To begin you need to know what a PTZ camera is. PTZ stands for pan, tilt, and zoom; and a camera that can perform these functions automatically or remotely falls into the category of a PTZ camera.

Most PTZ cameras are styled as a dome surveillance camera; as that design in much easier to incorporate these features into; however there are what is known as pt camera heads that can make any plain security camera have at least the pan and tilt functions.

The most basic uses for a PTZ camera is the ability to have your camera continuously pan or tilt in a designated location to cover a wider area than your lens might allow.. Furthermore you can then incorporate the zoom feature to get a closer view of trespassers or other items of interest. These cameras are especially useful in highly trafficked areas such as casinos; as they can quickly be adjusted at a moments notice.

One way that PTZ’s are used is in public access governmental meetings. A lot of commissions such as county or city commissions will use an array of PTZ cameras to record various angles of their meeting, and then broadcast it to the local television channel. In fact a switcher will even be incorporated at times to direct and make sure the cameras are capturing what they need to.

All in all a PTZ security camera can be a rather handy option for all kinds of creative uses even beyond pure surveillance.

CCTV video captured possible suspects in a brazen jewelry theft and the frantic chase that followed.

The theft Wednesday in San Francisco’s Union Square happened in a matter of minutes.

The clerk at Natalie’s Antiques on Geary Street declined to give her name, but she told KTVU that two men entered the store Wednesday afternoon.

When they exited, a display case filled with the store’s most expensive items went missing, she said.

The CCTV tape showed the first suspect outside. Moments later, the suspect apparently turned his head in alarm because the store clerk screamed at him to stop. The clerk then ran and tried tackling him. The CCTV video was recorded by a camera outside Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant, two storefronts down from the jewelry store.

The same camera last July captured a New Jersey man stealing a $275,000 Picasso sketch from a nearby art gallery.

Lefty O’Doul’s manager John Fair said that police will often come to him to ask if the CCTV camera caught other crimes, even little thefts, such as stolen bicycles.

Union Square merchants are now talking about creating a network of CCTV cameras to track crime.