- A weatherproof housing, usually identified by an IP Rating
- An automatic-iris feature which can mechanically vary the amount of light entering the lens to cope with varying lighting conditions, eg day and night.
All of our network cameras which are listed as Outdoor IP Cameras have these two features. Optional features which you may want to consider for outdoor cameras are:
- A housing with a heater and blower to handle extremes of temperature and humidity.
- A vari-focal lens. A vari-focal lens covers a wide range of viewing angles, the angle of view and focus is fixed on installation of the camera and cannot be controlled from the software. This is useful because the positioning of the camera is often limited and the vari-focal lens can be setup to compensate.
- Infra-Red – some Infra-red network cameras have a built-in infra-red projector so that they can effectively see in the dark (in black and white)
- Others outdoor network cameras have an Infra-Red sensitive lens and CCD so that external IR illuminators can be used.
- Day/Night facility. Some outdoor IP cameras have a specific Day/Night feature which allows the camera to operate in very low light conditions. Normally the low-light images are in black and white only.
