What is a Visible Imaging Sensor (RGB Color Camera)?

A visible camera sensor is an imager that collects visible light (400~700nm) and converts that to an electrical signal, then organizes that information to render images and video streams. Visible cameras utilize wavelengths of light from 400~700nm, which is the same spectrum that the human eye perceives. Visible cameras are designed to create images that replicate human vision, capturing light in red, green and blue wavelengths (RGB) for accurate color representation. Modern security and surveillance cameras do this at HD resolution or higher and come with a variety of lens options for wide angle or telephoto views to identify targets and objects in the scene.

Just like the human eye, visible cameras require light. Their performance is also greatly reduced by atmospheric conditions such as fog, haze, smoke, heat waves, and smog. This limits their applications to daytime and clear skies. This is why visible cameras often need to be paired with illumination or thermal infrared cameras in order to work at night or in low Lux scenes, or in environments that have fog, haze, smoke or sandstorms that can render visible cameras useless. Infiniti Electro-Optics highly recommends multi-sensor EO/IR systems for long-range surveillance and mission critical applications because of these reasons.