The Best Surveillance Cameras
Are you looking for surveillance cameras for the safety of your home? Follow our tips to find the device that is right for you.
Do you want to take a look at your home and check it out even if you are not home? Surveillance cameras are easy to install; they can stream video to your smartphone, tablet, or PC and send notifications when there is strong movement or noise. Most cameras also offer automatic recording in case of movement and night vision.
Table of Contents
Factors for choosing the surveillance camera
Type of Surveillance Cameras
When evaluating a surveillance camera’s purchase, the first factor to consider is its typology: Depending on the use you intend to make of the camera, especially where you want to install it, you must orient yourself on one type or another. Surveillance cameras are divided into two categories, those suitable for outdoor installation and those designed to work in the home.
There are important differences between the two types from the point of view above all, including water resistance and weather, the installation methods, and the type and amount of cable required for the connection. Let’s see what these differences are in detail.
Insulation
The main difference between the two types is resistance to weather, even heavy, and operation even at extreme temperatures. Therefore, it is indispensable to withstand even heavy rain, hail, and snow deposition for an outdoor camera.
An outdoor surveillance camera must also be able to operate at temperatures below zero and above 40°C. The same requirements are not as important for an indoor camera, which is already protected by the home environment from extreme elements and temperatures.
These models are rarely waterproof and have a much lower operating temperature range. From this perspective, if it is theoretically possible to install an outdoor camera in the home, installing an unstructured house to resist weathering and extreme temperatures is not advisable.
Installation
Secondly, it is necessary to consider where and how can install the camera: the two types of cameras also differ from this point of view. The outdoor fixtures are normally equipped with a bracket that allows wall fixing through screws and dowels, and no other way of fixing the appliance to other surfaces is provided.
On the other hand, indoor cameras can be placed on a flat surface and do not always have brackets for wall or ceiling fixing. So especially when you choose to buy an indoor camera, you should be sure of the type of media you have to be sure you can install it exactly where you need it.
Cables
You will also want to consider how many cables will come out of the camera for convenience and security issues. Should say that modern technology has almost eliminated the need to pull video cables since almost all surveillance cameras transmit data through a wireless WiFi connection to the home router or a control unit if a system is installed completely.
There is still a small number of battery-powered cameras, and almost all models, both for indoor and outdoor use, still rely on home network power. The reason is simple: the power supply from the power supply guarantees the surveillance’s continuity. But, on the other hand, the batteries may leave a moment of no coverage between the download and the replacement.
Connectivity
The second factor to consider when choosing a surveillance camera is the connection’s remote functions, whether this WiFi or cable.
Unlike the previous generation cameras, the current ones rely on the Internet for many core functions previously entrusted to their VMRs, such as remotely saving recorded footage and managing the video camera through a dedicated web portal or mobile application. These are more or less extensive services depending on the model and the manufacturer, free or paid.
Among the features made possible by the Internet connection, the most common ones are :
- Movie Saving: Often, surveillance cameras offer the ability to save footage made on a cloud service. That is on a dedicated space on a remote server and, alternatively, on a local computer or tab save Micro SD.
- Accessibility: Many manufacturers provide a dedicated online portal to access any location and device to your saved movie clips and/or directly to the camera, with the ability to watch real-time shooting and control camera movements (if expected).
- Smart Applications: In many cases, you can do the same operations, rather than the web portal, through a free mobile application.
- Remote Control: Very often, as a portal and/or app, you can also manage and schedule the camera’s activity by scheduling start-ups at specific times and choosing whether and when to receive notifications, as we will see sooner.
Operation
The third factor we have identified as decisive in the choice of the surveillance camera is its operation, which has two distinct aspects: on the one hand, the amount and magnitude of movements the camcorder can make, depending on the size of the surface Controllable, on the other hand, the ability of the user to manage the activation of the camcorder.
Field of view
The movements of which the surveillance camera is capable or not determine what visual coverage it can offer. The simplest models are fixed, without the possibility of making panoramic views, nor raising or lowering the point of view. In these cases, the vision’s amplitude is usually entrusted to a wide-angle lens that can reach a corner Of 75° view.
The most advanced camera models allow you to span a wider range of fields thanks to the two-axis, horizontal, and vertical motorized motion. Panoramic, the best camera, can offer almost total coverage, rotating up to 355° on the horizontal axis, while the vertical axis travels up to 120°.
Zoom
Surveillance camera zoom capabilities are generally quite limited, and seldom are magnifications obtained through the optical array and often for digital intervention. Optical focus is qualitatively superior to the digital one, which results in a loss of sharpness of the image that the optical focus does not undergo.
Indicatively, the best models can reach 8x magnifications, while the cheapest ones are completely free and rely on a fixed fire with a good depth of field.
Activation
A surveillance camera user is entrusted with a certain level of control over how and when to shoot. Almost all commercial cameras provide at least automatic shooting whenever motion is detected within the frame. Simultaneously, advanced models also include other options such as activating shooting at scheduled times of the day or continuous shooting manually activated by the control panel.
Alarms
The type of alarms and indications that a surveillance camera can receive varies greatly depending on the model chosen. Therefore, it is also crucial to consider this aspect when evaluating the purchase.
One of the most interesting features of surveillance cameras is monitoring real-time events taken by the camcorder. As we have seen, this is not only with remote access to the camcorder but also through a range of alerts that can receive in real-time. Let’s see what the main types of alerts that a surveillance camera can send are.
Email Alert
A service offered by virtually any model, even the cheapest, sends email notifications whenever the camera records a suspicious motion. As we have seen, activation by the motion sensor is a feature common to all modern cameras. Typically, the e-mail sent contains the date and time of the discovery and three or more frames shot by the camera. Some models may also include sending a short movie clip.
Push notifications
In some cases, for those templates that include integration with a specific mobile app, you can receive the same kind of alert through the app instead of email, sending a push notification similar to what you receive, For example, when an e-mail or text message is received.
Shooting quality
Finally, the last factor we suggest to consider, which in our view deserves attention, is the quality of the shooting that a surveillance camera can offer. Several factors affect image quality – ranging from shooting resolution, color management, viewing angle, and more.
Let’s see each step in more detail :
- Resolution: All models offer a range of resolutions to choose from. The best ones come up to a full HD resolution (1920 x 1080p), while the mid-band models are prevalent with a resolution of up to 1280x720p. The lower-end cameras stop at the VGA resolution (640 x 480p).
- Luminosity: The best models, especially outdoor ones, automatically balance the exposure based on the brightness of the environment so that the images are always clear and legible. In many cases, there is also a filter called IR-Cut that blocks infrared radiation during the day so that the color rendering of the image is true.
- Visual Angle: The visual angle’s width depends on the camera lens and can range from 45° to 75° in the ” wide-angle ” models. This data expresses the portion of the camera’s visual field and not, as we have seen above, the overall portion that the camera can cover by taking an overview.
- Infrared: Most of the market models are equipped with infrared LEDs that allow viewing and recording even in a total absence of light, up to a maximum distance of 40 m in the most advanced models.
These considerations also include a mention of the sound: all surveillance cameras are equipped with a microphone that adds audio recording to video shooting, but only in some models is the microphone bidirectional. In these cases, the presence of a loudspeaker on the camcorder allows those who have control to communicate with whoever is near the device.
Other factors to keep in mind when choosing the surveillance camera
Are the materials important?
About indoor cameras, which do not need to withstand particular atmospheric conditions, the materials are not particularly important: they are usually simple plastic. I’m slightly different about outdoor cameras – they are mostly plastic, but it’s not unusual to find metal models.
In any case, if you evaluate the purchase of an external surveillance camera, more than the material itself, you should assess the protection factor, which indicates which atmospheric agents and temperatures the device can withstand.
Is the brand important?
In the case of surveillance cameras, the brand is essential. A small number of specialized manufacturers can guarantee the quality and durability of their products and effective and fast service.
It is imperative to evaluate each brand’s services and verify their reliability before purchasing them. At present, the range of services offered by D-Link and Foscam, especially remote ones, is extensive.
Is the price important?
As with many other electronic devices, even in the case of surveillance cameras, the quality progression proceeds linearly: quality products are inevitably more expensive than lower bandwidths. Therefore, we can especially cautiously recommend buying a camera below $20. These models will hardly offer all the advantages and ease of use of others a bit more expensive of reference price :
- Low price range: £30 – £80, indoor camera, wireless, limited field of view, email notifications.
- Average price range: £100 – £140, indoor or outdoor camera, wireless, wide field of view, email notifications, remote control, night vision.
- High price range: £200 and above, exterior camera, wireless, wide field of view, email and/or push notifications, remote control, night vision.
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