Security Cameras NZ Buying Guide: WiFi, 4G, Solar, Wireless Systems or CCTV

By Leo, Product Specialist at Securitylab

Where the camera is going decides what you buy. Not the brand, not the resolution, not the app. Two questions about the spot itself: is there a power socket, and does a signal reach it?

Answer those and the whole New Zealand market collapses into five kinds of security camera: WiFi cameras for houses with broadband, 4G cameras for gates and paddocks with none, solar versions of both, wireless camera systems that record to a hub, and wired CCTV kits with a recorder. This guide is the short version of the decision, with the one spec in each category that matters, honest picks from $99 to $870 across the Securitylab range, and links to the long guides when you want the detail.

Before you buy: filming your own property in New Zealand is lawful. Recording a conversation you are not part of, or secretly filming someone undressed where they expect privacy, is not, and both carry prison terms under the Crimes Act 1961. A business also has duties under the Privacy Act 2020. Full detail below.

Contents

The Two Questions: Power and Signal

Stand at the exact spot the camera will be mounted, not at the house, and answer two things.

1. Is there a socket within a cable run?

If yes, buy a mains powered camera. It records continuously, it never needs charging, and it costs less than the battery version of the same camera. If no, the camera has to carry its own power: a battery you recharge every few weeks or months, or a solar panel that keeps the battery topped up. In most of New Zealand a north facing panel runs a camera indefinitely, with the caveats in the winter section below.

2. Does WiFi reach the spot?

Open your phone at the mounting point and look at the signal, on the 2.4GHz band if your router lets you choose. Two bars or better and a WiFi security camera is the simplest and cheapest answer. One bar or none, and you have three options: extend the WiFi with a mesh point, an outdoor access point or a solar WiFi extender; run an Ethernet cable; or skip the house network entirely with a 4G security camera that uses its own SIM.

Put the two answers together and the choice is made for you:

At the spot Buy Typical cost
Socket and WiFi A mains WiFi camera, or a wired PoE kit if you want several $99 to $699
WiFi, no socket A battery or solar WiFi camera $99 to $450
Socket, no WiFi A mains 4G camera, or a 4G router making WiFi for the site $199 to $459
No socket, no WiFi A solar 4G camera, or a solar 4G system for several angles $217 to $870

Prices are the Securitylab New Zealand range in October 2026 and change; the product pages are current.

The Five Types of Security Camera, Compared

Type Needs Records to Monthly cost Best for From
WiFi camera Broadband, and usually a socket A memory card in the camera, cloud optional None for your own footage Any house or shop with WiFi where it is going $99
4G camera A mobile SIM, and sun or a socket A memory card, viewed over 4G A data plan for the SIM Gates, paddocks, baches and sites with no broadband $199
Solar camera (WiFi or 4G) Sun on a north facing panel A memory card None, or the SIM plan on 4G models Anywhere without a socket $99
Wireless camera system A hub on mains, cameras on battery or solar The hub, or a recorder with a hard drive None Four angles on one property, no trench $399
Wired CCTV (PoE) kit One Ethernet cable to each camera A recorder in the house None A house you can run cable in; continuous recording to a recorder you can lock away $699

Two rows need a sentence each. A solar camera is not a separate type so much as a power option: the same WiFi or 4G camera with a panel and a bigger battery, so it goes where no socket does. And a system is what you buy when the property has more angles worth watching than you can keep track of in four separate apps: one hub, one timeline, and footage that survives a camera being stolen because it is stored somewhere else.

Two Vimel NVR security camera kits shown with their bullet and turret cameras

CCTV, IP Camera, Wireless, WiFi: What the Words Mean in New Zealand

Half the confusion in this market is vocabulary, because the same camera gets four names depending on who is selling it.

CCTV camera

Closed circuit television originally meant analogue cameras cabled to a recorder in the building, and a "CCTV camera" in New Zealand shop talk still means a camera that records to a recorder rather than to the cloud. Today that is the PoE kits, where one Ethernet cable to each camera carries both power and video to an NVR, and the wireless systems, where the cameras pair to the recorder over their own radio link. Both are CCTV in the sense people mean. The old coaxial DVR systems are not sold here; everything in this range is digital.

IP camera

Any camera that puts its video on a network, wired or wireless. Every WiFi, PoE and 4G camera on the site is an IP camera. The term matters when you see ONVIF on a listing, which is the standard that lets an IP camera from one maker record to a recorder from another.

Wireless security camera

Usually means a WiFi camera, and the two words are used interchangeably on the WiFi security cameras page. Be careful with it, because "wireless" can mean three different things: no video cable (every WiFi camera), no power cable either (battery and solar cameras), or no house network at all (4G cameras). A mains WiFi camera is wireless in the first sense and still needs a socket.

NVR and hub

The recorder. An NVR is a network video recorder with a hard drive inside, as in the PoE kits. A hub is the smaller box in the wireless and solar systems, recording to a card or a drive and, on the 4G systems, carrying the one SIM that serves all four cameras.

Quick Picks

These are our picks, and the reasons. Each has a longer treatment in the guide for its category.

Cheapest way in: VIM-IPSOLAR3, $99

2K, dual band WiFi, human detection and a colour floodlight, on a battery quoted at up to 180 days of standby. Runs on mains with the battery as backup, fully wireless, or with a panel added later. The camera to start with if you have never owned one.

Our pick for most homes: VIM-IPSOLAR7, $199

A solar WiFi pan and tilt camera with an 8W panel adjustable through 360 degrees, six cells quoted at 90 days of standby, a floodlight and a siren. Suits a driveway, a side gate or a shed within WiFi range but nowhere near a socket, which describes most sections.

Best value in the whole range: VIM-TRIPLECAM-4K, $149

Three lenses, 10X optical zoom, 355 degree pan, 30 metre colour and infrared night vision, IP65, with solar input, at $149. Optical zoom at this price is unusual, and optical zoom is what reads a number plate.

Best mains outdoor camera: VIM-IPCAMS4K, $209

4K over PoE with ONVIF, a siren, a floodlight and 4G backup. One cable, continuous recording, and it will record to a third party NVR if you later build a system around it.

Best 4G starter for a site with nothing: VIM-4GSOL18, $269

A compact 1080p PTZ with its own solar panel, a 12000mAh battery and a siren, on a mobile SIM. The cheapest way to put a camera somewhere with no power and no broadband.

Best 4G camera under $300: VIM-4GSOL23, $290

Dual 2K lenses on a PTZ head, an 8W panel and a 10400mAh pack, recording events rather than everything, which is what keeps the data bill small.

Best long range off grid: VIM-4GSOL21X36, $590

Dual lens, 2K, 36X zoom and laser infrared, with twin 10W panels, 20W in total, and a 20000mAh pack for continuous recording. The top lens holds the overview while the PTZ below pans and zooms. For a farm gate or a yard where you need to identify a vehicle at distance.

Best system for a house with power: VIM-IPSYSCAM, $449

Four 2K battery cameras and a WiFi 6 hub, no cable runs, no subscription, with the footage kept on the hub rather than in the cloud. Four separate cameras would cost about the same and give you four apps.

Best wired CCTV kit: VIM-S3WIFI, $699

Four 5MP Sony Starvis cameras on a four channel PoE recorder that takes a hard drive of up to 8TB. One cable to each camera, IP66 housings, 25 metre infrared, and low-light Sony Starvis sensors for identifying a face or a plate at night.

Best fully off grid system: VIM-SOL4WIFI4, $870

Four dual lens solar PTZ cameras behind one SIM in the hub, on 4G with WiFi as a second path. No power, no broadband, one data plan instead of four. The system for a bach, a block or a building site.

The front door: VIM-DOORBELL, $179

A 2K WiFi doorbell camera with a chime, on battery, recording to a card with no monthly fee. Parcels, callers, and the one angle every other camera on the house misses.

Home Security Cameras: House, Section, Bach, Business

A standard suburban house

Three angles cover almost every house: the front door, the driveway, and the back or side gate. Start with one WiFi camera at the approach people actually use, which is usually not the front door, and add a doorbell camera. If you reach three or four cameras, a wireless system is cheaper to live with than four apps.

A townhouse or apartment

One indoor camera with pan and tilt near the entrance, and a doorbell camera if the body corporate allows it. Keep any camera pointing into shared areas off: it is other people's space under the Privacy Act.

A lifestyle block with sheds and a gate

WiFi reaches the house and nothing else. Put a WiFi camera on the house, then either extend the WiFi to the sheds with a solar extender or give the gate its own 4G camera. For four or more positions across the block, the long range solar system pairs four solar cameras to a hub rated to 500 metres in the open.

A bach or holiday home

No one there to recharge anything, and often no broadband worth the name. A solar 4G camera or a solar 4G system, set to alert on people rather than every possum, and a 4G alarm hub if you want to know when a door opens as well as see who opened it.

A farm or bush block with no building

Solar 4G, nothing else works. Check the mobile signal at the actual mounting point before buying, because coverage maps describe the road, not the gully. A trail camera is the better tool where the aim is stock, pests or a trap line rather than security.

A shop, workshop or small business

This is where wired CCTV earns its reputation. A PoE kit with the recorder locked away, cameras at head height on the entrance and the till, and a sign on the door, which the Privacy Act expects of a business. The 5MP Sony Starvis kit is the one to look at when identification matters more than coverage.

A construction site or yard

A solar 4G camera with real optical zoom, mounted high, on a site that may not have power for months. The 60W panel class is specified so that nobody has to visit it.

Cameras or an Alarm First?

They do different jobs, and the honest answer for most homes is both, in that order of budget. A camera records and identifies; it tells you who, and gives you the evidence. An alarm deters and alerts; it tells you now, with a siren that makes someone leave and a notification that reaches you while they are still inside. If the aim is to stop a burglary rather than prosecute one, a 4G alarm hub kit with door contacts and motion sensors is the better first purchase at $429, and the kit with a camera included gives you both for $549. The alarm system guide covers sensors, placement and the smoke alarm rules for rentals.

What a New Zealand Site Does to a Camera

Salt air

A large share of the country lives within a few kilometres of the coast, and salt corrodes unsealed housings, brackets and screws long before the electronics fail. Look for IP66 or better on anything outdoors, mount under an eave where you can, and treat "weather resistant" as "splash resistant".

Winter sun

Solar cameras run all year in most of the North Island and the upper South Island with a north facing panel clear of shade. From Canterbury south, June and July daylight is short enough that a camera with a bigger battery reserve, or twin panels, is worth the extra on a site you cannot easily reach. Tilt the panel steeper for winter; the solar guide has the angles.

Older 3G devices

New Zealand no longer has a 3G network, so an older 3G camera or tracker no longer connects anywhere in the country, and cannot be upgraded. Everything on this site that uses a mobile network is 4G or 5G.

Mesh routers and 2.4GHz

Most security cameras connect on 2.4GHz only, because it reaches further than 5GHz through walls and across a yard. A mesh router that merges both bands under one name can refuse the camera during setup. The fix is a separate 2.4GHz network name on the router, or standing next to it for the first pairing. The WiFi camera guide walks through it.

Rural 4G

A 4G camera is only as good as the signal at the mounting point. Check it there with a phone on the same network you intend to use, and if it is marginal, an external aerial or a solar 4G router mounted where the signal is better, feeding WiFi to the camera, solves it.

Mistakes That Cause Returns

  • Buying a battery camera when there was a socket. Mains cameras record continuously and cost less. Battery and solar are for where power is not.
  • Mounting first, testing second. Pair the camera indoors, walk it to the spot, watch the live view for a minute, then drill.
  • Reading "24/7" as continuous on a small panel. A single 8W panel runs an event recording camera indefinitely; continuous recording needs the twin panel models.
  • Forgetting the memory card. Most cameras ship without one. Buy a high endurance card sized for the days you want to keep.
  • Pointing an infrared camera through glass. The window reflects the infrared back and the night image is white. Outdoor cameras go outdoors.
  • Mounting at head height. Two and a half to three metres, angled down, is high enough to be out of reach and low enough to see a face.
  • Leaving the default password. Change it on the camera and on the recorder before the box goes in the recycling.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do security cameras need WiFi?

No. WiFi cameras do; 4G cameras use a mobile SIM instead, and wired PoE kits and wireless hub systems record locally and only need the internet for viewing from away.

Which security cameras work without internet in New Zealand?

Any camera that records to a card or a recorder keeps recording with no internet at all. For live view and alerts without broadband, a 4G camera or a 4G system carries its own connection on a SIM from Spark, One NZ or 2degrees.

Is there a monthly fee?

Not for your own footage on a card, a hub or a recorder, on anything in this range. A 4G camera needs a data plan for its SIM. Some brands put cloud storage or live view behind a subscription; check what a camera does without one before you buy.

What is the best security camera in NZ?

There is not one, because the spot decides. For a house with WiFi, VIM-IPSOLAR7 at $199 is our pick. For a site with nothing, VIM-4GSOL21X36 at $590 is the single camera to price against. For a whole house on a budget, the VIM-IPSYSCAM system at $449. The quick picks above cover the rest.

What is the difference between CCTV and a wireless security camera?

CCTV records to a recorder in the building, over a cable or a dedicated wireless link, and does not depend on the cloud or your broadband. A wireless security camera usually means a WiFi camera recording to its own card and streaming to your phone through your router. CCTV gives continuous footage that survives a stolen camera; a WiFi camera is cheaper, quicker to fit and better for one or two angles.

Can I install security cameras myself?

Most of the range, yes. WiFi, solar and 4G cameras are a bracket and an app. A PoE kit means running one cable to each camera, which is a weekend job in a house with a roof space. Anything that connects to fixed mains wiring, such as the floodlight camera, is electrical work for a licensed electrician, and the large pole-mounted cameras are best fitted by someone experienced with work at height. None of it needs a security licence to fit in your own home.

How long is footage kept?

Until the card or drive is full, then the oldest is overwritten. A 128GB card holds weeks of event clips on one camera, or a few days of continuous 2K recording; an 8TB drive on a four camera PoE kit holds weeks of continuous footage. Size the storage for the number of days you would need to look back.

Will a security camera work in a power cut?

Battery and solar cameras do. Mains cameras and recorders stop unless they are on a UPS, and a WiFi camera also loses the router. A 4G solar camera is the one that keeps recording and alerting through an outage.

Do solar security cameras work in a New Zealand winter?

In most of the country, yes, with the panel facing north and clear of shade. In the far south, choose a model with a larger battery or twin panels for June and July, and tilt the panel steeper.

Do I need a sign for security cameras in New Zealand?

A business does, under the Privacy Act 2020 and the Privacy Commissioner's CCTV guidance. A home does not, though telling flatmates, boarders and anyone who works in your house where the cameras are is both courteous and safer legally.

Filming your own property is straightforward. Filming beyond its boundary is where the obligations start, and the same law applies nationwide.

Your own land. Recording your own driveway, yard, sheds and boundary is lawful, and the Privacy Act 2020 largely does not reach purely domestic collection. That exemption falls away where a recording would be highly offensive to an ordinary reasonable person, so it protects a camera watching your gate and does not protect one aimed at a neighbour's windows.

Cameras that reach into someone else's property. A 30X or 40X zoom on a boundary can see a very long way, and capability is not permission. Secretly recording someone who is undressed, showering, using the toilet or in an intimate situation where they would expect privacy is an offence under sections 216G to 216J of the Crimes Act 1961, carrying up to three years. Set presets and tracking limits so the camera covers your land and returns home rather than following someone to the fence line.

Inside the home. Indoor cameras are lawful in your own house. Bathrooms, bedrooms and any space where someone is undressing are not, and section 216H of the Crimes Act 1961 makes intimate visual recording an offence regardless of whose house it is. Tell flatmates, boarders and anyone who works in your home where the cameras are; covert recording of a worker can breach the duty of good faith under the Employment Relations Act 2000.

Audio. Recording a private conversation you are not part of is a separate offence under section 216B of the Crimes Act 1961. Leave microphones off unless you have a specific reason and the people recorded know.

Recording as a business. A shop, an office, a farm or a body corporate is an organisation for Privacy Act 2020 purposes: a lawful purpose, a sign saying who operates the cameras and how to contact them, footage kept secure and only as long as needed, and a way for people to ask for footage of themselves. The Privacy Commissioner publishes CCTV guidance that sets this out in plain terms.

This page is the decision. Each of these is the detail for one branch of it.

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Last reviewed October 2026.

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