CCTV / IP Camera Lens Calculator with Visual Display, Pixel Density, DORI Zones
Choosing the right camera resolution and lens to match the needs of the installation is vitally important. You'll need to consider at minimum:
- Distance to coverage area
- Horizontal Field of View (FOV) you need to cover
- Expectations of image quality and recognition (this isn't the movies)
- Lighting
This is an excellent article that discusses camera video pixel density and DORI zones, or in other words what you can expect from your video:
DORI =
Detection - detect a human presense (and that's it)
Observation - some details can be determined like type of clothing
Recognition - Recognize a person already known to the viewer
Identification - Positively identify a person
With all that in mind, we recommend this excellent CCTV lens calculator that lets you pick a camera model or enter manual values, enter your viewing range and several other factores, and it will show you what area you will cover, what lens is needed, what pixel density, and therefore what sort of recognition you can expect from your video.
Regarding lighting, consider if you have full light day and night, or partial/low light at night, or is it pitch black.
Do you have any sort of strong back lighting - like aiming at an outside window or door with sunlight behind the subject
Car headlights at night?
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