Recommendation for Outdoor Camera

Hardware
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Hey everyone!

New season coming to us, and with it am looking to replace the security cameras in my house (the two aren’t really related, I get it lol)

I have 720p cameras in the locations im looking to put new ones, but I believe they’re powered by low-volt stuff and have coaxial wires throughout my house to the basement where I had the old DVR. Im looking to get new high-quality cameras (preferably 2K).

I think im going to get an electrician to wire up actual power to all the spots, so that my choices aren’t limited.

The only thing im looking for is to be able to have the camera on a tablet dashboard for home assistant and always be live - like Id rather not have to click on it for it to show me the live view.

The wifi in my house is good - won’t be a problem there.

Thanks everyone for the help!

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I’m about to start fiddling around with this work [link below] to see about replacing some Logitech Circle View cameras that are starting to be a bit flaky. Price of the cameras seem good, hopefully resolution will be as good or better that Circle Views with more and all local control. The are only 1080 res however. Maybe there are some 2K’s around with same local hack possibility.

https://github.com/alienatedsec/yi-hack-v5
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Here are my starting tips, and a few comments as to why.

First and foremost, the best place I have found for camera discussions is ipcamtalk.com. Lots of great discussions, user reviews of cameras, help with software for NVR/DVR, etc. Great site, but you will need to do some reading as there is no “list” of cameras to buy as it all depends on your needs.

Second, do not buy 4K cameras. They are good when it comes to daylight, but I have yet to read a review or use one that has good night vision.

Third, Dahua cameras with the starlight CMOS are thee standard for night vision. When I am shopping for a camera it starts and stops with that filter for me.

Fourth, all my comments are based on the fact that most criminals and people I am worried about are going to come at night which is why I harp on night vision so much. You can get a high resolution camera that is amazing in daytime, but they won’t help the cops catch the guy(gal) if they show up at night.

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Good info, thx. Can you expand on your recommends for the Dahua starlight cameras? Cause of course nothing is simple, I looks at the Dahua web site and my sight found a number of starlight cameras :upside_down_face:

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Amcrest 4k looks AMAZING at night. Im in the country and moonlight is like a spotlight with them. Amazing IR filter as well. IP8M-2496EW-V2. This is in color with LEDs off.

IP5M-B1186EW-28MM is great at night as well but IR filter is not as good.

+1 starlight. Amcrest calls it same thing

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I am not sure exactly what you are looking for in recommendations, but I will add this.

I have 2 PTZ cameras and a bunch of turret cameras.

I would not get dome cameras. I had one, and many other users report after a bit of time that the dome starts to haze and you will likely end up buying a new camera as you can’t find the domes to replace or they are not replaceable.

I would not buy bullet cameras. Full disclosure: I have never bought one, just based off a buddy and IPCamTalk folks they seem to draw spiders and spider webs and other fun things that requires you to clean them. (Personally I was disappointed when I found this out as bullet cameras has the best varifocal lense options hence how I ended up with my PTZ tracking cameras that gave my wife a heart attack with the price. She loves them now, and I have a video of someone who came onto our property saw the camera was literally following him and he said nope and turned around and left).

If you are asking specifically about starlight parameters well it has been a hot minute, and I can’t recall off the top of my head but as I recall a starlight 1/1.8 is better than a 1/2.5. The lower the second number then the better. (Research this. I am old and very forgetful and not a camera guru)

I found the page you show in your post, but I could not see the actual specs. FYI…there weren’t all those choices when I bought mine. It was Starlight or no Starlight back then. From what I saw I would be aiming for Enhanced Starlight to Starlight+ depending on price as Starlight+ is only moving it from .005 to .004 lumens. We are really splitting hairs at that point so unless I found them similarly priced the sweet spot might be Enhanced Starlight.

Good article: Good Article on Starlight Cameras

It has been a few years since I bought mine, and if you check IPCamTalk they will have the true story, but there is really on 2 camera companies which are Dahua and Hikvision. Armcrest, Reolink, EZVIZ, etc. are all rebrands of those 2 manufacturers. So if it is still only Dahua who has the Sony Starlight and you find another brand that says Starlight it is likely a Dahua camera that is rebranded or Dahua built it for them. They both have pros and cons, but at the time Dahua had Starlight and Hikvision didn’t so I went with Dahua. Doesn’t mean Hikvision doesn’t have good cameras-my front doorbell camera is Hikvision as I didn’t like the options from Dahua and how they integrated with HA (Still haven’t found a damn solution for a sensor for a doorbell press with any yet)

Couple other points:
Not sure your plan or what your setup is, but when you get to the NVR/DVR question. Buy Blue Iris and move on. Best in the business, reasonably priced. For reference I have an HP EliteDesk with a 18TB hard drive with stores all my videos and I think I get about 2 weeks and more if I set it to only record motion.

Buy all Ethernet cameras. If you buy Wi-Fi you will be back here again. Just skip them unless you don’t have another option. (That front door bell cam is my only Wi-Fi cam. mostly cause it is a POS to get an ethernet to where my doorbell was).

Lastly, and I realize this is super anal retentive and probably overkill, but I setup all my cameras on a separate VLAN that I do not allow access to the internet. I do all my own firmware updates, no auto updating. I may be crazy, but I have concerns with my cameras being accessible from the internet.

Ok that is all I have for now. Back to yard work, and keep asking your questions. I will answer them if I know.

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Its the LEDs. Bugs are attracted to the light

The starlight cameras seriously do better without them. I use same settings for both day and night.

1 Like
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That makes sense.

I tried to the best of my ability with my layout that I mounted all my cameras as high as possible so the thought of cleaning them with a large ladder was not enticing at all.

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hi, where to start,humm,
if you are anything like me, anything with write code and script, is a no no,
but the art is find equipment that other people have used to do what you are trying to do, or brands that
have a common platform that will work together,

like onvir, nearly any onvir camera will work and onvir nvr, out the box, well nearly all, i have had tissue with that too :sob:

not sure how you planning to home assistant to show image, i have found rstp stream source code one in user manual for my camera and have also used onvif connection, but not all equipment brands these details easy to find.

you could get a dvr and collect you stream from it, if you one same brand with say hdoc thay should work together
you should able to find hd over coax camera (hdoc) and some even power the camera down the same cable, 4mp camera are not dear, there may other format ,ahd, hd_cvi, hd-sdi, all have one basic, video down coax wire, but must be match some don’t fit others, so maybe buy all one brand that way it should be good, look them up to see what suits you,
which will save you replacing cable run if costly,

i dont use camera system in a box, with say 4 camera and recorder, with pre made cables, thay only suit some installations, same light issue, and 1 part stops work and end replacing the lot. Again !!
really !!, as bits get discontinued quickly, or different brand will not mix together.

as for camera choice …well i have work on alot of cameras, and back ground light and what you wanna see is the key,
some brand may state 20mtr infra red night length, but in pitch darkness its more half a metre,
so if you can plan your lighting for outdoors or fit more ir lamps if needed or get cameras with a good name/tech support,

i hope this help sorry for long story, but alot to cover :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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i like the starlight article, useful…ta