F door peep hole camera?

[programmergeek]

It's time to put in a camera to see who is at the frount door, is a peep hole camera the best way?

If so what is a good one? It needs to be a ip camera or needs a converter. POE would be best but of course I do have 12v there if I have to. I also want the most power efficient one I can get.

 

[Rupp]

I just mounted a camera above my front door.

 

[Sacedog]

I would not think a peep hole camera would be a good idea. I am not sure how the wiring would get in the door, and out to a wall without looking horrible on the inside of the door. Most people will put a camera on their front porch, that has a wide angle of view, and that is pointed in such a way that you can identify faces of people standing at your door (just like Rupp did above).

As for type of camera, I woudl go have a look at http://www.cctvforum.com. There are extensive threads of the type of cameras that are recommended. Keep in mind that that website is used by a lot of professionals, so that cameras will be more expensive than consumer cameras, but they will be a lot hogher quality.

A lot of users here are using Panasonic IP cameras, but hopefully others will chime in to give you an idea what they recommend.

 

[standon]

Make sure you consider the night vision. I switched my camera near the front door to an Acti ACM1431 that I picked up on ebay for a great price (like 250 all in). These pretty versatile and the night viewing is great. But when installing my cameras my biggest concern were those late the evening/night doorbell ringers more than anything. There is an ACM 1431 on ebay right now for 300 before bcb. These don't require external enclosures either. Let me know if you'd like to see some screenshots.

 

[twilo123]

if you want a peephole camera this one caught me by total surprise at a convention. was hidden right behind a painting and would catch people walking by.

axis m7001

 

[electron]

I was looking for a similar peephole camera (I don't have a front porch), but am concerned about the wiring inside the house as well. If you do find something nice, let me know.

 

[programmergeek]

I saw the Axis and liked it the trouble is the lens is not wide angle enought and I don't think you can change it.

 

[sic0048]

Keep in mind that Axis is really just showing off their video encoder. They have a "covert kit" that includes a small covert camera, but you should be able to hook up any analog covert camera to the encoder. While this is just a hunch, I doubt Axis even makes the covert camera they include in the kit. I suspect it is just some covert camera from another manufacturer.