There’s a TL;DR at the bottom… Sorry for the long post

I am somewhat new to this world but understand photography and computers enough to have a basic comprehension of security cameras. I am trying to finalise plans for a 2-camera setup for some older friends, with potential for a 3rd camera in future. They live in Canada and wish to have a camera at the front of the house to mostly monitor the front door and mailbox (porch piracy is a concern, more regarding attempts and trespassing than actual access). They wish to have a camera at the back of the house to monitor for trespassing and theft, as well as small wildlife issues.

I have read through so many posts and the in depth comments (like this and this), and I think I have developed a decent idea of what to do. I have looked at DORI charts, played around with online lens calculators and watched a lot of youtube videos.

After doing as much research as I can, I am looking at 2 ONVIF POE cameras connected to an NVR/VMS (and switch). Probably do a Blue Iris build for the VMS with a repurposed box.

Because of the age of the house, and pending electrical wiring replacement in the attic, I would have to fish the ethernet cables via a new outlet to access the switch and VMS in their living room (as opposed to the switch being in the attic).

Front Camera:

Due to the age of the house and construction style, most of the locations for placement of the front camera would be within reach of an average person or be obscured. The placement, therefore, would probably have to be attached to the main roof soffit. The distance from the soffit to the mailbox/front door is 3m, with the distance to the front gate from the soffit being 6m. The aim of the front camera is mostly to detect and identify in that 6m to 3m window, so assessing DORI with a 2.8mm lens on a 4MP camera seems to be enough. Street lighting is quite bright, even in the semi-rural town, so I am less concerned with the front camera night vision capabilities.

Back Camera:

Due to the covered deck at the rear of their house, there are limited options for placement without significant visual obstruction. The best location that I can determine is from the underside of the deck roof (3m height). The distance to the rear fence bordering an alley from the proposed camera location is 11m. Due to petty crime in the area, with the recent increase in frequency of random people walking past (some not cleaning up after their dogs), it would be beneficial to be able to Observe or Recognise at 11m. Due to the angle of approach, licence plate readings aren’t important. The distance from the proposed camera location to the detached garage door is 6m, so the important field of recording would be in between the 6m and 11m distance, with anything past the 11m a bonus.

They also have an issue with small wildlife which they would like to capture, mostly skunks and stray cats. Due to the field of view for the back camera, this might require a 3rd camera to be added in the future to the detached garage, facing the house (so long as this doesn’t interfere with the lighting of the original camera).

The street lighting in the back of the house is significantly less than the front, but still exists. They have a motion-activated security light on the garage (currently not used), which is positioned in a way that it wouldn’t help to illuminate the rear fence. Adding an additional motion sensor light to the garage facing their alley is potentially something I’ll look into, but I don’t want to be wholly reliant on that.

Decent night vision is a goal. As such, I have been looking at Hikvision OEMs with ColorVu and/or Acusense. Due to the better chance of issue from the back of the property, I was leaning towards a 8MP camera with a 2.8mm lens (not a huge difference in DORI between 2.8mm and 4mm on the cameras I have looked at).

Budget:

Not taking into account at the Blue Iris build, the switch and assuming that I am buying weatherproofed and decent quality ethernet cabling… the main budget requirements are just for the cameras themselves. Their budget is roughly CAD$300 for each camera, with a little wiggle room.

TL;DR – My question:

Based on all of the above information, would a setup as follows be suitable:

4MP OEM Hikvision DS-2CD2347G2-LSU/SL(2.8mm) or DS-2CD2346G2-ISU/SL(2.8mm) for front camera (something like this)

8MP/4K OEM Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL(2.8mm) or DS-2CD2386G2-ISU/SL(2.8mm) for rear camera (something like this)

Does anyone have a different suggestion for my needs? Should I consider Acusense in the back and Colorvu in the front? I was looking at fixed turrets, but would a dome or bullet be a better option? Weather range would be -25C to +35C. Depending on results, I may look to add an IR flood if I go with Acusense.