“It’s amazing what you can get now,” exclaims Gary Clinton, vice president of camera vendor Clinton Electronics, Loves Park, Ill. He points to the company’s new 400-line, 0.4-lux camera with automatic white balance and gain control that sells for $68. “Two years ago, it would have been a $200 camera," he says. Clinton attributes price decreases to increased competition among camera component manufacturers and increased capacity in offshore manufacturing facilities.

Perry Whisnant, owner of Metro Waste, Charlotte, N.C., likes the Digimerge camera because of its versatility. If part of a room is bright enough for color and another part of the room is only bright enough for black and white, the camera will display an image that is partly black and white and partly color. “It can do both at the same time,” Whisnant says.