Can someone explain shitty surveillance cameras to me?

[flvegan]

I watch the news each night, and I see these businesses with what have to be cameras from the fucking '80s.

Guys, I can buy a webcam at Best Buy that makes your whole system look like shit. Why?

I'm watching a story about a guy getting shot in a convenience store. It's black and white and the guy has a face-on view from the camera. Know what *it* looks like? A human. Probably around 6 feet tall. That's it. Could be an adolescent Sasquatch or Yeti for all I know. Could be two little people in a costume.

Idiots.

[Orrex]

1. Ain't that the truth

You could sketch a better rendition of the scene on toilet paper with a lump of charcoal in about the same amount of time.

We have a camera that can see a planet circling a star trillions of miles away, but we don't have a camera that can film a guy standing an arm's length from the lens.


Incidentally, when I worked at a 7-11 in Austin, TX, we were told outright that the camera would be running, but there was no tape in it. Also, if we got shot on duty, Southland Distribution Corp. acknowledged no responsibility for the injury.

Either of those policies may have changed since then, though...

[SeattleGirl]

2. Makes no sense, does it?

I see those surveillance tapes on the news too, and when they say "Call police if you've seen this person", my thought is always, WTF? I see a fuzzy blob in various shades of grey. No distinguishing marks, nothing. Just a fuzzy blob.

The police would probably catch more of the criminals caught on tape if people used better cameras.

[madinmaryland]

3. Sasquatch is going to be pissed now. They all don't look alike!

:wtf:

:hi:

[flvegan]

4. They do on shitty 80's cameras.

He'll agree with me.

[ThomCat]

5. They buy the shittiest cameras in bulk

whatever meets the minimum standards set by their insurance policy. And that's what they install. They don't care how bad the quality will be.

I can almost guarantee that the only discussion in the planning meetings was "what are we required to have" and "what are we required to spend."

[RoyGBiv]

6. Two things ...

1) Cost. Yes, they're "cheap," but the lower quality ones are cheaper, and when you've got bean counters that shave every dime or have rules that require bidding contracts, this is what you get.

2) Storage. When you're recording 24/7, the high quality images consume a lot more storage space, which is also a cost to figure in. Try turning on your webcam and letting it save a real-time stream for 24 hours and see how much hard drive space it consumes.

OnEdit: Well, there's a third thing. It's generally associated with #1, but it boils down to plain ignorance of the technology. Where I work now, which is a *huge* organization with, literally, thousands of security cameras across the system, no one, not *one* person in IT or security (and I am in neither) had bothered to notice that the damn things don't *work* without a light source, and they're not night-vision cameras, so you can't even get the fuzzy green blob. So, in rooms that had cameras that are needed in case someone breaks in at night to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment or money, the lights were turned off with no security lighting scheme in place.

I brought this up at a staff meeting, and they looked at me like I was an alien.

There's a security lighting scheme now, though. At least someone paid attention.

[Jamastiene]

7. I've wondered about that myself.

Why are they always in grainy, blurry black and white? Black and white is quaint and cute and all, but if you want to really nab the bad guys, you need to be able to see them as clearly as possible. How does anyone know what they are looking for? Was the person wearing a gray shirt or a black shirt? Who knows? Cheap Ass bought blurry black and white cameras.

And is there no business owner anywhere in the world who knows how to sharpen the camera image up and fine tune it a little? :shrug:

[Lucian]

8. Not where I work.

They have the state-of-the-art security cameras. Everything is in full color and you can make out everyone's face really well, down to the last pimple on a cheek. It's that good.

[SeattleGirl]

9. Very cool!

I wish more places did that.

[sasquatch]

10. I completely agree, to hell with MiM

:D

[Orsino]

11. They do a some things well enough.

They do, for instance, establish a timeline for incidents. Even from lousy footage, police can put together pretty much what happened, and when, if not the who.

And they can help clear the names of the larger Sasquatch. That's something. :D