A Guide to Problems Associated with Swann CCTV Systems

One of the most popular brands of CCTV cameras and CCTV kits in the market for low-cost DIY security is Swann. Various retailers, including Maplins, Screwfix, and DIY stores, sell packs with everything you need. We have been very vocal about the lack of effectiveness of these goods and wanted to explain why.

We receive weekly inquiries from customers who have invested in Swann systems, particularly their more current HD systems but are dissatisfied with the outcomes. What is wrong with them, then?

Swann CCTV Equipment

The cameras are the single biggest problems associated with Swann CCTV systems. They are wide-angle fixed-lens cameras, which could be better. The specifics capture degrades quickly when using a wide-angle lens because the pixels split out quickly as you move farther from the camera.

This is discussed in our section on the optical range. The numbers on a container have little impact on the cameras' actual field of view. Effective range is the range at which a stranger can be positively identified.

Specifications For Swann

The Swann promotional materials contain much information that may be deemed confusing. If you were less diplomatic, you might even imply they must be more honest. Consider the concept of distance.

Swann makes bold promises about the useful range of their devices, even though wide-angle cameras are currently being corrected for how they rapidly spread their pixels apart when you get farther away from them.

They mention the IR range and talk about how persons can be spotted. However, the effective range is limited by the lens on the camera rather than by how bright the IR is. As described in the linked article, the optical and IR ranges are quite distinct.

CCTV Kits

The cameras in pre-packaged CCTV kits are typically identical and have fixed wide-angle lenses. Most effective CCTV systems employ several cameras based on particular responsibilities. A camera zoomed in on a target to provide identification-level detail is quite distinct from a wide-angle camera with an overview but no detail.

The single most critical step is selecting the appropriate cameras. If you do it wrong, no matter how many Megapixels you use, you will never be able to identify and convict the offender. Swann represents one of the major participants in the CCTV kit industry, albeit, to be fair, they are not the only culprits.

We apologize for what may be perceived as an inappropriate discussion of a competing company. We are passionate about CCTV. We started CCTV42 as a result of bad purchasing experiences.

Our MD stripped off all of his clothing and stood directly in front of a Swann CCTV camera in January 2014 to show the gap between marketing claims and reality because we want to ensure that you purchase CCTV that lives up to what you expect.