camera?

On a side note, do you ever notice that low-lifes tend to play with their junk (e.g. 0:25) when they're trying to act cool?

Yep. sure did. I thought it was abit amusing.

another suggestion (in addition to another cam zoomed in more on the driveway entrance, perhaps) is to turn that existing cam sideways into corridor mode.
it won't get you closer to their faces, but will give you less of the neighbor's yard and more of your driveway...

I don't want to switch that camera into portrait mode as having the view of my neighbors driveway has come in handy a couple of times. We've caught some interesting things on camera and all my neighbors seem to appreciate the coverage. I definitely have a case of too high expectations, not enough cameras.

Study this: cliff Notes
Learn to use this, keeping PPF>100 IPVM Camera Calculator V3
Cams mounted higher than 8ft, will make it hard to ID a face. Lower is better.

Thanks for posting. Love your reviews BTW. I've read probably too much in too many of your threads. Most likely why I've got a case of not sure what "best" is the best for me.... I'll get around to thumbing through the cliff notes at some point. I started a bit, and already had to do some cross googling so it may take some times.