Best CCTV Camera Bullet Or Dome Form Factor And Why?
Best CCTV Camera Bullet Or Dome? – What’s the best CCTV camera form factor for performance – bullet camera or dome camera and why?
We’re going to shoot from the hip here – we’ll assume you’re across the notion that some cameras and form factors are better for some applications – wide angle and higher resolution for wider spaces with more light, narrower angle from longer focal length for tighter views.
We’re going to assume you know that getting faces and plates at night without the support of light is impossible unless you install the sort of specialised cameras many end users don’t seem to value anymore. Price is king and hurray for ubiquity! Unless you’re more interested in law enforcement than intrusion detection…
Best CCTV Camera Bullet Or Dome?
The difference in form factor nudges being moot in that there are domes with motorised zoom lenses that can mirror the longer focal lengths and narrower angles of view offered by a typical bullet. But they are not like for like replacements.
In our opinion the benefits of bullet cameras are flexibility of positioning – especially when approaching the horizontal plane for longer range views. Even fully adjustable domes tend to do best at downward angles and their dome bubbles can be provoked by headlights at the horizon. Bullets can be pointed any old how.
Another benefit of bullets is the simplicity of the front window of their integrated camera housings. Without droning on, the simpler the lens equation, the better the camera performance. We’d like to think housing windows will be high quality glass but instead they will be plastic with considerable sample variation. A single vertical window is going to have less impact on an image stream than a dome bubble, which will bend light on its way through.
Clear bubbles are better than tinted ones, which reduce light reaching the sensor, increase amplification noise and ask the camera’s software to do more post-processing. Yes, yes, modern cameras do decent work reconstructing image streams. But when you look at the generalisations they make at marginal distances many cameras are ‘painting’ the image stream a bit like those old black and white photos from the First World War that made Great Uncle Frank look like Elmer Fudd.
A reasonable alternative is going to be a quality turret but there’s no point comparing a high-end dome from a maker like Bosch, Axis, Vivotek, i-Pro, Hanwha and the good gear from Hikvision and co, with a turret camera sporting a miserable camera engine that’s trying to support a 130-degree angle of view that spreads pixels past 8 metres.
With all that said – is the best CCTV camera bullet or dome in form factor? We think in narrower street scenes and for choke points it’s a bullet. For rugged applications the bullet form factor is better – a tube has natural strength. There are some amazing bullets out there. Li-Lin’s 25x bullet springs to mind – not brilliant at the wide end but unbelievable at the long – it’s not very expensive, either. Hanwha does sweet bullets, too.
Best CCTV Camera Bullet Or Dome?
With bullets you don’t need enormous resolutions, which is good, because too many manufacturers are playing tricks to create 4K images streams. A bullet will do well with a standard sensor size, a 2MP resolution and a good lens, deftly commissioned or driven. Remember that winding in the lens means reducing aperture, means you need more light to avoid noise and a slower shutter speed that tortures users with epic motion blur.
In wider scenes domes are best. Choose a good one with a bigger sensor and a higher resolution. Pixel spread won’t be your friend, so keep an eye on DORI numbers and techs or operators should do their own tests year around. What works best with your ambient light, with your level of reflectance, with your scene’s speed of movement?
Whatever you do, when making decisions about security operations don’t just ring around the half-dozen distributors of the 99-dollar camera you are familiar with commissioning (they’re all easy to set up these days, anyway) and ask them to drop their ludicrous price to 98 dollars.
Whatever the pressure on price may be, the laws of physics remain immutable. And so do the requirements of security solutions installed to solve crime.
You can find a good explanation of DORI numbers from the Axis team here or read more SEN news here.
“Best CCTV Camera Bullet Or Dome For Factor And Why?”
