How to Choose the right Security Camera

(00:07):

Let's start with selecting the right lens. There's one distance that's really key to this and it's really easy for you to select the right camera if you follow the simple golden rule: 60 feet. If the viewing area is 60 feet or under, you can use a wide-angle lens which can be a 2.8 or a 3.6-millimeter wide-angle lens. A 3.6-millimeter lens opens up at a 90-degree field of view. A 2.8-millimeter lens opens up at 110 degrees field of view. Because they open up so wide, they cover a lot of ground up close, but because they cover a lot of ground up close, things get small at a distance. A wide-angle lens will start to lose facial identification or the ability to capture license plates past 60 feet from the camera.

(01:05):

We recommend using a wide-angle lens if your target distance is anywhere from 3 feet to 60 feet. If your target distance is past 60 feet, use a camera with a zoom lens. The most common zoom lens is a 2.8 to 12 millimeter. That'll let the view open up wide at 2.8mm but also at 60, 80, or 100 feet, you can zoom it in optically through the lens which allows you to adjust the view as desired. This causes objects or target locations to become larger in the view at distance. In other words, when you zoom in, the field of view horizontally shrinks, but things at distance get bigger. So the key distance is 60 feet. If the target location is 60 feet or under from the camera, use a wide-angle lens. If it's over 60 feet, all the way up to 200 feet, use a standard zoom lens. Now, if it's over 200 feet, you're likely going to be looking at a pan tilt zoom camera.

(02:04):

PTZ cameras are designed for long-range surveillance. They'll view up to 500 or 600 feet just fine and identify people and plates. You should consider pan tilt zoom cameras if your target distance is 200 feet or more.

(02:55):

So I know that I can use a wide-angle lens at this location and don't have to go with an expensive camera. Now when we're discussing whether a camera's going indoors or outdoors and what camera you should use, this is an outdoor camera, but it looks nice indoors. It's a little large because it is made for outdoor use but a lot of times when we're putting surveillance in a home or in a business, we can go to a small vandal dome. They look really nice mounted up in the corner, you don't notice 'em, but even though it's an IP67-rated outdoor camera, we're using it because it has a small footprint. And that's really what we want. We don't want an obnoxious or large camera inside an office or inside a home but this little guy mounted up in a corner looks really nice. No one will notice it or pay attention to it and you'll have good surveillance. Just because it's sealed watertight does not mean you cannot use it indoors, actually, it even lasts longer indoors. It doesn't hurt anything that it's an outdoor-rated camera. The only reason we're using it again is because of the small footprint and it looks nice indoors.