Cameras

What we stock, and who buys it

Every camera on this page is sold to a trade account: low voltage contractors, integrators, channel partners and MSPs specifying for a commercial site. We do not install and we do not monitor. That means the spec tables here are written for the person mounting the camera and terminating the cable, not for the end user.

PoE is the default, and the switch is part of the spec

Almost everything here is a PoE security camera drawing power over the same Cat5e or Cat6 run that carries video, which removes a local power supply from every camera position. The number that bites is the switch budget, not the camera. A camera drawing 4W idle can pull 12W or more with the IR illuminator at full output on a cold night, and a switch advertising 120W total often splits that across two banks. Add up worst case draw per port before you spec the switch, not typical draw.

Where a run exceeds 100 metres you are into a midspan injector or a fibre link, and that is a design decision worth making before the cable is pulled.

4K, 4MP, and what actually shows up on the recording

4K security cameras sell on the number, but resolution alone does not decide whether a face is identifiable. Sensor size, lens focal length and low light performance decide it. A 4MP camera on a 1/1.8 inch sensor will out resolve an 8MP camera on a 1/3 inch sensor once the light drops, because the larger sensor collects more light per pixel.

The useful figure is DORI: the distance at which a camera can Detect, Observe, Recognize and Identify. Manufacturers publish it per lens, and we put it in the spec table on each product page rather than in a marketing claim. Identify distance is typically a fifth of detect distance, which is why a camera that covers a 60 metre car park will not give you a plate or a face at the far end.

Availability, and what we will not tell you

Stock on this page is either our own on hand inventory or a supplier lead time, and the two are labelled differently. If we do not hold it, we say so and quote a lead time range. We never show a supplier's stock figure as In Stock, because their number is a snapshot we cannot verify and a wrong one costs you a truck roll.

NDAA and procurement restrictions

If your customer is federal, federally funded, or a contractor to either, section 889 of the NDAA restricts equipment from certain manufacturers and their OEM rebrands. We record compliance status per SKU from the manufacturer's own datasheet. Where a status is not recorded, the product page says nothing rather than guessing.