Solar 4G Cameras: A Wholesale and OEM Sourcing Guide for Importers

The short answer: what a solar 4G camera is, and what it costs to import

A solar 4G camera is a security camera that runs completely on its own: a solar panel charges an integrated lithium battery, and footage travels over a 4G LTE SIM. No mains power, no WiFi, no cable runs. For importers and distributors this is the line you sell into farms, construction sites, warehouses, parking lots, ports and rural properties — the places where trenching power and pulling network costs more than the camera itself.

The current SolaGuard catalogue runs to 150 SKUs, with wholesale prices quoted per order. The 49 AOV models (continuous recording) carry 8000mAh to 20000mAh batteries, 8W or 15W panels, 1080p–2K resolution, microSD storage up to 128GB, IP66 weatherproofing, and 5–10 minutes of install time per camera. 4K is a build-to-order item only, produced as a custom or OEM run and never held in stock — which is something to say plainly to your end customer in the first conversation rather than the third.

AOV versus PIR: the difference that decides your warranty rate

AOV stands for Always-On Video: continuous 24/7 recording at very low standby draw, achieved by letting AI analyse the scene and decide when full-frame processing is actually required. It is an industry-generic term, not any one factory's trademark — so when a supplier pitches you its "proprietary AOV technology", you know exactly what you are listening to.

Most of the cheap solar cameras on the market still work on PIR: a passive infrared sensor detects moving body heat and only then wakes the camera to record. It saves battery, and it has three weaknesses your B2B customers will run into in their first week of use:

• Slow movement gets missed. Someone walking slowly, someone crawling low to the ground, a vehicle rolling in neutral — PIR frequently fails to trigger in time.
• Anything outside the sensor cone is never recorded. A fence cut a few metres off the PIR axis still falls outside the heat pattern.
• The opening seconds are lost. There is always a delay between trigger and first frame, and the missing clip is precisely the part that matters when the footage goes to the police.

In a distribution business the consequence is not technical, it is cash: returns, goodwill warranty swaps, and a customer who stops trusting the product after one theft with no video. That is why the AOV line, despite a higher landed cost than the entry-level SKUs, usually delivers the better real margin once replacements are netted off.

The four AOV series in stock: exact specs and prices

All 49 AOV models fall into four series. The table below is catalogue data, not an estimate — you can open the product catalogue and check any individual model against it.

One note on reading that table: the price within each series is a range across variants, not a single figure. When you build a quote, take the price of the exact variant code rather than quoting the bottom of the range and then shipping a dearer model — that is the single most common cause of disputes on the second order.

Three models frequently chosen as samples

• SG-C41G-10T66-V1. 2K (2.0MP), 8000mAh, 8W, IP66. The cheapest way into the AOV group, and a good fit for residential customers and small shops.
• SG-D42G-10F66-V1. 2K dual lens (2.0MP×2), 8000mAh, 8W, IP66. The dual lens gives one wide view and one detail view from a single unit, which sells very well for warehouse yards and forecourts.
• SG-D42G-15F66-V1. 2K dual lens (2.0MP×2), 20000mAh, 15W, IP66. The largest power configuration in the catalogue, for low-sunlight positions or heavy recording duty.

Choosing the power configuration: when 8W/8000mAh is enough, and when to step up to 15W/20000mAh

This is the one genuinely technical decision a distributor has to make alone, because it depends on where the hardware will be mounted rather than on anything the factory controls.

The 8W/8000mAh configuration works where the camera gets direct sun for most of the morning or most of the afternoon, where the daily event count is moderate, and where the local wet season does not run for weeks on end. That is the configuration of 33 of the 49 AOV models, and in the good light of southern Vietnam or most of Latin America it runs without drama.

Step up to 15W/20000mAh when the mounting point is partly shaded during the day (tree canopy, metal roof overhang, a warehouse wall); when the region has a long rainy season or strings of overcast days; or when the customer wants heavy recording plus frequent live viewing over 4G, which consumes far more energy than simply writing to the card. The price gap between the two groups is real, but a shipment coming back because "the cameras switch off when it rains" is a great deal more expensive.

On storage, the entire AOV line uses microSD cards up to 128GB. If an end customer needs longer retention, the correct answer is scheduled overwrite, a lower bitrate on the less critical units, or a cloud recording tier alongside the card — not a promise of card capacity the hardware does not support. The same applies to ingress protection: the outdoor models are rated IP66, and if a customer needs a higher rating for an unusual environment, that is an ODM conversation, not a stock item.

MOQ, margin, and building price tiers for your sales channel

The distribution terms are structured so you can test a market before you carry inventory:

The most effective way to use the two tiers is to bring in 10 units at the 20% level and run them through one specific customer type — farms, say, or construction sites — and only move to the 50-unit tier once you know which models actually sell. New distributors often do the opposite: they buy a few of everything, and end up with capital spread across 49 model codes and not enough of any one of them to fill a 20-unit order. Full tier pricing and terms are on the wholesale page.

OEM and private label: what is genuinely in scope

OEM and private label apply across the whole catalogue, including all 49 AOV models, at an MOQ of 100 units. Customisation covers your logo on the housing, packaging and manuals in your market's language, and non-standard configuration requests such as higher resolution, a larger battery and panel, or storage above the standard level. All of these are dedicated production runs: quantity, unit price and lead time are always confirmed by the sales team project by project, and there is no public price list — treat any supplier that quotes OEM pricing straight off its website with suspicion.

The factory is Shenzhen Leksell, established in 2012, certified by TÜV Rheinland and holding CE, FCC and RoHS. In Vietnam and Latin America that certification set is the first thing customs and corporate buyers ask about, ahead of any spec sheet, so request the scans at the quotation stage and keep them on file for tenders.

Lead times and deployment

The Vietnam office is in Ho Chi Minh City. Work backwards from the date your customer needs the hardware: a construction project closing next month cannot wait on a sea shipment, yet consolidating enough volume to ship by sea and waiting 25–40 days is the only way to protect your margin on large orders. Most distributors who get this right run both in parallel — samples and urgent orders by air, seasonal stock by sea.

Installation takes 5–10 minutes per camera: fix the bracket, insert the SIM and memory card, angle the panel, scan the code to pair the app. That number matters more to your business model than to your technicians, because it means one person can finish an entire farm in a morning, and you can sell installation as a service without maintaining an electrical crew.

A checklist before you commit to a supplier

Whichever factory you choose, run these five checks — they are where most import disputes originate:

1. Do the specs in the article match the product pages? If the website states one battery capacity and the catalogue states another, you are the one who will be explaining it to the customer.
2. Which resolution is stock and which is build-to-order? Here: 1080p–2K is standard stock, 4K is custom/OEM.
3. Is the weatherproof rating stated per model? A range like "IP65 or IP66" means nobody has checked.
4. Do the certifications name the issuing body? "Meets international standards" is not a certification.
5. Are OEM prices and lead times confirmed by a person, or generated by the website?

If you are building a distribution channel in Vietnam or Latin America and want per-model pricing along with partnership terms, see the dealer programme, message us on WhatsApp, call +86 188 1869 9870, or email info@solaguard.net. Include your country, expected volume and the type of end customer you serve, and you will get the shortlist of models that fits rather than all 150 SKUs.