A surveillance video camera to be operative in combination with a surveillance system for watching an object, includes: an optical section having passed therethrough light to be provided as an image indicative of the object; a converting section constituted by a plurality of pixel units to be exposed to the light provided through the optical section; a plurality of sensitivity enhancing units; a surveillance mode selecting section for selectively setting at least two surveillance modes; and an executing section for allowing the sensitivity enhancing units to start, in sequence corresponding to the selected surveillance mode, to enhance the sensitivity of the converting section, and to stop enhancing the sensitivity of the converting section, the sequences corresponding to the respective surveillance modes being different from each other.