You see them everywhere in Sydney. Little cameras watching from shop fronts, train stations, and street corners. Most people think once a camera is up, they are safe. The bad guys will get caught. Nothing bad can happen.

Wish it was that simple.

The truth is cameras fail. All the time. They get broken. They get hacked. They stop working and nobody notices until it is too late.

I talked to security guys who install and fix these systems. They told me straight up: cameras are not magic. They are just tools. And like any tool, they can let you down.

This article looks at when CCTV cameras Sydney residents and business owners trust decide to stop working. No fancy tech talk. Just real problems that happen every day.

Cameras Get Attacked

Here is something obvious but easy to forget. If you can reach a camera, you can break it.

Thieves know cameras might have their face on them. So first thing they do? Take the camera down. Or spray paint the lens. Or hit it with a stick.

One security guy told me about a job where someone used a high-powered laser pointer. Shone it right at the camera at night. Burned out the sensor completely. No footage. Nothing.

How to stop it: Put cameras up high. At least three metres. Out of reach. Use metal cages around them if you can. Makes it harder to spray paint the lens.

A good installer knows this. When you get CCTV cameras Sydney fitted by someone who knows what they are doing, they put them where vandals cannot get them.

Weather Wrecks Everything

Sydney weather is nice for people. Not so nice for electronics.

Summer sun bakes cameras all day. The plastic goes brittle. The seals crack. Then winter rains come. Water gets inside. Lens fogs up. Circuits rust.

One bloke I know runs a fish and chip shop near Bondi. His camera faced the ocean. Salt spray got into everything. Had to replace it every eighteen months.

The bug problem: This sounds stupid but it is real. At night, cameras use infrared lights to see in the dark. Bugs love infrared. They fly towards it. Spiders see all those bugs and think “free food.”

Next thing you know, spider web right across the lens. Footage looks like someone put a dirty stocking over it.

Simple fix: Wipe the lens every couple weeks. Takes two minutes. Makes a huge difference.

Hackers Love Cameras

Here is the scary one nobody thinks about.

Modern cameras connect to the internet. They are basically small computers. And anything on the internet can be hacked.

Security researchers keep finding problems. Popular camera brands used all over Australia have holes in them. Weak passwords. Old software. Backdoors that let anyone in.

A mate of mine runs an IT business in Parramatta. He told me about a client whose camera system got hacked. The hackers did not want to watch the footage. They wanted to get into the business network. They used the cameras as the front door.

The stupid mistake: People never change the default password. Camera arrives with password “admin” and “1234”. They leave it like that. Hackers scan the internet for these cameras. Takes them seconds to get in.

If you have CCTV cameras Sydney businesses use every day, change the passwords. Update the software. Treat them like computers, because that is what they are.

Installation Screw-Ups

You would not believe how many cameras are installed wrong.

Pointed at windows so you just see reflection. Put behind glass so the night vision bounces back. Mounted too low so someone can just turn the lens.

One installer told me about a job he got called to fix. The customer complained the camera showed nothing but white. He got there and found the camera pointed straight at a wall. Someone had put it up, tested it during the day, and left. Never checked the angle properly.

Night time is different: What looks good in daylight can be useless at night. Shadows change. Lights create glare. Things look different.

Good installers check at night. They come back after dark and make sure everything works. Bad ones take your money and disappear.

Power Goes Out

Cameras need electricity. Seems obvious. But people forget.

Power goes out, cameras stop. Thief cuts the main power line to your building, no footage.

One business in Alexandria got robbed. The thieves cut the power first. Came back twenty minutes later, took what they wanted. The cameras recorded nothing because they had no power.

Backup matters: A battery backup costs a few hundred bucks. Keeps cameras running for hours after power fails. Best money you can spend.

Some systems record to the cloud. Footage goes straight to the internet. Even if thieves take the recorder, the footage is already saved somewhere safe.

Storage Runs Out

Cameras record constantly. That is a lot of video. Hard drives fill up.

Cheap systems just start recording over old stuff. If the crime happened three weeks ago, that footage is long gone. Recorded over by cats walking past the camera.

Quality versus length: Higher quality video takes more space. People turn down the quality to save space. Then something happens and the footage is too blurry to recognise anyone.

You need balance. Good enough quality to be useful. Enough storage to keep footage for a reasonable time. Police often need stuff from weeks ago.

People Make Mistakes

The biggest problem with security systems? The people using them.

False alarms every day from leaves or spiders. People stop paying attention. Then a real intruder comes and nobody notices.

Passwords get forgotten. Someone sets up the system, leaves the company, takes the password with them. Police come asking for footage. Nobody can get in.

Cameras get moved. Someone cleans the office, bumps a camera, points it at the ceiling. Nobody checks. Weeks later you need footage from that camera and realise it has been showing nothing but ceiling tiles.

Regular checks: Look at your footage now and then. Make sure cameras still point where they should. Test that night vision works. Takes ten minutes a month. Saves headaches later.

Night Vision Problems

At night, cameras switch to black and white. Use infrared to see in the dark. But infrared has limits.

Some cameras only see a few metres. Anything past that is just black. Others get washed out by car headlights or street lights.

Rain at night is worst. Water drops catch the infrared light and light up like little stars. Whole image goes blurry and bright.

Positioning matters: Do not point cameras towards where cars drive. Headlights blind them. Do not put them under bright lights. The contrast messes everything up.

The Cheap Camera Trap

You can buy a camera online for fifty bucks. Seems like a bargain.

But that fifty dollar camera has plastic lens. Cheap sensor. No security updates. Housing that leaks. Night vision that barely works.

One security guy told me he gets called to replace these all the time. People buy cheap, install it themselves, then wonder why the footage is useless when they need it.

You get what you pay for: Good cameras cost more because they work. Better lenses, proper weather sealing, actual security. Companies that make them fix problems when they find them.

Real Stories From Sydney

The restaurant that got lucky: Remember that Sydney restaurant where a woman pretended to find hair in her food? The CCTV saved them. Showed her putting the hair there herself.

But what if that camera had been broken? What if it was pointing the wrong way? That restaurant would have lost money and reputation over nothing.

The warehouse that thought ahead: A company in Western Sydney set up their warehouse with good cameras. Focused on important areas. Entrances, loading bays, where the expensive stuff lives. They thought about what mattered and protected that.

The shop that learned the hard way: Small business in Newtown. Cameras everywhere. Thief came in, stole stuff, walked out. Owners went to check footage. The recorder had been full for three months. Nothing recorded since winter. They just never checked.

What Actually Works

After talking to people who do this for a living, here is what matters:

Height: Put cameras where nobody can reach them.

Quality: Buy decent gear. Cheap cameras cause cheap results.

Maintenance: Check your system. Wipe lenses. Test recording. Update passwords.

Backup power: Spend the money on battery backups.

Cloud storage: Send footage offsite so thieves cannot take it.

Night testing: Check what cameras see after dark.

Conclusion

Look, cameras are good. They help catch criminals. They make people feel safer. They protect your stuff.

But they are not magic. They break. They get vandalised. They get hacked. Weather damages them. People install them wrong. Nobody checks if they still work.

The trick is knowing all this. When you understand what can go wrong, you can stop it before it happens. Put cameras up high. Buy decent ones. Check them regularly. Have backup plans.

For anyone in Sydney thinking about security, remember this: a CCTV cameras Sydney system is only as good as how you look after it. The best camera in the world is useless if it is pointing at a wall or covered in spider webs.

Think about the whole picture. Spend money where it matters. Get help from people who know their stuff. Check things yourself now and then.

Because when something bad happens, you want your cameras to actually work. You want the footage. You want to know what went down.

A camera that does not work is just an expensive decoration. And nobody needs another one of those.