There are a lot of choices when picking cameras for your home and in this How To we will go over some of the options that make any of them the best for you.
Some of the terms that you will be confronted with when choosing a camera system are HD, UltraHD, 4K and this has to do with the resolution of the camera. When picking which resolution is right for you the first thing is to determine whether the system will be wifi or wired. Wired cameras have higher resolution and at this time almost every 4K camera is going to require that you run a wire to it for the network. Wireless or Wifi cameras often provide good quality video but most are limited to 1080p which is a much smaller picture than 4K resolution. If you have purchased a TV recently then you have been confronted with this option. The smaller TVs are normally HD or 1080i and the ones over 32 inches in size provide the option for 4K video. If you want to see more, if you want to be able to zoom in and still have detail, if you want the best quality then you want the highest resolution and that means you can not run these cameras over your wifi because wifi at this time is not fast enough to broadcast 4K from your cameras. This limitation should change soon as manufacturers upgrade their wireless settings on their cameras.
Storing Your Security Camera Video
The next option is how you will store your camera’s video. Some cameras will have the option for a camera mounted MicroSD card and in this situation it means that the camera stores the video on the camera its self. You will also have the option to upload to a cloud service and store local on a NVR Network Video Recorder or maybe a local server or NAS but the MicroSD card option means that the camera should be able to be access directly without the need of other storage options. MicroSD Card Storage can normally handle about a week of recording and as new video is recorded the old video is deleted to make room for new video.
Storing your video to the Manufacturer’s Cloud Service is something that many people choose to do. The cost is normally $3 to $5 per month per camera but if you have more cameras then the price per camera will go down. Normally the Cloud Service will let you view up to a month of video. This is a pretty easy option for most people however you do have to consider the security issues with a company storing your video. Cost can also be an issue for people that are trying to remove a monthly bill.
NVRs are video recorders for your network cameras. They are similar to a VCR Tape machine but they can normally handle up to about 8 cameras around your home. Why would you want to use a NVR if you have the MicroSD Card or Cloud Service option? Because it is another way to store your video in a more secure way. If you have cameras that a thief attacks or steals then the MicroSD card will be gone with all your video. Placing a NVR in a location in your home that is out of site could mean that this video is still available. Additionally it gives you more storage and a unified storage location for all your cameras. If you are on the road or when you come home you can review all of your video from the web interface on your NVR.
Local Servers and NAS Drives for your video storage is another option but setting up these devices does take some know how. Many of these systems run the Linux Operating System and it could be a hurdle for learning not only how to set up your applications but to secure the Linux Server from the Internet because if you expect to access your device remotely you will need to set up security for your server. This is true for all of your devices whether it is changing the password on a camera you access directly or setting up your NVR to be secure. However when you are building the system yourself then you are pretty much on your own with some help from support groups on the internet. If you do run this type of system i strongly suggest that you limit it only to your security video and don’t store other information on it such as personal files, images or video you might watch on your TVs.
POE Wiring, Switches And NVRs
Once you choose a camera and a support system you will need to wire the camera for Network and Power. POE is Power Over Ethernet and this option allows you to use a regular Network Cable and then send power to the camera over a couple unused wires that are in the cable. The power the camera needs is normally very small. It does not need 110voltage that comes out of your wall outlets and even a DC Power supply might be able to power a few of these cameras so sending a small amount of electricity up the wire to power the camera is pretty easy.
If you buy a camera system with POE Cameras and the Manufacturer’s NVR then the NVR will be set up to work perfectly with your camera system. All you need to do is install the camera, the NVR and then connect the two with a Cat6 Ethernet Cable. This will mean that you need to snake wires through your walls and possibly through your attic to get to the camera but the benefit of POE is that you don’t need to send a Video and Power cable you just need to send a thin Ethernet Cable.
If you use a Switch that is POE for your cameras then you need to make sure that the Switch will provide enough power at the right voltage for the cameras. This is not too difficult if you can find out the power consumption of the camera and then make sure that the switch provides at least that many watts on each port that you attach a camera to.
4K Security Camera Types And Options
As with all security cameras there are a variety of options. As we have learned the resolution is probably the biggest factor for 4K systems because it dedicates how the camera is wired and setup along with the quality of video.
You then have indoor and outdoor cameras. The outdoor cameras can be used indoor so don’t worry about that but indoor cameras normally are not weather tight and might not work well in lower temperatures. When installing your outdoor cameras make sure that they are rated IP 67 for normal outdoor use.
Bullet Cameras normally only record video in one pointed direction and the option to that is using a Dome Camera that can rotate. Cameras that rotate also have a drawback that they won’t catch something when they are rotated away from another direction but you can set them up to rotate on a timed basis and then they will follow the intruder once motion is caught. The option between these choices is a very wide angle or fish eye lens. This can be an option if the viewable area is covered by the camera but remember that the image might be distorted because of the wide angle lens.
Cameras that have Optical Zoom are good if you are watching the live stream and can adjust the view but normally cameras only offer Digital Zoom which is nothing more than you would do like zooming in while using a image processing application. Digital Zoom does nothing for the quality of the image and it makes it worse. Optical zoom is a glass lens on the camera that lets you actually zoom in while also preserving the full 4k image so detail is much better.
Final Note
Hopefully this How To has helped you understand what you are going to be confronted with when you are choosing a 4K Security Camera.
Realize that jumping to 4K means you can’t just use WiFi and you will need to set up some wiring. However that wiring is pretty simple and Ethernet cable is thin so its easy to get through walls and attics.
You then have options for storing that video. It can be on the camera’s MicroSD Card or on a NVR or Local Server or it can be on a Cloud Server outside of your home. There are other options for Cloud Services such as setting up your own remote server just like you would a local server or using some other type of online storage but you do need to weigh the security concerns.
Finally you have all the basic options that you would have with any security camera. You will need to choose between Camera Types such as a bullet or dome camera, will your camera rotate or have a wide angle lens, will that lens offer optical zoom or do you only have digital zoom? If you need to Zoom then pick Optical Zoom.
Price, Manufacturer, Support and other options including popularity are other factors and if you can integrate your camera system with your alarm system. These and other questions will be covered in other How Tos.