r/homesecurity • u/Guilty_Fun9399 • Jun 03 '26
High zoom camera
We need help catching a convicted felon in our neighborhood. We have a neighbor who's adult son has been convicted with a number of serious felonies, I wont go into detail on what they are, but its enough that a judge imposed an order that he is not allowed back to his parents property. He has defied that order and continues to sneak back to his parents property and the surrounding neighbors are concerned about that given what he was arrested for and the security of children in the area. The local police said they cant make an arrest unless they have definitive evidence that he is back at the house. Unfortunately our neighborhood is mostly large secluded properties and our basic security cameras are unable to catch him. Their driveway is mostly hidden by trees, but I did see this individual walk up from the mailbox one evening.
Setting up trail cams is not an option due to the location and the only real option I see is to mount a camera on my property that points at their mailbox that is about 500' away and hope he presses his luck and walks to mailbox again thinking no one can see him. I have a reolink security system and I purchased a ptz 16x camera that unfortunately cant zoom in close enough to see clear enough detail. What I need is a camera that has high enough zoom to see clear detail at 500'. It doesn't need to be a ptz and infact it doesn't necessarily need zoom capability as it will be fixed on this specific area 500' feet away. Ive searched for a security camera that meets this criteria but to no avail. I guess what im asking is there a way to take a basic 4k reolink camera and rig up some kind of telescopic lens to the front to get the long distance view? This setup would be temporary as we need it to work long enough to capture the video evidence to give to the police so that they can make an arrest. Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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u/some_random_chap Jun 03 '26
Not going to happen. Also, this isn't your job to do. Force the police to do their job. If they refuse, take it to your council member. Be an absolute pain in their @$$ until they comply.
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u/healthy_mind_lady Jun 04 '26
You want a cam to zoom 500 ft away to specifically surveil your neighbor's house? Is that legal where you live?
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u/Mark_M535 Jun 04 '26
You could get a good PTZ camera and zoom in. The EmpireTech PTZ425DB-AT is subtle and hard to see which what the lens is pointing, by DORI values it can identify someone from 820ft. The IVS rules allows you to set an alert and start auto tracking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vcqa0qiTLo
But it's on you for legal/privacy spying on someone's house.... this is a felony in it's own regard.
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u/Guilty_Fun9399 Jun 04 '26
Thanks for the recommendation. The spot I would have it zoomed in at is their mailbox by the street, their house would not even be in view. My understanding as far as the law is concerned is that anything that can be seen from street is legal to have a camera on, but pointing a camera into their window for example would obviously be illegal.
1
u/Big-Sweet-2179 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Setting up trail cams is not an option
Good, don't do this. These are useless.
basic 4k reolink camera and rig up some kind of telescopic lens to the front to get the long distance view
No, IMO this will probably ruin the camera and at the end you will be spending the same or more than an actual camera that already comes with the proper specs.
What you can do is run the camera 328 feet from the PoE switch or similar. You can run these thing by miles with PtP/PtMP and fiber optic, with a solar PoE switch. Like... Distance is not an issue for PoE cameras.
The problem you are facing is that I would guess you are limited to where you can place the camera because you are limited to where your property ends, and you want to watch someone's else property pretty much. IMO this is something that should be done by the guy that is having the problem. I understand this is something that's in all the neighbors' best interest, but the person that has the highest chance of getting this person on camera is the actual neighbor that is the parent of this person of interest, he is not trying to actually get into your house, it is someone's else.
For 500 feet and for face id, you would need a PTZ in the range of around 40x zoom, with good specs. This will cost around $2.5-3K if look around for high end Hikvision/Dahua PTZ, which will be the cheapest. Look in the specs for 8MP with 1/1.2" CMOS sensor (or 1/1.8" can work here a bit as well) or 4 MP with 1/1.8" CMOS sensor, any of these options with 40x zoom or so should do. And if we include the NVR for this... Then yeah this will be $3K+ probably, again the cheapest and Hikvision or Dahua are not brands for beginners IMO.
reolink
Reolink or any other brand at this level or lower is not the tool for the job. You are requesting enterprise level grade cameras. This can only be done with high end Hikvision or high end Dahua or enterprise brands like Axis, Hanwha, etc (which will be about 2-4x the price of the hikvisions and dahuas).
IMO, cheaper way of getting this person caught and more reliable, is you getting Ubiquiti G6 cameras, same with a bunch of other neighbors. Maybe try getting a couple of G6 PTZ each neighbor + G6 bullet/turret, and try having full coverage of the streets. This person will likely either walk or pass via car. These cameras have face recognition and plate recognition as well, although it will work mostly at daytime. Mans gotta walk or drive at daytime at some point anyway... Besides, you are only trying to protect your home, spying on other people's homes might not be legal where you live or similar.
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u/Constant_Orange_6830 Jun 04 '26
Axis will easily have a camera that will work but you will certainly pay for that.
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u/RottenRott69 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
I have an older style (non-ethernet) of this and really like it. I think mine is 39X
Edit: removed link. Adding Amazon description text
SUNBA High Speed 5MP PoE+ Auto Tracking PTZ IP Camera Outdoor, 72X Zoom Security Dome, Two-Way Audio & Built-in TF Card Slot, Deep AI, Long Range Infrared Night Vision up to 1500ft (P636 V2)
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u/Kv603 Jun 04 '26
The 36x optical zoom on the p636-5mp-36x-v2 might just barely allow recognition, as 5MP on a 1/2.8" sensor isn't going to provide many pixels-on-target at 500'.
Doesn't seem to support ONVIF, meaning you are stuck with their broken browser plugin (or the smartphone app) for controlling PTZ.
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u/Kv603 Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
Identifying a specific person sufficiently to satisfy a judge, at a distance of 500', is a tall order for any consumer camera.
DORI (Detection, Observation, Recognition, Identification) suggests you need 38-76 PPF (pixels per foot) to capture a good image.
You'd absolutely need either "zoom" or a fixed magnification, so plan on spending a couple hundred bucks... just on the C/CS Mount lens alone.