Labs

As well as selling individual cameras, Swann produces ready-to-install CCTV kits. We tested the two-camera wireless kit, but a four-camera version is available for £300 including VAT. This kit includes two wireless 'night hawk' cameras. These are weatherproof, so you can use them outside without risk of damage from the rain. The cameras have 20cm power leads and the kit includes mains power adaptors and connectors for 9V batteries.

Like the Black Knight camera reviewed above, both cameras can be adjusted to work on any of the four wireless CCTV frequencies. Changing the channel involves unscrewing the camera housing and adjusting two tiny dip-switches hidden near the lens, though, so it's a good idea to work out which channels you want to use before you fix each camera in place.

Unlike the other Swann wireless CCTV products, both of which come with a small receiver that's roughly the size of a packet of cigarettes, this kit includes a large receiver that's designed to sit on top of your television. It has a large fold-up aerial

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and an LED that shows which channel is being monitored. A small remote control enables you to switch between channels. It comes with a power adaptor and connects to your TV using a SCART or a composite video phono socket.

The receiver itself has only one button. Pushing this starts it cycling though all four channels in turn. This works well if you have four cameras connected, but when using only the two included in the box you get two CCTV pictures interspersed with empty channels full of white noise. It's a shame you can't disable the channels you're not using. A better solution is to use the remote control, which allows you to select a channel by number. This kit isn't ideal if you want to use a PC to record the video from your cameras, as you'll need to buy a second receiver to record from both cameras at the same time.

The cameras produced acceptable images. In our day test, they captured a decent picture of our would-be thief, although the whole image had a slightly green tint and looked a little washed-out. They were less impressive at night, however. The camera's infrared illuminator lit only the centre of the frame adequately, so our burglar looked more like a ghost than an identifiable figure. You'd have to position the cameras very carefully to make sure they illuminated the areas you need.

This kit will suit some but not all users. If you want a cheap two-camera CCTV system that records your security footage to a computer, we'd recommend you buy two XWLIR cameras and two separate receivers instead. If, however, you want to monitor your cameras through a TV, this is a simple way to do so.