New apartment owner

[Blend34 0]

Hey forum folks,

While I'm not new to digital CCTV, I'm new to this forum. I'm an apartment owner trying to ensure security in a dodgy neighbourhood. At the moment, I'm working on a few things:

1. A concealed camera for the side entrance alley on top of the air con. Version 1 is a bird box with an Arlo Go. But the distance is a bit too far to get a good view of what's happening. I've roughly calculated that the ideal level of zoom would be 8x, which would take the area of interest to full screen. Lighting is also an issue during both day and night. Because of the apartment side wall, the light hitting it washes out the lighting during the day. I guess the Arlo doesn't have HDR. At night, there's good visible lighting, but I'd like to add some kind of discrete/inconspicuous IR light.

2. A camera for the garage. At the moment, when my car is parked there, my dash cam can capture a few hours of video until the battery runs down to the cut off level. I have a storage unit which I'd like to equip with a camera, but because this is at ground height, it would need to be even more discrete. I tend to think that increasing the battery time of my car dash cam is my best bet.

3. I want to setup a Windows PC to run Blue Iris to give some smarts to the cameras.

Look forward to discussing these things at details in the relevant forum/thread. Feel free to point me in the right direction for where I should post or what I should read.

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. Why install covert ?

a system is also a deterrent if seen ……. Hidden cameras still allow problems

 

Arlo camera ………. That’s a bit like going to toys R us     To buy tools to build a house

[Blend34 0]

The reason I want it to be covert is because it's a bit high up. Above the fence line. My next door neighbour may get paranoid/annoyed that I'm looking at him. Also, it's an apartment complex, so, again, I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable.

Yeah, the Arlo camera is crap. Never realized that the small distance and lighting situation would make zoom so necessary.

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. Your problem is going covert in a apartment complex….. tenants will class it as spying…. Don’t know we’re your based but most places it is classed as illegal so your best looking at the regulations for cctv in your area …….. illegal cctv will not help you collect evidence as it can’t be used always stay legal  with cctv or it could come back to bit you  

 

you will be better talking with the other people on the complex and also the owner of the complex to install cctv 

 

from your other posts ….. installing camera and IR at an other location you need to make sure camera is compatible for IR or it won’t work 

as far as your camera range you need to look at varifocal cameras

[Blend34 0]

Good points. Where I live, things are a bit different. There is no single owner of the complex, but rather ownership is made up of the tenants collectively. That is known as the body corporate. We looked at getting the body corporate to install cameras, but it was too complicated. E.g. Where will the system be placed, who will have access, financial approvals, etc. The area that is being monitored is an entry way, which is a public space. So, it's legal in Australia - I checked. As to whether other tenants see it that way is another thing as you pointed out. I'm actually more worried about the people that have been seen loitering, stealing, and leaving blood soaked shirts in that entry way. A risk I'm willing to take to give my missus peace of mind.

Onto the matter at hand, I thought that a varifocal camera by it's nature doesn't have zoom. I would be happy with a fixed zoom lens, but not sure such a thing exists.