About Digital Security Cameras

History

• Complete digital surveillance systems, including digital security cameras, are fairly new. But digital video recorders (DVRs) have been around for a few years. DVRs take the analog signal from conventional analog video cameras and store it, or convert it to a digital signal for compression (to take up less space) and storage. Now, however, digital cameras are getting cheaper, have more options and can send signals that take up less space on the DVR.

Significance

• Digital security cameras can be a relatively cheap way to secure your things. Just the sight of a security camera can deter many criminals, especially opportunists. Digital cameras have several advantages over traditional analog cameras in the areas of size, ease of use, control and reliability of the data.

Main Considerations

• There are many things to consider when choosing a digital security camera. One of the main issues is resolution, or how many pixels (you can think of them as small colored boxes) will be in the image that the camera sends to the storage device. High resolutions give you a sharper image but take up more space on the DVR; low resolutions give you a blocky image but take up very little space on the DVR.

Other Considerations

• Wireless systems are extremely convenient, but they can be less secure if you don't take care to vary the frequency and keep the password under lock and key. Other factors to consider include frame width and frames per second (FPS). Frame width is how wide an area the camera can see at once, while the FPS is how many frames appear per second.

Potential Problems

• There have been many discussions over whether security cameras deter criminals. The cameras can be rendered useless by spray-paint or destruction. And while you might be able to see what a criminal looks like, there's no guarantee you'll ever see him or her again.