What exactly is the purpose of a security camera, what were they invented for? Well as far as I am concerned as well as any one who owns one or even back to the person/s who invented it was to inhibit criminal activities, to capture the criminal right in the middle of the act on camera. But here is the problem that we face, crime does not only happen in the day but also happens at night but not all cameras work well at night without the aid of an additional external light to aid it. For one thing, it is an extra overhead expense on a companies part and particularly for nature conservationist who use cameras to monitor animals in their natural habitat at night this would hinder there progress. For that specific reason one such camera exist that takes care of this problem, night vision security cameras.

The thing is most security cameras have the ability to produce relatively decent pictures in dim or low light but is an impossibility for them in total darkness, which is the weakness in most cameras. As previously stated this is where night vision security cameras come in, but with one slight disadvantage in that the current generation cannot record in color but in black and white. There is however an option of getting those equipped with a hybrid configuration that allows it the ability to produce color images in good lightning but returns to black and white in night vision mode. This however is an aside considering it does its job and keeps view of the surroundings even in the dark.

There are many shows and movies on television depicting night vision goggles and cameras whereby the image produce is something like a green background or coloring with shadows for images. What you should know though in reality images produced from the night vision security camera are somewhat similar but however the actual quality and detail or the produce images are much more defined and therefore are liked more by people in comparison to what is seen on television.

Is a night vision camera and an infrared camera the same?

Are they? No, they are not he same. Most confuse the two and think that night vision cameras use infrared to film images. However, they could not be further from the truth. Infrared security cameras utilize the heat emitted from an object to aid it in capturing images and make them visible. This in movies is usually depicted as a yellow and red image against a black background projecting the difference in the heat produced between the object in view and the surrounding area. A night vision camera on the other hand however is equipped instead with small light that is emitted to focus on a specific object in order to record the image.

Now if you intend to utilize a night vision camera to view what goes on around an object this should be a job done by an experienced professional or on the advice of one familiar with these cameras. This is so because of external light appearing from the surrounding areas can confuse the camera into thinking there is more light present than really is there. This more or less then obstructs and interrupts the internal mechanism that automatically switches camera modes and renders a disorganized video. Just to say, it fools the camera and makes it use less light than normally needed making it unable to get a proper picture.

All said and done, the price tag on one of these cameras while not exactly ridiculous, still when you look at it is more reserved to locations or to persons who have that extra amount of funds to spend on their personal security.