This is something we get asked all the time. What makes our cameras different from others?

Well, it's not our policy to put other people's products down. We are well aware of the choice available on the market and so this short guide will explain the differences in our bullet cameras.

The fact is most bullet cameras are made in one of about 3 factories in the east. These generic cameras are derived from security cameras and can be commonly found on ebay and also sold by various other companies which have immerged since we started in 2004. Although these cameras boast the same spec and some might use the same CCD sensor, they are NOT all the same.

Our cameras are built by an independent electronics company using our own design specification. We are constantly making design changes to both the hardware and the software in our cameras.

520 lines, 550 lines or 580 lines? The more tv lines a camera has, the higher the resolution and the sharper the image quality. Our high end cameras use the latest Sony Exview CCD's which are rated from the manufacturer at 550+ lines. This is the highest resolution 1/3" CCD currently available. Some sellers may refer to this as a 580 tvl camera. Using a special card with grid lines you can measure this and we haven't seen anything that is truly 580 lines in PAL resolution to date. We call our cameras 550/580.

The build quality and tuning of the output of these cameras is what really makes the difference. Below we have pictured our HQ1 top of the range camera and will be comparing it to other leading brand cameras to highlight the differences.

Leading brand 580 camera

DogCam 550/580 camera

As you can see from the photos of the PCB layout above, these are two completely different cameras. Both use three circuit boards. One for the power, one for the CCD on the end and the main board containing the chipset. The first thing you'll notice on our camera is the use of a heat sync on the main chip. These micro chips need to dissipate heat and that's why the camera will get warm during use. The heat-sync on our camera not only helps to dissipate this heat but also provides more rigidity to the circuit boards. Using a heat-sync on the chipset allows the camera to work in a wider temperature range and also means it will last longer.

The power PCB is the part that smoothes and regulates the voltage for the camera. On the left we can see the power PCB is quite small and uses smaller, lower quality components. This PCB is the only part holding the the circuitry to the base of this camera.

On the right the power PCB is located underneath the main board and uses higher quality, larger components. This helps stop interference from a bad electrical supply and from other devices. The power PCB on our camera is welded and glued to the main board and also provides additional support to the CCD on the right and side of the camera. Under massive vibration it is extremely unlikely for the CCD to work itself loose on our camera.