Congratulations on your purchase of this camera from Swann! You've chosen a
great little self contained, easy to install entry-level CCTV camera. This manual will
walk you through positioning, installing, connecting and using your camera, and
offer some tips to help you get the most out of your security monitoring system.
The ADS-180 has a 3.6mm wide-angle lens built-in which allows it to see almost
80 degrees horizontally. What does this mean for you when placing it?
• You will be able to see a really wide area. If
it's mounted high up in a square corner, you'll
probably be able to see along both walls. You'll be
able to monitor a large area with only one camera.
• Things may look further away than they really
are. Anything further than a few meters (ten
feet or so) from the camera may appear to be
too small for the level of detail you require.
• Vertical and horizontal lines might appear curved when they near the edge of
the camera's view. This is normal, and it's the side effect of cramming so much
viewing area onto one screen.
The ADS-180 is great for monitoring rooms or areas as wide as, or wider than, they
are long. For really wide areas, you may need a second camera.
It's best mounted high-up in a corner looking down into the room, so that it
can look over intervening obstacles. Also, the higher the camera is mounted, the
harder it'll be for an intruder to access the camera or interfere with it.
Regardless of all the tweaking and image processing you do, there are a few
immutable things that are true for all cameras, CCTV or otherwise.
• The closer the camera is to what you want to see, the more detail
you're going to get. Really, there's no substitute for proximity.
• Areas with varied lighting conditions are hard to view completely,
with any camera. If the bright bits are exposed correctly, then the shadows
will "black out". If the shadowy areas are exposed correctly, then the bright
bits will overexpose and "white out". Aiming the camera at an evenly lit
area will always give the best results.
• That "image enhancement" stuff that they do on CSI or 24 is all lies. You
can't zoom in indefinitely on a video image. Licence plates are only readable
from a few meters (a dozen or so feet) away. If someone's head is represented
by three pixels, that's it. Sorry. This is technology, not magic. This is a great
entry-level CCTV camera, but it's still an entry-level CCTV camera - it can't see
much better than you can! Still, it does make for good television.
2
About the Camera
What will it see?
Rules is Rules
16.8m
55ft
10m
80°
33ft