4 Common Mistakes to Avoid Installing Your Security Camera System
Installing security cameras from RuggedCams is one of the easiest things you can do to protect your property. One of the greatest things about RuggedCams is that are systems are easy to install. However, we sometimes get calls from frustrated customers having problems installing their security cameras. More often than not, they have committed one or more of these 5 common mistakes installing a security camera system. If you can avoid these mistakes you will save yourself time, a headache, and possibly a little embarrassment. Some of these mistakes are committed by excited customers eager to see their system up and running that they forget or overlook something simple in their haste. So pay close attention so that your installation can be simple and pain free as possible.
Installing Security Camera System Mistake
1. Not removing the protective film from the camera
This is one of the easily overlooked and often the most embracing mistakes that our customers have committed. Although it is easy to overlook, it is not that simple to identify what is going wrong when you review the footage or monitor it live. Parts of your image may seem perfectly fine but some sections of the image may seem blurry or even the color may be a little off. Notice the how the image is blurry and distorted in the circled regions of the sample image bellow.
All of our cameras come with a protective film protecting the lens and/or on the clear housing of our dome security cameras. Most are obvious but a few cameras like the Occulus have flat and somewhat hard to see unless you are looking for them.
2. Over Reaching Expectations
Just because you see it in the movies doesn’t mean you can do it with your system. We’ve all seen the CSI pro blow up a tiny video and read a license plate on a car parked half a mile down the road. Sad to say, that is just impossible. It’s not that our equipment isn’t good enough…no equipment is that good! If you expect that type of performance from your security camera Hollywood has you fooled. Pixels are pixels and if you enlarge them all you will get are larger pixels not a clearer image. So if you want to see half a mile down the road then you need to get a camera that can see that far and focus it that far. That leads us to the next common mistake.
3. Not focusing on / not looking in the correct area
This is not a common tech support question we get because there is not much you can do about footage you did not capture. Before you install your cameras think hard about what activity you are trying to capture and position your cameras to capture it. Its sounds simple but sometimes people install their cameras in less than ideal locations that are either blocked by obstructions or pointing at a bright light causing the footage to over exposed. This leads us to our next one.
4. Poor positioning
Be aware of any obstructions that may block your line of sight. Things to think about are vehicles and traffic that may park and block your view, flags that may flap in front of your camera if the wind blows the wrong direction, or even tree branches. If you are installing your camera in the fall or winter months will you be able to see once the leaves come back in the spring. If you are installing an IR (infrared) camera for night time surveillance monitoring make sure you do not position the camera too close to a wall or structure that will reflect the infrared light back into the lens and over expose your image.
About us and how to get in touch
RuggedCams is a member of The Rugged Group, a family of companies headquartered in Texas. For more than 25 years, The Rugged Group has been manufacturing and Patenting products in the Security Industry. We have Design Engineers here to give a free quote for your site; all you need to do is send us your site plan; we will get you that quote within 24hours. For more information on custom designed systems or any of our products, contact one of our Design Engineers toll-free at 866-264-0041.
