Surveillance systems are widely used these days to monitor the surroundings. But, when monitoring is required in low light environments, ordinary surveillance systems don’t work efficiently. You need to install systems that are equipped with low-light applications.
There are many things to consider for capturing images in low light scenarios like lens selection, processing power, proper camera positioning, IR-illumination technologies, and many other factors.
IR Illumination
Most of the low-light cameras available in the market work on the same fundamental components – this includes a lens and sensor with an IR cut filter between them. This filter cuts or filters out the IR illumination during the day, thereby improving the color quality. As the light goes down, it slides out of the way so that more light can enter the sensor, thus improving the video quality.
Given that most of the low light cameras available in the market contain IR cut filters, how will you distinguish between better and best? Well, the answer to this lies in the lens and the processing power.
Lens
It is the lens that transmits the light to the sensor. The data on the sensor is encoded and it needs a processor to process it. So, the best low light surveillance system will be the one that uses the best IR-corrected lens. These lenses are costly, but if not used then the image turns out to be blurry due to the angle at which the light comes in. If a system compromises optics, then having a good sensor also gets wasted as the image quality will turn out to be bad.
Sensor
The sensor capabilities also vary a lot and the best low light surveillance systems make use of the premium quality sensors.
Time Period for Which Lens Opens
Besides using a high-quality lens and sensor, the best of the systems that capture clear images manipulate the light that enters the lens by optimizing the time at which the lens is open. Thus, more light gets absorbed resulting in better images. This timing needs to be calculated precisely or else it will result in a trailing image due to time-lapse effect.
Besides taking care of all the above-discussed factors, one thing that needs to be taken care of is taking precautions so that no security breach happens. This is important else the whole purpose of having the best surveillance system in place will get defeated.
