Home security cameras come in various shapes and sizes to suit different needs and pockets. There are, amongst others, indoor cameras, outdoor cameras, hidden cameras, those with motion sensors and night vision and also full surveillance systems complete with a DVR kit.

For a variety of reasons hidden cameras are rapidly gaining in popularity in the home surveillance field. These small cameras can be hidden in everyday objects such as toys or radios, they can be fixed to a wall, or they can simply be placed in an area where they will not be noticed easily. If you want to keep track of what your babysitter is doing while she’s supposed to watch the baby, this is the ideal way to do it.

The majority of people, however, use surveillance units for safety and security purposes. For this reason they are more often used outdoors than indoors. Most of these kind of cameras are nowadays fitted with built-in night vision and motion sensors. This makes for very effective surveillance without having to pay a small fortune to a professional surveillance service.

Not so long ago a motion sensor camera would have been unthinkable. These units work on the principle of infra light patterns. All living beings emit infrared rays and the unit can pick up these rays as soon as a living thing moves into range. The owner can set the camera to trigger an alarm when such movement is detected, or it can for example switch on a bright light to scare off the intruder.

A surveillance camera with night vision works on a similar principle. It also uses infrared technology, but in this case a picture of the intruder is created – even in total darkness! This type of camera is also know as an infrared security camera. Unlike a thermal camera that uses heat signatures radiated from objects, infrared cameras use reflected light from an array of LEDs. These LEDs send out an invisible light which only the camera’s sensor can see to produce black and white images of objects in its range.

Nowadays it’s also possible to purchase security cameras in kit form. There are kits available with one camera only and there are also complete systems with up to 32 cameras. The majority of kits will also contain a DVR for recording the events. This comes in very useful if you aren’t able to monitor the unit round the clock. The images are stored and you can view them whenever you have the need.

It’s not a good idea to buy security cameras on the basis of price alone. The most important factor you take into account should always be your own needs. An expensive system that does what you want it to do is still a better buy than a cheap one that doesn’t.

Mike Ward is the owner of Protection Depot, a leading online provider of home security cameras and hidden cameras. For more information about security cameras, please visit Protection Depot.