Here's a crude drawing of the house and attached garage. The three red blobs indicate current cameras. The light grey marks on the black outline are the major vulnerabilities. (All other windows are impractical for break-in purposes.)

The home also has a wired, monitored alarm system, with switches on every window and exterior door, two inside motion sensors, and a tilt sensor on the garage door.



Here's the view from the existing front and back cameras, respectively:




Here's the question: I plan to place one more camera. I think I've narrowed it down to the next most advantageous spots: Either the back of the garage, to cover that back door, or in the upper-right of the garage, just inside that door.

The outside location might be the greater deterrent and will catch anybody casing the location.

The inside location will cover both doors and the side window. There's also an advantage of it covering the inside of the garage when the main door is open.

Thoughts?

Consider better coverage of the street. That would capture not only activity at your home, but neighbors as well. Many of my burglars worked with a driver who either dropped off the burglar and parked nearby or circled the block. Mount any camera at an angle that clearly shows license plate numbers. A concealed mini-camera mounted low in your living area that clearly shows faces might be good. And insure your cameras are high resolution at night. An IR illuminator may be needed.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Consider better coverage of the street. That would capture not only activity at your home, but neighbors as well. Many of my burglars worked with a driver who either dropped off the burglar and parked nearby or circled the block. Mount any camera at an angle that clearly shows license plate numbers. A concealed mini-camera mounted low in your living area that clearly shows faces might be good. And insure your cameras are high resolution at night. An IR illuminator may be needed.

This. having images of a couple of guys in hoodies rarely helps solve cases. Vehicles, marks on vehicles, and license plates make a real difference.

What Yooper said, and I’d add cameras at each corner of the home. So they are a deterrent.

Thanks for the comments, but none of those suggestions are likely going to happen.

The street is impractical. It's 100' away from the front of the house, there's no power out there for a camera, and the front yard is criss-crossed by irrigation lines. There's no light out there, either.

Running wiring just for the three cameras I have, never mind the expense, was bad enough. To cover all angles/sides of the house, even w/o overlap, would require 6-8 cameras.

The one inside camera I have is all I intend to add to the living spaces. Mainly it's there because it was easy and so we could eyeball our pets while we are away. The WAF is another issue.

I once-upon-a-time thought I'd do many the things suggested. But we're in a (so far?) low-crime area. Middle-class. Few high-value targets. The front camera is there primarily to see who's approaching the door and to discourage/identify porch pirates. The back camera is because that doorwall makes me nervous.

So I'm compromising with four cameras in the most strategic locations I practically can.

Regarding the deterrent effect of surveillance cameras: There are two schools of thought on that. One is they are a deterrent. The other holds that they give criminals the idea the house with them has something worth stealing.

Not an expert, but how about inside the garage facing the garage door/garage access door?

quote:

Originally posted by steve495:
Not an expert, but how about inside the garage facing the garage door/garage access door?

That was one of the two I had in mind, as I noted in my OP, though, since they're on opposite walls, I can't cover both doors at once.

The third option, which is sounding increasingly attractive, is the far side of the front of the garage.

My new thinking is the "blind spot" in the back would be hard to get to w/o either crossing through the field of the existing back camera or approaching in a manner that's unlikely to go unnoticed by any one of several neighbours.

The far side of the front of the garage, though, would allow me to cover more of the approach to the front and that side of the garage, and cover the vehicles much better.

quote:

So I'm compromising with four cameras in the most strategic locations I practically can.

You pretty much answered your own question.
You first need to figure out where you want a "view" of/from ideally.
Then ask if you can get physically mount it there, can you get the data/power cabling to it and lastly is it the proper camera (based on view ~ distance, resolution, lighting conditions, activity etc).
If not what is the next best?

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

So I'm compromising with four cameras in the most strategic locations I practically can.

You pretty much answered your own question.
You first need to figure out where you want a "view" of/from ideally.

I've already got the three highest-priority areas covered. For the last camera: I'm not sure which of the three candidates would be the most useful.

Installation in any of the three locations would be about equally as challenging--albeit in different ways.

Far corner by the garage covering the driveway approach. There's someone in the picture from your front door cam standing next to where on the house I'd put the cam. Note that he is unidentifiable.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Far corner by the garage covering the driveway approach. There's someone in the picture from your front door cam standing next to where on the house I'd put the cam. Note that he is unidentifiable.

That "he" is my wife

But, yeah: I'd noticed that. I think I'll put a step stool over there, get my head up where the camera would be, and see what the view looks like.

I'd try to cover your garage front.

I think right there that proves my point, no?

Seriously, though, I'd add a doorbell cam. Nice straight low angle shot, plus the video doorbell functionality would be really good. Getting an ID from the side angle might be problematic, and a lot of burglars will do a test knock/ring to see if anyone is home before trying to break in. That would force them to either expose their face, or go away.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

That "he" is my wife

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Far corner by the garage covering the driveway approach. There's someone in the picture from your front door cam standing next to where on the house I'd put the cam.

Yep.

Front corner of the garage, covering the driveway (including the far side of the parked cars), a direct view of the street, and the approach to the side of the house.

Nice backyard, by the way. This was all just an excuse to show off your landscaping, right?

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Nice backyard, by the way. This was all just an excuse to show off your landscaping, right?

Thank you!

My wife's landscaping, mostly. Pretty much everything you see, garden-wise, she did. The patio we had done professionally. I did all the stonework for the raised garden and walkway to the left. (That walkway is in a serious state of disrepair. I didn't lay down nearly enough gravel. And the bricks are bricks, not pavers, so they're falling apart after some 10-15 years.)

The µBarn was our design, stick-built to our specs by a contractor.

Oh, the grass is me. I've put countless hours and several hundred $$$ into targeted herbicides, fertilizer, seeding and over-seeding, power-raking, etc., since late last summer.

You should see it in about another month, month-and-a-half. When everything is in bloom.

Anyway, back to the topic-at-hand...

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
That "he" is my wife

I think right there that proves my point, no?

Yeah, it kinda sorta does

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Seriously, though, I'd add a doorbell cam.

Two problems with that: 1. There are yet no doorbell cams supported by my NVR (Surveillance System software on a Synology NAS) and 2. Worse: There's absolutely no way to get wiring into where it has to go. The basement's finished, and the ceiling is drywall.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I'd try to cover your garage front.

I'm leaning strongly that way.

Do you have a doorbell (meaning you have doorbell power wiring going to the door)? Do you have Wifi? I think if you have the doorbell wiring you might be able to use that to power the doorbell cam. The Wifi can handle the data traffic.

And I'd not try to hook it into your NAS. Just pay the nominal fee to Ring (or alternative) to store the video. Yes, I know, annoying when you have the NAS setup, but likely simpler, and it would work.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
That "he" is my wife

I think right there that proves my point, no?

Yeah, it kinda sorta does

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Seriously, though, I'd add a doorbell cam.

Two problems with that: 1. There are yet no doorbell cams supported by my NVR (Surveillance System software on a Synology NAS) and 2. Worse: There's absolutely no way to get wiring into where it has to go. The basement's finished, and the ceiling is drywall.

I'm leaning strongly that way.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Do you have a doorbell (meaning you have doorbell power wiring going to the door)?

There was, once. Before we bought the house. There are still wires back there. And I think they make it to where the doorbell transformer used to be.

Right now there's a wireless doorbell there.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Do you have Wifi? I think if you have the doorbell wiring you might be able to use that to power the doorbell cam. The Wifi can handle the data traffic.

I do have WiFi, and the AP is about 15' from the door. (Aluminium flashing 'round the door, but, at that distance, I don't foresee a problem.)

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
And I'd not try to hook it into your NAS. Just pay the nominal fee to Ring (or alternative) to store the video.

I'm disinclined, strongly disinclined, to do that. I'm sure that eventually Dahua, Hik or one of the others will come up with a doorbell cam that would work. In fact: Hikvision already has a doorbell cam, but there are "security" questions surrounding the company's products and I don't believe it's yet supported by my NAS' software. (But Synology's Surveillance Station developers have been good about staying atop support for new camera products.)

As for the 4th cam: I just surveyed a potential wire run were I to place the camera on the far front corner of the garage. It doesn't get any easier, which also speaks favourably toward that choice.

Get one of the tiny cameras now available and mount it to look through the peep hole in the front door. Just regularly keep fresh batteries in it and view the data wirelessly.

flashguy