night/day cctv cameras

[Tim Mitchell]

Does anyone have experience of the cctv cameras which do colour in daytime and b&w at night?

I am looking for a camera to cover the front of our building at work but would like a colour pic during the day for webcam pictures and a low-light pic at night for cctv recording.

The camera is on a pole and only has one coax feed, so using 2 cameras for the two purposes is not an option.

The specs all seem to quote a light level of "0 lux" at night, but I presume that is using infra red illumination (most of them seem to have a few i/r leds round the front) which will only work at close range. I wonder what the actual sensitivity is without infra red illumination. I presume they are not as good as a proper black & white camera but none of the suppliers seem to give any info about this.

[wattie]

We use products from Derwent

They are experts in this type of problem. They are also pretty helpful if you call or e-mail. We also buy cameras from Norbain them they should help. WM

[Ian Stirling]

may be of use, IIRC they give a bit more info.

[Elessar]

"A REVOLUTIONARY night-vision system developed for the Dutch military makes night-time video images look as clear and colourful as those shot in broad daylight."

- is the start of a very interesting article in today's New Scientist.

-- LSR

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Elessar writes

Doubt if I could afford it though

[Capitol]

Do a search for "starlight" cctv cameras. These can give colour images down to 0.001 Lux AIUI. The Chinese company making these has some very impressive pictures on their website. The technique is to use a Sony HAD CCD image sensor, cool the chip to reduce noise and then reduce the shutter speed down to say 1fps. (this speed is adjustable). Not cheap, but good for commercial cctv.

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

Found one!

was the maker I was thinking of.

HTH

Regards Capitol