Why are CCTV cameras so crap?

[orde]

I've been trying to put up a couple of cameras around the place but everything I buy (or just check the footage of on youtube) is disappointing.

At the moment I have rigged up an old Galaxy S4 with a CCTV app from the playstore but it's not much of a permanent solution despite providing decent video quality.

But this did have me wondering - Even if you are willing to spend £150-£200 per camera, why can no manufacturer make a CCTV camera with as good quality video as an old smartphone?

 

[secureiam]

Well I can only guess that you haven't found the right system for you.

So knowing what you have tried, might help clarify a few things for you.

CCTV cameras of which there are many systems which are rebadged tat, others are not genuine equipment (yeup fakes), always recommend buying form an authorised distributor, these can usually be found on the manufacturers website.

Getting the right camera for the job helps, day time images are better than night time images usually and lighting is a serious issue for cameras and image quality.
okay so you have good lighting or the camera can handle bad light very well, the resolution, scene angles and distances involved make a big difference as to what you can expect.

When a customer is replacing their crap cctv system that cost £400 total and the parts I have put forward alone cost double that on a relatively small system you can see there is a difference in price immediately. Crap CCTV, I cctv that's not fit for purpose, when the police told them there was nothing the could do with it because the images were so bad.

 

[EightyTwo]

I used to wonder about this, too. But try sticking your smartphone on the wall and comparing the video with your cctv. Or hand-hold your cctv camera like you do with your smartphone. I think that the cctv camera will be better. Your smartphone rarely films anything further than 2m away - you won't be able to read a numberplate at 20m...

Spend £500-1000 on a camera if you really want to see the difference!

However, I agree that smartphone video is amazingly good at dealing with all kinds of conditions.

 

[orde]

If we disregard the absolute garbage, it seems that my budget allows me to either get stuff at the cheap end of the better brands or something higher up the range of the unapologetically Chinese makers (Everything is Chinese made anyway let's face it).

Anyway I've decided to go for something unashamedly Chinese hoping for better value than something pretending not to be Chinese. Qihon IP bullet cams for £110 each. Let's see.

 

[sparkymarka]

Is that qihon .... a cheaper copy of a qihan camera ?

 

[musszzy]

That does cross my mind a lot. A branded camera quite easily has "made in china" stuck on it somewhere .