CCTV Camera Types
Bullet, dome, PTZ, fisheye… Which one? And how do you go about choosing?
This is a common question but fortunately an easily answered one. Generally speaking bullet style are for wall mount and dome style are for ceiling/horizontal mount, but there are various brackets designed that cater for most types of mounting.
Domes however you must be a bit more careful in choosing. If your dome camera only has 2 axes then you should only mount "ceiling" style. If you wish to mount on the wall, and look along the wall you will need a 3 axis dome otherwise the picture will be rotated by 90 degrees with no 3rd axis to correct it. There are "swan neck" style brackets that allow for 2 axis domes to be mounted on a wall and 'hung out'.
PTZ (Pan, Tilt and Zoom) cameras are, as described able to pan, tilt and zoom. They are controllable by either hardware joystick or software via computer or other device and some are programmable to move by themselves to scout areas automatically. The zoom feature can be optical or digital with optical being magnified from the actual lens rather than the software.
Fisheye cameras are a full 360 degree panoramic design. They can be ceiling mounted for a full 360 degree image that can be de-warped into smaller normal aspect images or wall mounted to provide 180 degree images that can be panned around.
