2025 Ultimate Guide to Security Cameras
When it comes to securing your home or business, installing a professional-grade security camera system is one of the smartest decisions you can make.
Our Ultimate Guide to Security Cameras in 2025 takes you through everything you need to know about modern security camera systems to help you make an informed choice.
Security Cameras: Everything You Need to Know
Everything you need to know about security cameras to make an informed choice.
Security Camera Features: What's Possible Today?
Modern security cameras offer advanced features to enhance protection and peace of mind. Each brand offers different security cameras and recorders that have different sets of features.
We prepared a full list of all the features the can be available, depending on the brand and model:
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AI Detection: Identify and alert you to people, faces, vehicles, license plates, animals, packages, and more.
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Line-Crossing: Set tripwires and perimeters around an area like an entrance, parking spot, or sensitive object. If something crosses it at a scheduled time, the clip is bookmarked, and a notification or alarm can be triggered.
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Night Vision: See clear, detailed footage in complete darkness with infrared, in black-and-white.
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Colour Night Vision: See clear, detailed footage in complete darkness with infrared, in full colour.
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Wide Angle Lens: A wider picture to cover more area without needing more cameras.
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WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) Color Balance: Balance extreme brightness and darkness to avoid blind-spots in the image.
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Weather-proof body: Nearly all cameras are extremely resistant to water, dust, scratches, heat, and cold.
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Smart Search: When something of interest is detected, a bookmark is placed so that clip can be easily found and saved.
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Mobile App Alerts: Receive instant notifications on your smartphone for real-time monitoring.
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Full Control From Anywhere: Access live feeds, review footage, and adjust settings remotely via an app that can be used by multiple users.
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Scheduled Deterrence: Set lights, sounds, or other deterrents to activate on a custom schedule.
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Two-Way Talk: Communicate directly with visitors or intruders using built-in speakers and microphones.
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Motorized PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom): Adjust camera angles and zoom levels for comprehensive coverage, able to detect and follow people.
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Package Detection: Use AI to detect video of packages entering your property. Get notified on your phone and trigger two-way talk to speak with a delivery person.
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Animal Detection: Use AI to detect, catalogue, and bookmark video of pets and other animals. Get notified instantly and use two-way talk or deterrence features.
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Face Detection: Use AI to detect, catalogue, and bookmark video of peoples’ faces. Then, review all video clips involving a specific person.
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License Plate Recognition (LPR): Use AI to detect, catalogue, and bookmark video of license plates passing by. Then, review all video clips involving a specific license plate.
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Advanced Features: Mask-detection, loitering-detection, retail heat-mapping, entrance/exit counting, and queue-counting, are just some of the advanced features available.
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What Types of Security Cameras Are There?
First, let’s talk about the connection. Security Cameras can be connected wirelessly or by wire.
Wireless security cameras work over different Wi-Fi bands or using a SIM card for cellular data. Most wireless cameras still need wiring for power, while some use batteries or solar panels (which can have reliability issues).
Wired security cameras work over analog or PoE wiring. Analog is an older standard using coaxial cables, which is more limited on image quality and how much data can be transferred. PoE (Power over Ethernet) is the modern and most popular standard that enables high quality image and advanced features. PoE cables are an ethernet cable, like the one in the back of a router, that also supplies power, making it more convenient to just connect one cable.
Security cameras come in different shapes and sizes with different trade-offs. All bodies are rated to be waterproof, dustproof, and function in extreme heat and cold. The most popular bodies are:
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Dome Cameras
Best for discreet, vandal-proof surveillance. The design makes it hard to see the camera’s viewing direction.
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Turret Cameras
A discreet body that can be installed in many angles. It can pack many deterrence features, like a microphone, speaker, floodlights, and strobe lights.
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Bullet Cameras
A noticeable body that can be installed in many angles. It can pack many deterrence features, like a microphone, speaker, floodlights, and strobe lights.
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Motorized PTZ Cameras
Excellent for wide-area coverage with the ability to pan, tilt, and zoom, to follow subjects and actively monitor.
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Fisheye (360) Cameras
Best for providing complete 360-degree coverage in a single view. Ideal for large, open areas.
Wireless vs Wired Security Cameras:
Everything You Need to Know
There are major trade-offs to consider. Wireless security cameras sound convenient and are increasingly marketed to consumers. Some people are intimidated by wired security cameras, but don’t realize how easy and affordable they can be—even cheaper than wireless cameras. Here are our insights.
Cost:
The total cost of the products and installation is very similar, and wireless security cameras can be more expensive with monthly subscriptions. Wired cameras do not have monthly subscriptions.
Features:
The lowest end wired security cameras are often richer in features, with better AI-based motion detection features, deterrence features, and free software and mobile apps. Colour night vision and AI detection of people, vehicles, and license plates is increasingly common. Deterrence features are common now, making wired security cameras function like an alarm system with schedule rules to trigger built-in floodlights, strobe lights, siren, and alert you on your phone immediately. This is making cameras better than alarm systems since they scare off criminals before they act, rather than reacting after a break-in.
We see many wireless security cameras that we call “toy cameras”, with cheaper hardware and software, and mobile apps that are less user-friendly. The highest-end wireless security cameras can have similar features to wired cameras, but lose their cost advantage while carrying all the downsides of streaming video over WiFi.
Quality:
With over 20 years in operation and thousands of projects under our belt, our experience shows us shocking statistics. Less than 10% of customers opt for wireless security cameras, but if a customer comes back with an issue, over 90% of the time it’s an issue with their wireless camera that is out of our control.
For some perspective, we have installed security cameras for customers who that take security seriously like banks, airports, hotels, and celebrities. Wireless security cameras are not even considered due to their many downsides.
The Major Downsides of Wireless Cameras:
Wireless Link Disruptions
Wireless security cameras far from a router have issues with signal stability and video quality. WiFi extenders are often needed to resolve this, which adds cost.
Pay-gated Features:
Some brands sell wireless security cameras with only the most basic features and ask for monthly payments to unlock features that often come standard, like advanced motion detection.
Your Internet is Slowed
Streaming high quality video from multiple cameras can slow your internet and use a lot of bandwidth. Customers sometimes complain about slower internet without realizing how much WiFi their new cameras use. That can lead to the need to upgrade their monthly internet plan, which adds cost.
Storing Footage in the Cloud
Any time you are storing personal videos in somebody else’s cloud, you don’t know who is using it in what ways. Terms and conditions sometimes allow 3rd party access to your data for uses that are unclear.
Monthly Subscriptions
Many wireless security camera brands charge monthly subscriptions for you to use your product, even pricing their products at a loss to get you through the door. These add up and chew away initial savings. People are often shocked when they only learn this after they installed their cameras.
The Reality is that Wired is Better:
Wired security cameras offer reliability and performance, giving a space true security. Originally made for the military and big business, and now for homes and small businesses, wired security camera manufacturers have far greater experience and investment in quality hardware and software.
In recent years, wired security camera companies have invested greatly into more user-friendly apps and interfaces. These days, there are many affordable options for homeowners and business owners.
In contrast, the new consumer brands for wireless security cameras invest more into sales and marketing than into R&D, which is one explanation for the difference in quality.
If you want lasting security cameras that are reliable, cause fewer headaches, and have all the features, wired security cameras are the way to go.
In fact, that’s why we confidently back our wired systems with a 1-year warranty for both products and installation. We simply cannot do the same for wireless security cameras.
Security Camera Brands
There are many small brands of security cameras, but you should focus on the major brands only. A frequent issue with smaller brands is that their apps and features are often clunky with issues.
We group security cameras into 3 categories: Consumer brands, Prosumer brands, and Professional brands.
Consumer brands typically have the best marketing material for entry-level security cameras that have the minimum necessary features. While they are affordable and well-designed, common drawbacks are a lack in the quality of their features, clunky apps, and sometimes subscription requirements and pay-gated features.
Prosumer brands ("professional consumer")are often used by businesses and consumers for professional security cameras. They offer a full range of features useful for homes and businesses at great value.
Professional brands are used by businesses who take security very seriously and need the best, most reliable, feature-rich systems.
Each security camera company has its own unique story and positioning. For example:
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Hikvision is the largest in the world with the most user-friendly app,
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Lorex and Defender are large Canadian brands with great features for homes & small businesses,
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Dahua is the 2nd largest in the world and produces for dozens of well-known brands, like Bosch and Panasonic
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AiBase is a Canadian entrant trying to offer maximum features for minimum price.
There are hundreds of cameras out there from all the brands. It’s easy to get lost, overwhelmed and paralyzed—especially with all the technical considerations of putting a system together.
It’s best to focus on being clear on what you want and what range of budget you have, then ask a professional like us to handle the technical challenges and find what’s best for your needs. Our deep experience with each brand helps cut past the overload of information.
Mobile Apps for Security Cameras
Today, the mobile apps for security cameras are incredible.
The mobile app experience for security cameras has come a long way, enabling tremendous control for security camera owners. There are a few key areas:
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A Professional Command Center: whether you’re someone who values security or a security professional, your app is your command center with all the features you need.
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Smart Search: whenever your cameras detects something, it gets bookmarked on your timeline so that you can jump to it easily.
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Notifications: you can set up alerts on your phone whenever certain things are detected, or your deterrence features are activated. You can customize notification settings to limit notifications to certain cameras, events, and hours of the day.
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Control Deterrence Features: if your cameras have deterrence features, they can be armed, disarmed, scheduled, and customized from your mobile app.
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Multiple Users: Members of your family or your company can also access or control your security cameras.
Mobile apps and their available features differ between brands, recorders, and cameras.
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Security Cameras vs Alarm Systems
Recent advancements in different areas of technology have made security cameras more powerful.
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Thanks to all the trillions of captcha verifications everyone has been doing for years, AI can now identify objects in video. That’s huge for security camera video.
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Quality cameras are cheaper and better than ever, since we now manufacture billions of them for various industries. 1080p security cameras are now considered as toys while 2K and 4K image quality is the norm.
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Hardware is getting smaller and security cameras can now pack quality microphones, speakers, sirens, flood lights, and strobe lights, in a frame as small as a fist. These enable incredible deterrence like never before.
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Powerful processors and terabyte hard drives are much cheaper, so recorders can do more and store more. Advanced AI algorithms can be run to identify people and objects, recognize and save license plates, and keep track of line-crossings.
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Mobile phones and mobile apps are getting better, so you can get notifications and video clips straight to your phone wherever you are in the world.
Combine these all together and you have an AI-powered alarm that deters people before someone tries to break into your property, not after– and you can control it all through your mobile phone!
Here is an example of deterrence features in action:
Somebody crosses the line to your property’s entrance at 1:00 AM. Your security camera detects a person crossing a pre-set line between the hours of 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM. It shines its floodlight on the person, activates strobe lines, and your pre-recorded message warns the person and the camera's siren goes off.
At the same time, a notification is sent to your phone. You tap it to view the video stream. You can now control or disarm the camera’s deterrence features and initiate two-way talk.
Afterwards, if you haven’t disarmed the camera yourself, the camera disarms some time after the person leaves.
The event was bookmarked for you to revisit and save.
Each security camera can have its own deterrence rules and detection schedules configured, with custom notifications during specific hours.
In contrast, a typical alarm system waits for a break-in to occur, then waits for a monitoring company to call you and the police, and then waits for the police to arrive. Criminals know that that process takes an average of 15 minutes, so they just move quicker.
Security cameras with deterrence features prevent crime from happening instead of slowly reacting after the crime happens. Plus, criminals fear them more—they know that if footage of them or their car is captured, they will face real consequences.
“Companies like Telus Offer Very Cheap Security Cameras”
It is becoming popular to see very cheap security cameras into smart home packages offered by companies like Telus or iTalkBB—sometimes they even install for free. However, like with many things, the devil is in the details.
It’s a running joke in our industry just how bad these “deals” are for people.
For example, at the time of writing, the cheapest offer from Telus is just 1 “smart camera” for $15/month on a 3-year term—that’s over $600 after tax. Look closer and you’ll realize it’s a 1080p camera—that’s the lowest image quality, none of our suppliers have stocked these for years. Such a “toy camera” can be purchased on Temu or Amazon for the price of lunch.
Unfortunately, many people don’t know this and get pushed into these “deals” and commitments. We hope you now have a better perspective!
Installations: Everything You Need to Know
Everything you need to know about security camera installations to put your mind at ease.
Security Camera Installations: The Process
Security cameras are only as effective as their installation, and some people are scared of what they don't know about installations.
A typical security camera installation takes only a day or two for a normal home or small business. Here’s what a professional installation includes:
We don’t cut corners. Too many installers use substandard materials because customers don't know any better. Cheap connectors that fail quickly, wiring that isn’t pure copper—which can degrade in your walls in as little as 5 years! — and more. We use only the highest quality materials to ensure your system stands the test of time.
With over 20 years of experience and thousands of installations across Greater Vancouver, we have what it takes to get your installation right.
Do I Need a Security Camera Installer?
It’s better to be safe than sorry— and there are probably more ways to be sorry than you know. Sadly, we get frequent calls from individuals who tried to install security cameras themselves or hired unqualified labourers and now have expensive issues to fix.
Security Camera Installers are professionals who are experienced with many security camera installations in all sorts of buildings. They’re trained on electrical work with low voltage systems, running hidden wires inside walls and through challenging places, and configuring cameras & recorders.
Some people think security camera installers are only for wired cameras, but wireless cameras often need more work. Most wireless cameras still need hidden wiring to a nearby power source. That work can actually be more difficult than wiring wired cameras to their recorder for power, especially in locations with abnormal electrical layouts.
Some wireless cameras can be plugged into a wall or run on batteries. Those may not need an installer, but they have obvious issues with reliability and security.
If you’re not sure, it’s best to consult an installer, even if you’re bringing your own cameras.
Established installers partner with manufacturers to get exclusive prices and training directly from the manufacturer, so they can offer better prices and better quality.
What Makes a Security Camera Installer Good?
There are several ways to know if a security camera installer is good.
A first sniff test is to see if they are part of a real company with a physical location, or if they are a "guy with a truck”. Sadly, we have been called into many nightmare scenarios where a “guy with a truck” makes a mess and disappears.
Next would be to investigate how many years they have been in business and how their online reviews look. The more years and the better the reviews, the more likely they’re doing something right and have good experience.
Then, look for a warranty on their labour to see if they trust the quality of their own installations enough to bet on themselves.
Finally, see if they have partnerships with security camera brands. This means they have been vetted by the manufacturers of the cameras, and get exclusive technical training, support, warranties, and better pricing on products.
We make our mark by excelling in each of these. We have a showroom in Richmond and have been in business for over 20 years with thousands of home & business installations under our belt. We offer a one-year warranty on products AND labour that we provide, and we’re partners trusted by the major security brands: Hikvision, Lorex, Dahua, Reolink, Defender, Hanwha, Wisenet, Google Nest, and more.
Other Technical Topics
A brief overview of technical topics that can be helpful to understand
Security Camera Image Quality: 1080p, 2K, and 4K
Take a look at the image below to see the difference yourself. These are security camera images of the same person, the same distance from the camera.
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Generally, the better the resolution, the more expensive the camera. Most modern cameras today have 2K or 4K resolution. 1080p is an outdated standard that most of our suppliers no longer stock.
Sometimes the term “MP”, or megapixels, is used to describe a camera’s resolution. In short: 2MP means 1080p, 4MP/5MP mean 2K, and 8MP means 4K.
Security Camera Hard Drives For Video Storage
Most cameras connect to a recorders with a large terabyte hard drive to store video on your own device that you control. Some people opt for cloud storage for convenience and an extra backup, which is often offered for a monthly fee.
Recorders can be configured to select how “big” the video stream is by changing a few parameters:
This can be configured to get as many days of rolling footage as you want, and we usually start at 14 days.
Here’s a simple example of how this can work:
Five 4K security cameras store footage at 50 FPS under a certain compression standard that only gives you 7 days of looping video on a 1TB. Halving FPS to 25 doubles you to 14 days of looping video storage, and halving resolution to 2K would give you about 28 days. Doubling the hard drive to 2TB would double that to 56 days.
Some people choose to upgrade their hard drive instead of sacrificing video quality, and that can be relatively inexpensive— as little as $30.
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Frames per second (FPS)
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Resolution
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File Compression
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Storage space
Security Camera Installations: The Detailed Process
The installation process is a bit different for wired and wireless security cameras.
For wired security cameras, the process is more consistent.
If your property is already wired, we can skip a lot of steps and labour. If your property is wired with analog wiring—the older standard—and you’re looking to upgrade to PoE, we would just remove the analog wiring beforehand.
For wireless security cameras, it depends on whether they are powered by battery or wires.
For battery-powered wireless security cameras:
For wireless security cameras requiring power cables: