What is ICR (Infrared Cutfilter Removal)?

Before talking about ICR, let's understand a little bit about how a security camera works regarding the use of light.

During the day there is a lot of light in the environment due to sunlight.

A security camera needs to filter out the excess of light that hit the image sensor in order to generate good-quality video and that's done by using an infrared light filter that blocks unwanted light that comes through the camera lenses.

ICR (Infrared Cutfilter Removal) is a filter that sits between the lens and the image sensor (CCD or CMOS) of a security camera and is used to filter the excess of light that comes through the camera lenses. This filter helps the camera to produce good-quality images with accurate color.

See the following image with a diagram that represents the light reaching up to the camera lens and passing through the filter before reaching the image sensor.

When buying a security camera you can look for the information about the existence of this filter (low-cost cameras usually do not have the IR Cut filter).