Wide-Angle Security Camera Lenses

A wide-angle lens gives a wide view, covering a large area from a single camera position. This page covers wide-angle lenses for security cameras, as an application area. Availability of a suitable lens from Hangzhou Ai Ke Electronics Co., Ltd. is not established for any particular requirement; ask whether a suitable lens is available before ordering

A wide view is valuable where the job is to watch an area rather than a point: a room, a yard, a forecourt, a hall or a shop floor. It is less valuable where the job is to recognise a face, read a plate or pick out detail at a distance, because spreading the picture across a wide area leaves less detail for any one part of it. That trade-off is the whole subject of this page.

When a wide view helps

For protective work, a wide view serves objectives that concern an area rather than a point: detecting that someone has entered a yard, watching approaches to a building, or keeping a whole room under observation. Those objectives ask whether something is present or moving, not who it is, and a wide view answers them from a single position, which keeps the number of cameras down.

A wide view also serves the approaches to a protected place: the paths, gates and boundaries by which someone arrives, where the exact point of arrival is not known in advance. Covering the approaches with a wide view gives early warning of presence, which is itself a protective objective, even though it does not identify the person approaching.

When a wide view does not help

A wide view does not help where the protective objective is identification at a point: a gate, a doorway, a till or a vehicle entrance, where the picture must show who passed or what vehicle entered. Identification is a detail objective, and a wide view spreads the picture too thin to meet it. Those points need views concentrated on the point itself, planned separately from the wide area views.

Protective planning therefore assigns an objective to each camera first, and a view second. A yard camera gets an area objective and a wide view; a gate camera gets an identification objective and a concentrated view. An inquiry that asks for one lens type for every position skips the objective step, and will get a worse result than an inquiry that states each camera's objective.

What to confirm before ordering

Confirm the lens category and, where one is offered, the model that fits the buyer's security camera and the area it must cover. Confirm the specifications, minimum order quantity, lead time and price for the quantity required, and confirm compatibility with the camera and mounting arrangement.

Documents should be confirmed at the same time. Certificates available upon request. No certificate detail is stated on this site.

Frequently asked questions

Does wide-angle mean lower quality?

No. It means a wider view with less detail per part of the scene. Whether that is a problem depends on what the picture must show.

Can one wide camera replace several cameras?

Sometimes, where a general overview is enough. Where detail at particular points matters, separate narrower views are still needed.

How does this relate to varifocal lenses?

A varifocal lens can be set to a wide or a narrower view on site, which suits positions where the right width is not known until the camera is up.

Related pages

• Security Camera Lenses
• Wide-Angle CCTV Cameras
• Varifocal Lenses
• M12 Wide-Angle Lenses