Solar-Powered Security Cameras: A Sourcing Guide for Importers and Wholesale Distributors

Straight answer: what a solar security camera is, and which numbers matter before you place an order

A solar-powered security camera runs entirely on a photovoltaic panel plus an integrated rechargeable battery, and sends footage over a 4G LTE SIM instead of WiFi — which means it can be installed where there is no mains power and no fixed internet line. Across the SolaGuard catalogue, built by Shenzhen Leksell, the standard configuration is: an 8W or 15W panel, an 8000mAh–20000mAh battery, 1080p–2K resolution (4K only on a dedicated OEM order), microSD storage up to 128GB, an IP66 enclosure, and 5–10 minutes of install time per camera. All 150 SKUs carry wholesale prices quoted per order. That is the hardware side. The rest of this guide covers what an importer, distributor or purchasing team needs to weigh up before committing to a first order.

The three hardware blocks that decide your unit cost

When you put two factory quotes side by side, don't start with the bottom line. Break a solar camera into three blocks and compare them one at a time — the price gap almost always sits in one of them.

The panel: 8W or 15W

8W is enough for a well-exposed site running event-based recording. 15W is for continuous recording, for regions with long cloudy or rainy spells, and for any position where a tree canopy or a roofline puts the camera in partial shade for part of the day. In northern Vietnam's humid season, or through the Latin American rainy season, paying a few dollars more per unit for the 15W panel is almost always cheaper than sending a technician back out to a site because a camera went flat.

The battery: 8000mAh to 20000mAh

The catalogue range is 8000mAh to 20000mAh, and nothing above that exists. This is worth being blunt about with your end customers: plenty of marketplace listings advertise implausible battery capacities with no test report behind them, and when those units come back, it is the distributor who absorbs the warranty cost, not the factory.

The sensor and lens

1080p is the volume configuration — the right pick for large deployments where cost per point is the deciding factor. 2K, and particularly the dual-lens versions, is for sites that need wide coverage and readable detail at the same time: plates at a gate, faces at an entrance. If a customer asks for 4K, that is a custom/OEM build, and both the quantity and the lead time have to come back from the factory. Don't commit to it on your own.

AOV vs PIR: the biggest split in the whole catalogue

AOV stands for Always-On Video — continuous 24/7 recording at low standby power, made possible by AI scene analysis. It is an industry-generic term, not any one brand's proprietary technology. Getting this distinction right matters because it decides whether a camera suits a given site, and it decides your return rate.

On farms and livestock operations — a core customer group in both Vietnam and Latin America — PIR generates the most complaints by a wide margin: cattle move slowly, rustlers approach from outside the detection zone, and the owner only finds out there is no footage when they go looking for it. That is why the 49 AOV models are usually the range to lead with when you open a new market, even though they cost more to land.

Six 2K dual-lens models worth putting in a trial order

If you want a tight cluster of SKUs to test a market rather than carrying the whole catalogue, the group below shares one hardware platform (2K, 20000mAh battery, 15W panel, IP66). Accessories, documentation and installation procedure are common across all six, which keeps stockholding and technician training down.

The full 150-SKU catalogue is published on the site with per-model specifications; volume-tier pricing is sent separately.

MOQ, margin, and how to structure a first order

The order structure is deliberately built so a distributor can test a market before tying up serious working capital:

• MOQ of 10 units for a trial order. Enough for a demo set and a handful of real installations.
• MOQ of 100 units for OEM/ODM orders carrying your own branding.
• 20% margin from roughly 10 units, 30% margin from roughly 50 units.

The approach that works best for the regional distributors we deal with: take 10 units as a mixed batch — a few low-cost 1080p models to find the price point your market will actually accept, and the rest 2K AOV units for the farm and construction buyers who will pay more. After four to six weeks of real selling, you know exactly what the model mix on a 50-unit order should be. Full volume-tier terms are on the wholesale page.

OEM and private label: available across the entire range

Own-brand production applies to every model, including all 49 AOV units — your logo on the housing, your retail packaging, and manuals in your market's language. That matters if you are building a local brand rather than reselling white-label goods and getting compared line-by-line on price on a marketplace.

Anything beyond the standard configuration — higher resolution, a larger battery or panel, more storage — is built to order. But the minimum quantity, unit price and delivery time all have to be confirmed by an account manager on a per-project basis. There is no fixed price list for custom builds, and any website quoting hard numbers for that work is guessing.

Lead times, certifications, and what to ask a factory

Real lead times:

Shenzhen Leksell was established in 2012 and holds TÜV Rheinland certification alongside CE, FCC and RoHS. For Latin American markets, that documentation set is a customs and tender requirement, not decoration on a company profile. The regional office in Ho Chi Minh City serves Vietnamese customers.

The questions to put to any supplier

1. What battery capacity and panel wattage are printed on the product label, and do they match the catalogue?
2. Is the camera PIR-triggered or continuously recording in the AOV sense? If it's AOV, how is power consumption handled?
3. What is the ingress protection rating, and is there third-party certification behind it?
4. What is the maximum supported memory card size — that figure determines how much local retention your end customer gets?
5. What are the spare-parts and per-shipment warranty terms?

A supplier who can answer all five with figures that stay consistent across the catalogue, the product label and the contract is a supplier you can sign with. If the numbers move between documents, the return risk lands entirely on you.

Next step

Send us the site type (farm, construction, warehouse, car park), your expected volume and the market you're selling into, and we'll come back with a specific SKU list and tiered pricing. Distribution programmes and territory terms are on the dealer page. Reach us directly on WhatsApp, call +86 188 1869 9870, or email info@solaguard.net.