CCTV Cameras 1993-2010

CCTV cameras are now in their 7^th generation.

They can see to extremely low light levels automatically, switch from color to high sensitivity black and white, compensate for the smallest lighting levels to the highest lighting levels, balance the brilliance of the whites to the darkness of the blacks, and provide a signal that is either analog or digital in a format that meets the requirements of most users on the planet.

Smaller – better – sharper – faster.

This year, manufacturers will take television surveillance to its commercial resolution limits with the current NTSC broadcast standard of a maximum of 525 lines of resolution.

Of course, professional and special application equipment costing thousands more can provide higher resolutions.

Only five years ago, the highest resolution commercial camera was only 320 x 220.

In the year 2000, the difference between this 320 x 220 resolution camera and its successor, a 370 line resolution model, made little or no difference in an eye-to-eye comparison test we conducted at a correctional institution.

Remember, cameras can’t see through hooded sweatshirts.

However, a well installed system having 500 line resolution cameras displayed on monitors with S–video inputs (C-Y) will give a startlingly clear picture that could only be considered broadcast quality by nonprofessionals.

The pictures are crisp, clean, have detail that is almost life-like, and can be used in digital zoom/pan/tilt systems that expose details up to a magnification of five with excellent clarity.

Functionality also remains a target for many uses in justice.

Take, for example, intensified solid state devices that can actually see infrared and ultraviolet sources where complete darkness is the rule for our eyes.

Below, you will find a table that condenses this smaller – faster – sharper concept into the types of cameras that are available and some of their general functionality.