Selecting The Right Outdoor Security Camera

When trying to select the appropriate outdoor security camera to accommodate your needs, one of the key considerations is the purpose of surveillance. To identify individual persons or capture the license plate of an offender requires an outdoor security camera with different capabilities than if the need was simply to monitor general activity.

Determining the number of areas to be covered as well as the size of each area lets us know how many and the type of security cameras required. If two smaller areas were close enough together, a megapixel camera with wide-angle lens might be a possible substitute for two non-megapixel cameras. Also, a fixed outdoor security camera offers continuous coverage but of a smaller area than a PTZ camera which can survey a large range but only parts at a time.

Outdoor surveillance is particularly demanding on the camera since lighting levels tend to be less controllable and the environment is much more physically demanding. If the camera is not built tough enough, additional housing may be needed to protect the outdoor security camera from weather, dust, humidity, or vandalism.