Placement - seen or unseen?

[Gotcha]

After many years of living in my house - and (sigh) - having terrible neighbors on both(!) sides, I just purchased an Arlo. At first, I thought I would be covert about its placement. You know, sort of hidden - as I know the neighbors on the one side will probably do **bleep** for tat and go get one themselves. But a friend said, no, put it out and let them see it. So I just wanted to get a group opinion.

[jguerdat]

We have issues on one side so I watch them a lot. They finally noticed and whined but we told them we were watching our side yard since they had earlier issues themselves. No further complaints, not that I care. Think of a reasonable story and watch them overtly for best results.

[TomMac]

Overt tends to stop people if prone to do something, covert catches the person doing the act...

You have to decide which is better for your situation... 

For me overt is better... but YMMV

[Gotcha]

So ... I guess my friend has the winning opinion. I will put it out in the open.

[TomMac]

PS; Can say tho at times I've used both types....

The OVERT cameras make the badguy go over to a place where he thinks he's not seen by same, and the COVERT camera hidden there captures the scene.

It's steering the subject to an area for a good picture.

[Gotcha]

I agree with that.

[R_Lowe]

I have a number of cameras; some that function, some that don't.  The ones that do (4 Arlos, 2 Dropcams) I have placed precisely where I think they'll do the most good and am little concerned about whether they can be seen or not. 

However, I DO have 3 or 4 dummy cameras that I place in extremely conspicuous positions on the top corners of my home.  They look very realistic (exactly like my neighbors' $1,000 system cams) but cost only about $10 each.  These act as a deterrent (and the police actually told a neighbor they should also get them).  Thieves certainly know there are dummy cams out there, but it's up to them on whether or not they want to take the chance... I'm betting they'd just pass onto a home w/out cameras.  Here's a pic (if interested you can just google "Amazon dummy cameras" and you'll find them):