My home surveillance setup

[jason_ca 0]

First things first, I’d like to thank everyone that posts advise and shares their expertise on this forum. In the past three weeks my neighborhood has had 3 break ins. I attribute this to a tough economy and living in a nicer neighborhood. I was about to go the route of a Costco setup or a Lorex product and then I stumbled upon this forum. I’ve spent the whole weekend reading and educating myself and have come up with a setup which I will be ordering. I need guidance on two items. First is with camera selection as I’m not sure which is the best option based on the camera install location. Here is my proposed setup.

DVR

Qvis Zeus 8 Channel Security DVR w/ 500 gb

Camera choice 1

(5) Dahua ESCBT650-1

(1) Dahua ESCEB650-1 59.99 (porch)

Camera choice 2

(4) Qvis P400-N35-VG30-N

(1) Qvis P400-E36-V2G40-N (Mailbox) (This will need to be mounted under an eve which may not be possible)

(1) Qvis EYE-N35-V2G-N 67.99 (porch)

In order to help me choose the best cameras for my application I’m sure you’ll need to see where I want to mount them and what I want to be monitoring. I’ve attached some pictures of what I will be monitoring and I’ve circled the area I am proposing to install the camera. This is the second item I need some guidance with as I’d like to know if the proposed camera location is ideal. Thanks in advance for any help or advise as this is not my profession.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jason_ca 0]

 

 

 

Any help or guidance is appreciated. Thanks again to everyone that has shared their knowledge.

 

Thanks

[jxk716 0]

The camera from the first picture should work nicely. The rest should probably be lower as their view angle will be steep preventing prospective facial shots. Can you mount under the first level of eves or on the walls? Even the front door, mounted directly to the left, should not be as high. Maybe 24 -30 inches lower but that is IMHO.

[shockwave199 0]

Make sure they are all varifocal cameras, first off. Every single camera you're installing is not that close to the targets. So get varifocals so you can adjust them just so, to get the best fov for each location. I'm guessing you're staying up under eaves because of installation concerns. Such a flat stucco finish to the exterior walls makes it difficult to run and tuck wires to lower locations, such as what can be done with siding on the exterior. Unless you pop through the walls from the inside, there doesn't look to be any first floor eaves at most of your locations. So by all means, get varifocal cameras to at least zoom the images tighter to your targets, from up above.

 

The front walk/mailbox camera however- that one can be extended down further forward and lower. Run the cable along the lower roof/wall seam and get the camera mounted on the lower eave above your front door entrance. It can stay on the corner by the wall there. That will give you a much better shot of people walking up the walk and the mailbox as well. But you'll have to choose which fov is more important to you, the front walk or the mailbox. You can get both in one view, but most likely only people coming up the front walk within approx 6' in front of the camera will be clear for good ID shots. But consider the lower location I mention. The high wide one won't make you happy, trust me. It'll look fine and you'll have a large fov, but no ones face will be detailed enough for ID- not by a long shot. You could put a varifocal there but at that point, why bother? Too high and too far from your targets.

 

The front door- I would suggest lowering the position and moving more towards the middle of your arrows. If you put an arrow in the center of your existing arrows, bring the camera out from the door side a bit, but not to dead center of the wall. That will give you a person walking up to the door, a profile of the person at the door, and the door itself. But again, you have clean walls. Any camera that isn't tucked to a corner and lower on the wall will look obtrusive and ugly on the wall. In which case, think about a small keyhole camera type that they put in doorbells or doorframes and such. That camera would be looking straight out. You'd see everyone approaching and standing at your front door no problem. MUCH better for ID'ing, and you'd spare your walls an ugly camera sticking out.

 

My two cents, for what it's worth. I'm a diy'r- not a pro installer so consider the source. Good luck.

 

Dan

[jack in oz 0]

Hi,

DIYer as well- so take this with a grain of salt.

 

I have a similar front porch as you do and I'm about to fit a dome camera to that area. My current plan is to mount the dome to the roof of the porch centrally above the door looking down the stairs. That should catch visitors/intruders as they walk up the stairs.

 

Can you mount a dome camera to the wall directly above the door? If you paint the housing of the dome camera a similar color to the wall it shouldn't be too noticeable.

[the toss 0]

Your door camera location will probably be dictated by the ease of cabling.

[jason_ca 0]

Thanks jxk716 for the advice. The main issue I have with lowering the cameras is being able to get the cables into the house. Mounting under the second story eave gives me access to the attic which I can run the cables to where ever I decide to install the DVR. I do like your idea of lowering the front door camera. Just have to figure out a way to run cables into the house. Thanks again.

 

The camera from the first picture should work nicely. The rest should probably be lower as their view angle will be steep preventing prospective facial shots. Can you mount under the first level of eves or on the walls? Even the front door, mounted directly to the left, should not be as high. Maybe 24 -30 inches lower but that is IMHO.

[jason_ca 0]

Thanks Dan. You brought up some good points that I hadn't considered. You are exactly right regarding the installation concerns. If I install the cameras under the second story eave I have direct access to the attic. If I install the cameras under the first story eave I would have to drill through some stucco and run them in to the garage. Which I guess I could install the DVR in the garage but then I have the issue of getting an internet connection to the DVR. Can you recommend some good varifocal cameras based on my installation?

 

Great idea on mounting the mailbox/walkway camera on the first story eave in the corner. I believe I have access to the area above the front door. There is a second story bedroom that butts up against the roof line and if my measurements are accurate I will have access by cutting into some drywall in the bedroom closet. This is why I was hoping to install the front door camera on the ceiling as the install would be somewhat easy. I'll see if I can figure out a way to bring the camera down a couple feet and in the middle of the two arrows. I'll also look into a small keyhole camera and see if I can find anything that will work. If you know any off the top of your head please let me know.

 

Thanks again for your advice and suggestions!

 

Make sure they are all varifocal cameras, first off. Every single camera you're installing is not that close to the targets. So get varifocals so you can adjust them just so, to get the best fov for each location. I'm guessing you're staying up under eaves because of installation concerns. Such a flat stucco finish to the exterior walls makes it difficult to run and tuck wires to lower locations, such as what can be done with siding on the exterior. Unless you pop through the walls from the inside, there doesn't look to be any first floor eaves at most of your locations. So by all means, get varifocal cameras to at least zoom the images tighter to your targets, from up above.

 

The front walk/mailbox camera however- that one can be extended down further forward and lower. Run the cable along the lower roof/wall seam and get the camera mounted on the lower eave above your front door entrance. It can stay on the corner by the wall there. That will give you a much better shot of people walking up the walk and the mailbox as well. But you'll have to choose which fov is more important to you, the front walk or the mailbox. You can get both in one view, but most likely only people coming up the front walk within approx 6' in front of the camera will be clear for good ID shots. But consider the lower location I mention. The high wide one won't make you happy, trust me. It'll look fine and you'll have a large fov, but no ones face will be detailed enough for ID- not by a long shot. You could put a varifocal there but at that point, why bother? Too high and too far from your targets.

 

The front door- I would suggest lowering the position and moving more towards the middle of your arrows. If you put an arrow in the center of your existing arrows, bring the camera out from the door side a bit, but not to dead center of the wall. That will give you a person walking up to the door, a profile of the person at the door, and the door itself. But again, you have clean walls. Any camera that isn't tucked to a corner and lower on the wall will look obtrusive and ugly on the wall. In which case, think about a small keyhole camera type that they put in doorbells or doorframes and such. That camera would be looking straight out. You'd see everyone approaching and standing at your front door no problem. MUCH better for ID'ing, and you'd spare your walls an ugly camera sticking out.

 

My two cents, for what it's worth. I'm a diy'r- not a pro installer so consider the source. Good luck.

 

Dan

[jason_ca 0]

Hi Jack in oz,

 

I'll have to check out the area above the door. If I remember correctly there wasn't any way to access it. I'll know better what I'm against once I access the area above the porch. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Jason

 

Hi,

DIYer as well- so take this with a grain of salt.

 

I have a similar front porch as you do and I'm about to fit a dome camera to that area. My current plan is to mount the dome to the roof of the porch centrally above the door looking down the stairs. That should catch visitors/intruders as they walk up the stairs.

 

Can you mount a dome camera to the wall directly above the door? If you paint the housing of the dome camera a similar color to the wall it shouldn't be too noticeable.

[shockwave199 0]

You seem to have exterior light at almost every location, so I would start by recommending what most here would recommend- CNB varifocal dome cameras. With exterior light, they always look darn good to me.

 

CNB VCM-24VF

 

I'm not sure how much of a problem, if any, you'll have with your exterior lights actually in the shots, which is what you'll have according to your projected placement. Light within the shot can make the image more problematic. You might want to check that before deciding on the exact aim of the camera. Anything you can do to get the lights just out of frame will help. If it can't be done, a camera such as the cnb will probably handle the task well, but you'll have to see it to know.

 

The walkway up to your house looks void of any light, in which case I would throw out a rec for a Gadspot-

 

http://www.gadspot.com/p-329-gs830sm.aspx

 

That one comes in white if you think that's a better color, and is a varifocal camera but more importantly, it has smart IR. It won't white out people approaching with strong IR- it will adjust it automatically to keep the IR regulated for good facial/body detail.

 

And if you really get a good shot of people coming up the walk, then your front door camera can be more like added 'gravy'. Perhaps a cnb installed at your right arrow, maybe just a bit away from the door wall up there, will do very nicely. Zoom the fov tighter and you'll probably catch a decent overhead face profile and a side swipe of the front doors. And that will also keep the position of the camera in a better spot for that access you need there.

 

Good luck!

[Firefighter 0]

Not that it's a big concern, But remember you can pick up some paint to match

your stucco and just paint the cable line if you're running it to the 2nd story so it

will blend in and you won't notice it rly... It'd just be a nit picky thing on the side

to worry about later. But don't let a cable being run alter your possibility in getting

a good position for your cameras...

You can always pull the lines and systems to sell the home, thats nothing.....

you'll want that good camera shot first.

 

Just a small side note.