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Guide to Closed Circuit TV (CCTV)

So would you like to play "Spot the CCTV Camera?". Eagle eyed visitors may recognise the profusion of street furniture, surrounding a single heritage dome camera keeping watch over part  of Londons' prestigious Oxford Street shopping area.


INDUSTRIAL QUALITY PCB CAMERAS

Most Printed Circuit Board Cameras are generally manufactured down to a price, and as such are not necessarily something to get overly excited about. That said, the bulk of production is used for basic ‘Domestic’ grade cameras, suitable for short range property applications, like door entry or nursery watching.

Their are however, a limited number of very high performance PCB cameras, that provide very good resolution and sensitivity characteristics, some with fixed no iris ‘barrel’ lenses (see photo above), and others with an interchangeable ‘CS’ lens mount.

For use in very confined locations, particularly for covert work (many are already fitted with ‘flat face’ pinhole lenses as standard), they are undoubtedly extremely useful, but it has to be said, are rarely able to match the overall performance of a quality conventional industrial CCTV camera / lens combination.

Whilst the actual PCB boards themselves are frequently not much larger than a decent sized postage stamp, some camera units, particularly high resolution colour, actually comprise of a numbero f sandwiched boards, all linked togethor.

BULLET OR TUBE TYPE CAMERAS

The terms ‘Bullet’ and ‘Tube’ actually refer to their physical appearance, and not the technology that drives them.
In point of fact, the cameras actually look nothing like a bullet .... a cannon shell maybe, but a bullet?

Anyway, somebody somewhere came up with the idea of manufacturing a complete camera unit, inside a sleek streamlined tube, with the lens and electronics protected by what is in most (but not all) cases, a proper weatherproof fitting.

With most models, the lens is fixed, and therefore somewhat limiting, but picture quality and ease of installation, do make them an attractive option for some less challenging applications.
The smaller versions are sometimes also referred to as 'lipstick' or 'finger' cameras.

In practice, they are particularly well suited to residential or very light industrial use.

Fixed Covert Cameras>

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