Camera location on front porch?

[cbomba]

I ran a cat6 cable to the door bell as well as one in the ceiling of the front porch. I was planning on using the doorbell cat6 for intercom and the ceiling cable for an IP camera for security. I was wondering the best location of the camera and any suggestions on the type of camera? I am planning on having a PoE switch in the house to power the cameras.

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Thanks in advance.

 

[cbomba]

So that didn't work with the URLs. Let me figure out how to get the image in the post.

 

[cbomba]

[media][/media]

 

[cbomba]

Attached!

 

[apostolakisl]

Do you want the camera to show the face of someone standing at the door well enough to recognize them, or do you want to see the full area?

In my experience, it is pretty much impossible to do both with 1 camera.

I opted for a single camera that is above and to the side of the door and it clearly shows someone who is standing there waiting, but not much else.

 

[cbomba]

I was planning on doing the same thing. Move it to the left of the front door and up in the ceiling. I know it isn't the greatest but I only have one cable up there and just trying to get a view of what is going on.

 

[wuench]

Yeah I am thinking about this myself. The things I have thought about....

1.) Do I want to see the faces of the visitors?
2.) How obvious will the camera be?
3.) Will it capture areas where Fedex/UPS leaves packages, etc
4.) What else will the camera capture besides the front porch?

I have kind of been leaning towards mounting it on one of the corners closest to the house. That should be able to capture faces, and also will pick up some of the yard etc as a bonus. Additionally the camera will be more obvious, making it a better deterrent (and give my guests something additional to poke fun at ).

I have a Ubiquiti Aircam to try out, it is external and 720p, but not a night camera and uses 24V POE, which is non-standard. Software is free to download. They are planning to release a pro version soon that is night capable with heater etc and I found POE 1U distribution panels that will work with the 24V. Much cheaper than upgrading to a POE switch. So I may stick with Ubiquiti in the future, depending on how it goes and price. I was looking at the Vivotek cameras as an alternative. There are some thread around here on camera recommendations...

 

[tmbrown97]

They also have their toughswitch which can power a couple cameras and handle the switching in one - it's pretty convenient and allows remote cycling of the cameras as a nice bonus... These cameras do lock up once in a while. Be careful with those 1U distribution panels and ensure they have individual protection per circuit - most of them don't.

One other popular option with Ubnt products right now is this remote reboot power injector - it's a little spendy but if you factor in the remote reboot and scripted reboot capabilities along with the fact that it can handle a directly attached battery to supply the backup, it's actually pretty slick
http://www.digitalloggers.com/poe24.html


I'm looking forward to the pro version - if they're affordable I'll buy 7 or 8; but without that IR (or even IR compatibility) they're useless to me in most venues.

 

[wuench]

It sounds like they bumped it to q2/q3 2013 for the pro cameras. The panel I linked to does have per port power protection. I like the remote reboot device you linked to, but you are right it is a big expense. But I guess if the cameras lock up all the time, it may be a better option.

 

[pete_c]

I utilize an Optex combo about 15 feet to the side of the front door. I have changed the camera board/lens on it. That said will probably be changing the board to a combo analog output and HD IP camera board for better resolution.

The legacy combo device has a nicer looking footprint than their the newer Optex combo PIR/Camera. It really just looks like an oversized PIR sensor. That said I have an indoor PIR combo camera sensor thats only maybe 2" tall and looks relatively small and really looks more like a PIR than a PIR combo Camera using a pinhole camera.

The above said I live in a two story colonial with glass panels on the side of the door. There is an inside and outside side panel with about 8 inches of space between the two piece of glass. I could mount a very small HD camera in between the glass. That said though I would probably utilize a wide angle lens such that it would work with different people of various heights. That would allow for two HD pictures; one from the side and one from the front. I do though today have a second camera mounted such that it faces the front door giving me a full view of the front door. I also have a third camera from a 20 foot height facing down. Putting a wide angle lens (this is an Ubiquiti Aircam) in this camera would give me another front door view.

Personally then the best frontdoor / doorbell event for me could be a simultaneous recording of 4 cameras all which have different front door views. (every camera faces another camera such that the cameras look at each other)

 

[pete_c]

This afternoon paid attention and watched the videos of a "door bell ringer". I never pay attention. It was interesting.

1 - the doorbell rang before she touched the doorbell maybe some 8-10 inches from her finger to the doorbell.
2 - she appeared to have a clipboard and most likely was selling something (about a week ago a local milk service delivery company tried to sell me on a 2-3 times a week milk delivery - $6 for 1/2 of a gallon in a glass jug though is a bit much delivered or not).
3 - I could see a slight look of puzzlement on her face as she turned her head side to side (not high def but at 640X480 pixel size resolution - high def would be nicer) hearing the door bell ring and hearing the TTS announcement that someone was at the front door. (there is a speaker close to the front door) before she actually pushed the doorbell button.
4 - She did look up at the Optex combo sensor. That sensor though was not what tripped the home automation "events".
5 - then she made or answered her cell phone while waiting for someone to answer the door (no one did).
6 - 2-3 minutes later she walked away still talking on her cell phone.

In conclusion using mostly just the recorded side of door CCTV camera; I saw everything I needed to see (the view is from the ground to beyond the top of the door. A HD camera would provide some nice granularity (like distinguishing facial stuff I guess). An HD camera 2-3 feet away from the face of the door ringer would provide even some facial granular details; nothing else though. So 2 views are the best. One being the entire area so you could see what the person is doing. The other one just for the facial stuff. What is neat too is that the videos have the time ticking off such that you could watch multiple simultaneous videos of the event. You can also probably do a push the doorbell to trigger a HD snapshot of a face or similiar as all you really need is a good front facial picture (a snapshot of a face is probably all you need from a doorbell to face of doorbell ringer mounted camera). IE: it works better for me to look at the touchscreen wherever in the house of the side to door mounted CCTV camera to know more of what is going on than a door mounted facing the door bell ringer CCTV camera.