How Many Cameras Does a House Need?

The four you nearly always need

Picture how someone would get from the street to each door of your house.

Camera one covers the driveway and street frontage. It sees vehicles arrive and gives you a chance at a number plate.

Camera two is at the front door, at head height, aimed to catch faces of anyone who comes to the door, plus parcels left on the step.

Camera three watches the side gate. It is the usual way into a back yard and it is hidden from the street.

Camera four covers the back yard, the patio and the rear doors.

That is the standard starting point, and on a typical single storey Logan block it covers the main approaches well.

When it takes five, six or more

Split levels. Common on Logan’s hillier streets. The lower level often has its own door, garage or rumpus room opening onto the yard, and none of the other cameras see it.

Carports. If the car sits in a carport beside the house rather than a closed garage, a camera aimed along the carport covers the car doors.

Corner blocks. Two street frontages, often two gates. One or two extra cameras.

Granny flats, sheds and garages. Each needs its door covered.

Deep back yards and pools. One camera cannot always cover a long yard and the back door at the same time.

Blocks backing onto bushland, a park or a creek. Logan has plenty of houses backing onto reserves and waterways, where nobody overlooks the back fence. Put a camera on it.

Acreage: think in zones

For a rural block around Greenbank, Jimboomba or Logan Village, forget the four sides of the house and think in zones: the gate, the driveway, the house, and each shed or outbuilding. Each zone gets one or two cameras. A block with a gate, a house and two sheds can easily need eight to ten. The gate camera does the most work, because every vehicle passes it.

Placement matters as much as the count

A camera too high sees hair. A camera aimed wide shows a figure the size of an ant. Better to have five well placed cameras at two and a half to three metres, aimed to catch faces and plates, than eight cameras on every corner pointing at the lawn.

Leave room to grow

If you are unsure, install the four main cameras on an eight channel recorder. Adding a camera later is a cable and a bracket, not a whole new system.

Questions people ask

Can one 4K camera cover the whole front yard?

It can show the whole yard, but people at the far side will be small and hard to identify. A camera covers an area well, or it gets detail on faces. Usually you need both kinds.

How high should cameras be mounted?

Around two and a half to three metres suits most positions. Higher is harder to reach and tamper with, but it shows the tops of heads instead of faces.

Do I need a camera inside the house?

Most people do not. Some like one covering the main living area or garage for when they are away, but outdoor cameras do most of the security work.