The human eye cannot see infrared light, however most mono CCTV cameras can. As such the invisible light can be used to illuminate a scene, this allows night-time surveillance without the need for additional artificial lighting. Infrared also provides many other benefits above conventional lighting; IR beam-shapes can be designed to optimise CCTV camera performance, extended bulb-life, covert surveillance, lower running costs etc. NB. It is important to design illumination for the CCTV camera.

With over 20,000 Infra Red lamps installed in Europe each year Derwent is unaware of a single safety issue raised about IR used in CCTV. However as a basic rule of thumb, if you can feel the heat don’t stare at the lamp. Derwent produces a paper regarding safe installation and use of its illuminators.

The range that your camera will see in the dark will depend on sensitivity and spectral response of the camera and lens combination. Derwent produces a chart that gives an indication of the performance .

Infra Red lamps CAN NOT work with colour cameras. Normal artificial light e.g. sodium light, causes problems to the quality of the colour CCTV picture, not producing accurate colour quality. There is a range of dual-mode cameras now available, which will work with Infra-Red lamps when the camera is working in monochrome mode. Derwent produce a night-time colour corrected lamp (this is not an IR lamp) – Please call for details. 

Yes. Infra-red lamps come in varying wavelengths from approximately 730nm to 950nm. The 730nm wavelengths will give the normal red glow on the lamp - like a traffic light. The 830nm lamp will greatly reduce the visible glow. The 950nm lamp is totally black and is ideal for covert use where no indication of night-time security is a requirement. WARNING a 950nm lamp will require a highly sensitive night-time camera.

Derwent produce the following choice of beam patterns: 6° Spot (precise), 10°Cosec, 30°Cosec, 60° Flood (for local illumination). Note: The 10^o and 30^o cosec beams are designed for even illumination to replace traditional Spot/Flood combination. The lens and field of view of the camera should be matched to the lens and area of illumination of the lamp.

High spec schemes for long distance open scenes often use a long zoom lens – say 16mm-160mm specify 10^o + 10^o lamps. For a shorter zoom, say 10mm – 100mm a 10^o + 30^o is a usable twin lamp set-up – see lens chart.

Bulb life is dependent on filament ruggedness and design. Derwent bulb life is considerably greater than the industry average due to the rugged halogen quartz bulb. Uniflood 500 – average 3,000hrs. Uniflood 300 – One-year normal use. Miniflood avg. 8,000 hours.