Things to consider when choosing a surveillance camera & some detail on CCTV camera features.
When your having a new cctv camera installed or replacing an old surveillance camera you may be thinking along the lines that the cheapest camera will do as long as it satisfies my insurance companies requirements. At Midland CCTV sales we provide CCTV security cameras that offer a variety of features worthy of review and may just help you when a customer or employee say they slipped on your premises and you need high quality video evidence or a theif breaks in stealing irreplaceable equipment such as computers with files – quality cctv camera images are now your top priority & you want a clear image of the intruders face to provide the local police. A lot of techno bable is involved with cctv security cameras & cctv camera reviews so we have broken it down to the key considerations & CCTV camera features that effect the end result.
Also to aid in your CCTV camera review we have also included some industry abbreviations used below for the CCTV camera features –
Field of View
Field of View refers to the width of area a surveillance camera can record. This is important because it will affect how many cameras you’ll need and where you should place them.
Motion Detection
Cameras with motion detection can send you notifications when the camera observes motion within its field of view. These notifications can alert you to monitor the situation & trigger recording. It also can alert your CCTV monitoring company.
Resolution
Resolution defines how clear the image from your CCTV security camera will be. A clearly visible image is very helpful when trying to identify faces or items in the images your CCTV security camera records.
Abbrev.
MP – Megapixels – the number of millions of pixels in the image sensor. The higher this value, the more detailed the image, but note that optical quality of the lens system also makes a huge difference, so resolution isn’t everything.
WiFi Capability
A wireless CCTV camera with WiFi can communicate with your network wirelessly which can be very handy for installation, but is also less susceptible to being disabled as there are no wires to be cut. Complete wireless CCTV camera systems with multiple cameras have a separate receiver / transmission equipment.
Night Vision
The distance to which your camera can record images in low to no light situations can have a great impact on its effectiveness because often criminal activity can happen at night.
Abbrev.
IR – Infra Red – some cameras include Infra Red LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for night vision.
Movement
A camera that can pan and/or tilt may be able to record a larger area than a static camera and therefor reduce the total number of cameras needed to observe a particular area.
Abbrev.
PTZ – Pan Tilt Zoom – mechanical movement of the camera that can be controlled
Sound
The sound feature can refer to your camera receiving sound via a microphone, emitting sound via a speaker, or both. Cameras with both can double as an intercom.