Security Camera Basics:
What are some of the best places to put cameras?
Some of the best places to put cameras are going to be near outdoor entrances and indoors if you have anything important that you want to watch. Many businesses use them to watch cash or other important or high value items that they want to keep safe.
Do you have to worry about focusing the cameras?
A lot of normal security cameras are ready to go out of the box. If objects get really close they do have an auto focus, but if there is a lot of movement in the foreground and the background at the same time they have a hard time focusing because they can only focus on one thing at a time so they will go blurry and there is not really anything you can do about that.
How do night vision cameras work?
Night vision cameras have a sensor on them for when it goes dark. There are LED’s on them that will light up with a faint red glow. That red glow is the infra red light shining and they will then light up the area as a black and white image. They are usually good for 20 or 30 feet, and they are as clear as regular video at those distances.
What are some of the benefits of security cameras vs. a photo patrol?
Photo patrols just have one click and only take one or two pictures. The whole scene isn’t captured. Security cameras usually have a 30 second delay before stopping the recording cycle. Any more movement on frame and the 30 second delay gets restarted. It will keep going as long as there is movement whereas a photo patrol may get 5 or 6 photos and does not capture everything that happened.
What are the differences between the indoor and outdoor cameras?
The biggest differences between the indoor and outdoor cameras is their build quality. The outdoor cameras are built to withstand the weather and protected from the rain and moisture and even snow and colder temperatures. Indoor cameras are built for in-home, in-store or in-office use; they don’t handle temperature changes and moisture very well at all.
How many cameras would you recommend that someone should have for a typical household?
You are probably looking at 4 cameras, one for each of the front and back entrances, maybe the sides, maybe some on the inside watching the entrances. If you have a big bay window you could put it there so you can watch both the inside and part of the outside.
What about the difference between wireless cameras and wired, like RCA, BNC, and Baluns?
When comparing wireless and wired it is always better to go wired if you have the option, because when it comes to wireless you have the chance that something will interfere with the signal. For example, bad weather, other nearby wireless signals, or even a wireless jamming device (thieves can be sneaky!) can disrupt your wireless camera’s feed. They can be reliable, but there is a lot more that can go wrong with them. With a wired camera you are good to go as long as the wire is still connected. In contrast with RCA to BNC, BNC is better for longer distances. Once you get to the 100-200 feet range you want to switch to BNC because the signal will be lost with RCA. Baluns are basically running your BNC connection over Ethernet cable, they are really convenient especially if the house or business is already wired for Ethernet.
How would you recommend setting up a system for a corner store?
Well it depends on how many cameras you have, but I would recommend starting with at least minimum 8 cameras. The best way to set them up would be to have 4 set up at the 4 corners of the store, so that you can get an overview of the whole store, then you want to have them pointing down isles that you have an issue of theft, especially high value items. Another one is to have them pointing at the cash register area, both to monitor employees and in case of a robbery, you can capture the robbers face on.