As a home and business owner, keeping your premises safe and secure is surely a top priority. Theft and burglary in the UK continue to rise, especially in colder/darker months. The presence of a CCTV security system has proven to be an excellent deterrent to theft and break-ins. When choosing what type of CCTV cameras, you want to use, it is important to consider the different capabilities and needs for indoor or outdoor cameras. For instance, indoor cameras may not need to cover as far as a distance as an outdoor camera, or the fact that outdoor cameras will need to be weatherproof.
One of the most important features of an outdoor camera, is ensuring that you that you get one that has a high resolution, at least 1080p or above, otherwise the picture quality will most likely not give you the results you need. Outdoor cameras also work best if they have a long-range night vision that reaches at least 10m away. If not, then they will not be very useful in hours of darkness. If an outdoor camera has at least a rating of IP65, or more, it should be significantly protected against the elements.
One choice you will need to make for an outdoor camera, is deciding if you want it to be in colour or black and white. They both have their pros and cons, for instance, a black and white camera will be more detailed in low-light than a colour camera, which is why colour cameras are more often used in well-lit areas. However, a colour camera will be able to give more identifying information such as the colour of a subject’s hair, clothes or car, should an incidence occur.
Other considerations include the lens size of the camera, which should be decided based on the size/layout of the area it will need to cover. The larger the lens size, means the narrower and more zoomed in the field of view will be. So, for example, a 2.5 mm lens offers quite a wide view, but does not offer the best picture definition. With the same positioning, a 100mm will show a much smaller area, but much more clearly.
Take all of these things into consideration before making a choice of what type of exterior CCTV Camera will work best for you.