"Camera Sola": What a Solar 4G Security Camera Actually Is — and How to Source One Wholesale

"Camera sola" means a solar-powered 4G security camera — no mains power, no WiFi

A camera sola (solar camera) is a security camera that runs entirely on an internal battery charged by an integrated solar panel, and transmits video over a 4G LTE SIM instead of WiFi. No cable to a building, no electrician, no router in range, no monthly line rental for a fixed connection. For a wholesale buyer, that single sentence defines the whole category: a camera you mount on a fence post, a pole, a container or a roof edge in 5–10 minutes per unit and then leave alone.

SolaGuard manufactures this category at factory level through Shenzhen Leksell — established 2012, TÜV Rheinland certified, with CE, FCC and RoHS compliance. The catalogue runs to 150 SKUs, with wholesale prices quoted per order, and OEM/private label is available on every model, including all 49 always-on solar units. If you are sourcing for farms, ranches, construction sites, yards, warehouses or rural properties across Vietnam and Latin America, this page gives you the numbers you can check against a quote.

The 4G half matters as much as the solar half

Buyers focus on the panel, but the connectivity is what makes the deployment possible. A solar camera with WiFi still needs a building with a router within range — which excludes the exact sites the category exists for. A 4G LTE camera needs only cellular coverage and a local data SIM. In practice that means your customer's perimeter fence, their back paddock, their unlit equipment yard and their second site 8 km away all get the same install: mount, aim the panel, insert SIM and microSD, scan the QR code in the app. Under ten minutes, repeatable by a crew with no electrical training.

That also changes what you sell. You are not selling a camera, you are selling coverage of places that were previously uncoverable because trenching power and network to them cost more than the asset being watched.

The specification that decides whether footage exists: AOV vs PIR

The most consequential difference inside the solar camera category is how the camera decides to record. Get this wrong and your customer receives a camera that is technically working and still has no video of the incident.

PIR-triggered cameras wake on a passive infrared motion sensor. Power draw is very low, which is why the design dominates cheap solar cameras. The weakness is structural: PIR detects heat moving across its zones. Slow movement, movement directly toward the lens, movement at the edge of the zone, and anything happening outside the sensor's cone produce no trigger and therefore no recording. There is also wake latency — by the time the sensor fires and the camera starts, the first seconds are gone. Reviewing an incident often means finding the clip starts after the event.

AOV (Always-On Video) is the alternative: 24/7 continuous recording at low standby power, using AI scene analysis to manage power rather than a motion sensor deciding whether to exist. The camera is always recording, so there is no trigger to miss and no wake-up gap. AOV is an industry-generic term, not a SolaGuard trademark — you will see it from multiple manufacturers, and you should ask any supplier to state plainly which of the two behaviours their unit implements.

For a distributor this is a returns and reputation issue before it is a technical one. Livestock theft, fuel siphoning, night-time tool removal and slow trespass are precisely the events PIR handles worst, and precisely what your buyers are trying to stop.

The 49 AOV models: exact counts, exact prices

SolaGuard's always-on range is 49 SKUs across four series. These are the actual catalogue figures — check them against the product catalogue line by line before you quote a customer.

Three reference models buyers ask for most often:

• SG-C41G-10T66-V1. Single lens 2K, 8000mAh, 8W panel, IP66. The straightforward entry unit.
• SG-D42G-10F66-V1. Dual lens 2K (2.0MP×2), 8000mAh, 8W, IP66. Wide scene plus a second view in one housing.
• SG-D42G-15F66-V1. Dual lens 2K, 20000mAh battery with a 15W panel, IP66. This is the configuration for sites with poor winter sun, heavy shade, or continuous high-activity recording.

Reading the series table correctly

Variants within a series differ. Do not assume a price or a feature carries across every SKU in a line — the 18 dual-lens 8W models differ in price for real reasons, and so do the 16 higher-capacity dual-lens models. When you build a price list for your market, pull each SKU individually rather than quoting a series average.

Specifications to verify against any supplier, including this one

Solar camera datasheets are where the category's honesty problems live. Inflated battery figures, overstated ingress ratings and resolution claims the sensor cannot deliver are all common. Here is what SolaGuard actually ships, stated flatly:

A few notes that save arguments later. Resolution: 2K is the standard ceiling here. If a project genuinely requires higher, that is a custom/OEM conversation with its own MOQ and lead time, not a stock order. Storage: 128 GB microSD is the supported card capacity; if a customer needs longer local retention, discuss higher-capacity media as a custom-order question rather than assuming a card will work. Ingress: IP66 is the rating on outdoor models. If a deployment requires a higher ingress class — submersion-grade housings, for instance — say so at the specification stage rather than discovering it during monsoon season.

The discipline that matters: quote only figures your supplier has put in writing. A number you invented to win a tender becomes a warranty claim when the buyer measures it.

Commercial terms: MOQ, margin, lead time

The 10-unit trial MOQ exists because it is the honest way to evaluate a solar camera. Specifications tell you very little about how a unit behaves on a specific roofline, at a specific latitude, under a specific local carrier's coverage. Ten units across three or four representative sites for a month produces information no datasheet can. The wholesale terms page covers pricing tiers and freight in detail.

OEM and private label

Private label is available across the catalogue, including all 49 AOV models, at a 100-unit MOQ. That covers branding on the housing and packaging, and extends to hardware changes — higher resolution, larger battery and panel pairings, different storage configuration — as build-to-spec work. Quantity, price and lead time for anything customised always come from a person, not from a web page.

Deployment realities in Vietnam and Latin America

The two markets buy for similar reasons and different threat models. Vietnamese buyers are largely rural property, aquaculture, construction and small industrial yards; Latin American buyers skew toward fincas, ranchos and livestock protection where cattle theft is the driving loss. Both share the condition that defines the category: valuable assets sitting where grid power and fixed internet do not reach.

Practical points that come up in every deployment:

• Carrier coverage beats panel wattage. Survey the cell signal at the exact mount point before specifying. A camera with a strong signal and an 8W panel outperforms a 15W unit that burns power fighting a marginal connection.
• Panel orientation is the second variable. Shade from a growing tree line or a new building will quietly degrade a site that worked at commissioning. Build a six-month check into your service offer.
• Sell the SIM plan with the camera. Data cost is the recurring line item your customer will be surprised by if you do not raise it. Local prepaid IoT plans usually solve it cheaply.
• Stock the high-capacity models for hard sites. Keeping a proportion of 20000mAh/15W units in inventory means you can answer a shaded or high-activity site immediately instead of re-ordering.

SolaGuard's regional office is in Ho Chi Minh City, which is what supports the 7–10 business day domestic Vietnam delivery window. Orders elsewhere ship from the factory on the air and sea timelines above.

If you are evaluating suppliers rather than products, the thing to test is not the spec sheet — it is whether the figures on it survive contact with ten cameras on real sites. Start with a trial order, measure it, then scale. Distributor terms and territory questions are handled through the dealer programme, or by email to info@solaguard.net.