VideoSecu Day Night Vision Outdoor Security Camera IR Infrared Built-in 1/3" Sony CCD 540TVL 12mm L

I think this camera is actually 5 star worthy, however, the lack of detail in the product description is the reason why I am giving it 4 stars.

I was taking a chance with this camera since no one else had place any reviews for it, but with the price I got it for, I figured I'd try it.

First of all, let me say that this camera is not a wide angle camera as I was assuming. It is zoomed in, I think the ratio is 1:1.6. I actually need a wide angle camera, so this did not suit my needs properly. Although, I suppose I should have known that in the product description when it says "Long range", so it's partially my fault as well.

However, if you do need to be able to see far distances, this camera works really well. The infrared LEDs do a great job of lighting up the scene, even with no additional lights on outside. My back patio is very dark and I was able to see the woods in the distance pretty well.

Also, the screws that come with it confused me a bit. On the bottom of the camera, there are two screw holes, however, this only came with one screw to mount the camera. When I went to mount it, I realized the screw is too long to fit into the camera. The way I found to fix this was not very obvious to me at first. On the rear of the camera, there's a little bracket that will fit a screw as well, which is held in by two hex-screws. The fact that a hex-wrench was included with this camera hinted to me that I had to use it somewhere. With the included hex-wrench, I was able to remove the rear bracket and then use it as a spacer to mount it on the bottom. This is actually a useful feature in case you want to hang your bracket from a ceiling.

Also, this only comes with the camera and the bracket. No power supply or cables. Fortunately, I already had both since I was replacing a Swann camera that already had the wiring and power going to it.

I will probably end up selling this camera as my goal is to be able to see as much in a close distance, but like I mentioned, this is great for longer distances.

EDIT 2011-04-26

Instead of selling this camera, I ended up using it affixed to the side of my house and pointing down the street that leads to my house. This camera does a great job for that, and looks great in both daylight and night time. Most night vision cameras that I've seen like these tend to skew the colors during the day a bit, but this one looks pretty natural. At night, it's very crisp with very little noise at all, especially compared to some other cameras I have.

Save 80% Off