A CCTV system for your home is a crucial form of security that you always need. However, it is likely that most crimes that could occur in your home will likely happen at night, where regular CCTVs may struggle to show faces at night. Therefore, having night vision is crucial for your CCTV system if you want the most out of it.
You never know if you could be installing and choosing the wrong cameras because they could affect the image quality. Even worse, they could be in a bad angle altogether to make it out of focus. Luckily, here are some excellent tips that you can try to make the most out of your night vision CCTV system.
1. Get Powerful IR
One of the most crucial aspects to look for when selecting a proper camera with night vision is to choose powerful IR cameras, like the ones from Casa Security. However, it can be difficult to figure out what IR you should get. All of these cameras have a maximum range of about 5-50m or more. However, it is crucial to remember that this is the maximum range. Therefore, these extreme ranges will not be ideal if you want excellent video quality.
Typically, it would be best to measure how much distance you actually need then adding about a third of that measurement to find your ideal range. Let’s say that you want to get at least 21 meters of distance. So, you need to add 7 meters, totaling to about 28 meters. That way, you will not have to buy another camera if the distance is too short or far.
2. Do Not Go Overboard on the IR
While you do need powerful IR, that does not mean you should go overboard on it. Extremely powerful IR can actually ruin the image quality of your video, missing the point of having CCTV systems in the first place.
This occurs because a lot of CCTV cameras are not able to adjust to the IR brightness. Therefore, if a subject is standing immediately next to the camera that is meant for long-distance videos, it will appear blurry, bright or washed out. A 20m HD camera is usually good enough for doorway CCTVs, even if they are small.
3. Watch Out for Wide Angle Lenses
The point of IR LEDs is to illuminate the middle of images brightly so that they can focus properly. Many CCTV cameras do not have a great wide view angle because of this feature. While this is not always a concern, certain cameras have lenses that zoom out, also known as varifocal lenses. If your camera is like this, be wary that when it is on the widest end of a zoom feature, the image’s corners will not have any night vision. Therefore, the image quality may be poor.
4. Create a Clear View
Sometimes, you can have a perfectly good night vision CCTV camera, but the issue might be the placement or the objects around it. Another crucial aspect to consider whenever you install a camera is to make sure no objects will be seen in the camera’s field of view. Many CCTV cameras will keep adjusting the exposure to create a better quality image, but it often ends up blurry or washed out.
For instance, let’s say that there are leaves or a tree branch slightly sticking into the camera’s frame. The LEDs will brightly light those, causing the overall image to become darker in an attempt to compensate. In turn, the final image would be too dark to make use of the CCTV footage.
5. Find a Reflection
You need to make sure that the IR CCTV can have a reflection off something. Some cameras get pointed into a big and empty area, like a field. This makes people surprised when they look at the final results because the whole video will be very dark.
However, the IR is not broken if you experience this, it just needs an object to reflect off of instead of being pointed at empty space. They can still see if a person moves into the camera’s range, but it may not be as clear if there is no reflection available for the CCTV cameras.
6. Always Remember the Height for Mounting
You always need to think about how high you want to mount your cameras, especially when you are thinking about how strong you want the night vision to be. Let’s say that your car is about 5 meters away from your house. Ideally, the camera should be mounted about 4 meters away from the ground. The distance from the CCTV camera to your car ought to be 6 meters away. It is a crucial aspect to consider when you mount cameras higher than the ground floor.
7. Add More Visible Lighting
If you already have a CCTV system set up and want to further enhance night vision, then there is a simple trick you can try. Adding more visible lighting to the area you want to illuminate is the quickest fix. Adding extra porch lights or other light sources can easily enhance the visual quality of your CCTV footage. If the light source is very good, it could potentially add color to the video.
Night vision CCTV cameras are a crucial form of security for every home. You can further enhance the night vision capabilities by following the tips above.
