Because light is vital for producing a quality image, it is essential to understand your lighting conditions prior to selecting a camera. How much light is available? The amount of light available will determine the amount of light required by your camera in order for it to produce usable video.
There are a variety of technologies available that will ensure you capture usable video regardless of the lighting conditions:
• Day/Night • IR Illumination • Digital Noise Reduction • Digital Slow Shutter
Day/Night
True Day/Night cameras have a movable IR filter. During daytime performance, the IR filter is in place to block all the IR light, creating a nice color image. At night, when the amount of light decreases, the IR filter is replaced with a clear glass filter that allows all available visible and IR light to reach the sensor and be recorded. As a result, you get color images captured during the day and clear black and white images at night.
IR Illumination
Artificial IR illumination can be provided by IR Light Emitting Di- odes (LEDs) to augment the naturally occurring light in the scene. If IR LEDs are used, when the ambient light drops below a defined threshold, the IR LEDs turn on, the mechanical IR cut filter within the camera switches, and the camera changes from color to black and white. Perfect color images are captured by day and clear black and white images at night.