Traditionally, there have been two options for using surveillance cameras in the dark: flooding the scene with visible light, or using Infrared (IR) illumination to discreetly light a scene but only enabling images to be seen in black and white.
The success of the surveillance system at night depends on using the correct supplementary lighting to provide artificial illumination. Factors to be considered include whether or not users need colour images, the effects of light pollution, and illumination coverage distance.
