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Why do CCTV IR LED’s Shine Red?

The red shine that can be seen if you look directly at the IR light source is due to the light being in the upper limits of our eyes visible spectrum. (400nm-750nm). IR LED’s emits light around 850nm, which is in the ‘near visible’ spectrum, meaning we cannot see any light cast on a surface […]

Lighting is so important for video surveillance

When designing video surveillance systems, it is important to understand the . A well in consistently lite areas but where the lighting is not providing a consistent result as is the case in this video clip, you need a much with a pixel based wide dynamic range to be able to sample the scene in […]

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How to Avoid Hot Spots when using Infra Red Cameras

As more and more retail shops are selling budget security cameras, the level of expert knowledge provided to the end user is less and less resulting in an increase of next to useless coverage. A lot of low cost security cameras have inbuilt IR lighting located in a ring around the lens, which sounds like […]

A slow shutter speed will improve low light performance but cause ghosting images

What is shutter speed used for The shutter speed of a camera controls how many samples per second the image is captured to the CCD or CMOS sensor. This has nothing to do with the images per second that you view live or record.

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When comparing low light specifications between cameras, ensure the f-stop and IRE values are equivalent

Different manufacturers play ‘Specmanship’ when it comes to the low light performance (LUX level). The f-stop should be measured at F1.4. This is how wide the lens iris is open to let light in. The IRE is often not stated at all, indicating that the specification may not be accurate and should be questioned. A […]