To see properly, a video surveillance camera requires a certain amount of lights produced by natural or artificial illumination. B/W cameras work with any type of light sources, but color cameras need lights that contain all the colors in the visible spectrum.

The amount of lights is defined by LUX(Lumens per Square Meter). One LUX is a candle light volume at one meter distance. Followings are some examples of natural lights expressed in LUX.

Full daylight: 10,000 LUX
Very dark day: 100 LUX
Twilight: 10 LUX
Deep twilight: 1 LUX
Full moon: 0.1 LUX
Quarter moon: 0.01LUX

A good B/W camera can see in full moon condition. But, a color camera will need an additional artificial light in full moon.