What security camera do I need for my home?
For a property on the Costa del Sol, the standard choice is an outdoor IP camera of at least 4 MP, full-colour night vision, an IP66-rated housing resistant to dust, rain and salt air, and local recording to an NVR or microSD card with no monthly fees. If you're close to the sea, look for anti-corrosion coating. If you want the system to tell people apart from cats or blowing branches, you need AI detection (WizSense or ColorVu with SMD).
Step 1 — Indoors or outdoors: the first filter
Before looking at brands or resolutions, decide where each camera is going.
- Indoors (living room, hallway, enclosed garage): IP41 or IP43 protection is enough. You can prioritise discretion and a wide field of view.
- Outdoors (façade, garden, front door): requires a minimum of IP66 (fully protected against dust and water jets from any direction). For areas at risk of vandalism, add IK10 (withstands 20 J of impact).
The difference is not just water resistance: outdoor cameras handle temperature ranges from −30 °C to +60 °C, which matters in summer in Málaga when a south-facing wall builds up serious heat.
Costa del Sol note: if your property is within 500 m of the sea, salt air is the silent enemy. It corrodes screws, attacks connectors and degrades the housing within 12–18 months on budget cameras. Choose models with treated aluminium or stainless steel housings and reinforced seals. It's the piece of advice we give most often in Marbella, Estepona and Torremolinos.
Step 2 — Camera type: bullet, dome or PTZ
The form factor is not just aesthetics: it defines the field of view, ease of installation and deterrent effect.
- Bullet: cylindrical and visible. Acts as a deterrent by its presence alone. Easy to aim at a specific point (entrance, garage door, driveway). The most common choice for home exteriors.
- Dome: hemisphere-shaped, discreet, mounted on ceiling or wall. Hard to tell which direction it's pointing — an advantage indoors and in shared areas. With an IK10 housing it's highly vandal-resistant.
- PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom): rotates, tilts and zooms remotely or automatically. Covers large areas with a single camera. Higher price and mechanical maintenance. Recommended for villas with large grounds or car parks.
- Fisheye 360°: one camera covers an entire room with no blind spots. Requires more processing to view the image without distortion. Very useful in small garages or meeting rooms.
Step 3 — Resolution: how many megapixels do you actually need?
Resolution determines whether you can identify a face or a number plate in a recording, or just detect that "someone was there".
- 2 MP (1080p Full HD): minimum for indoors at close range. Beyond 5 metres, a face becomes unrecognisable.
- 4 MP (2K / 2560 × 1440 px): the sweet spot in 2026. Sufficient to identify people at a pedestrian entrance or garage up to 10–12 m away.
- 8 MP (4K / 3840 × 2160 px): for large grounds, car parks or businesses where you need to read number plates at distance. Requires more storage: between 20 and 30 GB per camera per day on continuous recording with H.265+.
With H.265+ compression (used by Dahua and Hikvision in their mid-to-high range), a 4 MP camera records approximately 8–10 GB/day. An NVR with a 2 TB drive covers 4 cameras for 50 days on motion-triggered recording.
Step 4 — Night vision: black and white or true colour?
Most burglaries and incidents happen at night or in low light. The differences here are significant.
Classic infrared (IR)
The most widely used technology. Records in black and white in total darkness with a range of 20 to 60 m depending on the model. Affordable and functional, but captures no colour: if someone is wearing blue or red clothing you simply cannot tell from the recording.
Night colour: ColorVu (Hikvision) and WizSense Full-Color (Dahua)
In 2025 Hikvision launched ColorVu 3.0: sharp colour image in very low ambient light — near darkness — combining a wider aperture sensor (F1.0) with intelligent hybrid lighting. Dahua offers equivalent technology in its WizSense Full-Color range.
The practical advantage: if a vehicle enters your garden at night, the recording will show the body colour, what the driver is wearing and the number plate in far greater detail. That can be decisive when making a police report.
Full-colour with active white light
The camera has a white LED that illuminates the scene when motion is detected. Bright colour image with an added deterrent effect. The downside: it can disturb neighbours or the householder themselves if the LED activates in the garden at night.
Step 5 — AI detection: eliminate 95% of false alerts
Without AI, a camera alerts on any movement: branches in the wind, insects flying past the lens, a cat crossing the garden. With four cameras at home that can mean dozens of useless notifications a day.
SMD (Smart Motion Detection) by Dahua WizSense
The WizSense AI chip uses deep learning to distinguish people and vehicles from everything else. SMD Plus 2.0 filters out small and large animals, detects the colour of clothing and vehicles, and sends only the alerts that actually matter. It also saves up to 50% of bandwidth and storage compared with standard H.265, because it compresses areas with no people in greater detail.
Motion Detection 3.0 by Hikvision ColorVu
In the Pro series with ColorVu 3.0, Hikvision integrates high-precision person and vehicle detection directly in the sensor. The practical result is the same: notifications only when someone enters your property, not when a car passes in the background street.
For a property with a garden, a dog or trees near the cameras, AI is not a luxury: it's what makes the system liveable day to day.
Step 6 — Storage: no monthly fees or cloud
This is the decision that affects long-term cost the most. Four real options:
| Option | Upfront cost | Monthly fee | Remote access | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local NVR (hard drive) | Medium–high | None | Yes (app) | Recorder stolen |
| microSD card in camera | Low | None | Yes (app) | Limited capacity; card failure |
| Manufacturer cloud | Low | €5–20 per camera | Yes | Vendor lock-in; cost grows with more cameras |
| Local NVR + private cloud backup | High | Minimal | Yes | The most robust; higher upfront investment |
For a home with 4 cameras using manufacturer cloud, the monthly fee can exceed €60–80. Over three years you pay more than the entire physical installation. A Dahua or Hikvision 4-channel NVR with a 2 TB drive costs between €120 and €200 with no ongoing subscription.
The exception where cloud makes sense: a single WiFi camera in a storage room or second home where installing a full NVR is not worthwhile.
Step 7 — Connectivity: PoE (cable) or WiFi
WiFi cameras are quicker to install, but less reliable for a permanent system: interference from other routers, domestic WiFi dropouts, updates that restart the system, or simply losing signal at the far end of the property can leave you without recording for hours without you noticing.
For a permanent installation we always recommend PoE (Power over Ethernet): a single Cat5e or Cat6 cable carries both data and power to the camera, with no additional socket needed. No WiFi, no dropouts, no batteries. PoE cameras connect to a PoE switch that feeds into the NVR.
WiFi cameras make sense only when running cable is physically impossible (for example, a terrace with no internal access route) or for temporary installations.
Step 8 — Brands: Dahua and Hikvision in Spain
The professional video surveillance market in Spain is dominated by these two brands, with established distribution and technical support:
- Hikvision: the most widely installed brand in professional projects worldwide. Very stable firmware, compatible with third-party VMS systems. Their ColorVu 3.0 range offers the best full-colour night vision on the market in 2025–2026.
- Dahua: an extensive range with an excellent quality-to-price ratio at the mid level. WizSense technology with SMD is particularly good for homes with gardens or pets. The DMSS app is intuitive for end users with no technical knowledge.
At Dartel we work with Dahua and Hikvision for complete installations because we have direct technical support with official distributors in Spain and can resolve any issue without lengthy import lead times.
You can browse the available models in our online shop or check our security service if you'd prefer we plan it together.
The law: what you need to know before you install
In Spain, domestic video surveillance is regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the LOPDGDD (Organic Law 3/2018), together with the criteria of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). The key points for a private individual:
- Your property only: you may record the interior of your home and the immediate access points that are part of your property. Never the public highway (pavement, street) beyond what is strictly necessary to monitor your own entrance.
- Neighbours and adjacent properties: pointing a camera at a neighbour's property, their garden or their entrance is illegal. The AEPD has imposed fines on private individuals exceeding €6,000 in documented cases.
- Owners' communities: installing cameras in shared areas (lobby, car park, stairwell) requires a resolution at the owners' meeting, a visible information sign and proper data handling.
- Retention of recordings: maximum 30 days. After that they must be deleted unless there is an active complaint or ongoing investigation.
- Business premises with employees: if you install cameras in a workplace you must formally notify the workers.
The general rule is simple: record your property and nothing beyond it. If you're unsure about the angle of an outdoor camera, a Dartel site visit includes advice on compliant pointing angles.
Summary: quick decision table
| Situation | What you need |
|---|---|
| Entrance or garden, at night | Outdoor IP66, 4 MP, colour night vision (ColorVu / WizSense Full-Color) |
| Garden with a dog or trees | AI with SMD to filter animal false alerts |
| Near the sea (Marbella, Estepona, Nerja…) | Anti-corrosion housing, minimum IP66, stainless steel fixings |
| Indoors (living room, hallway) | Dome IP43, 2–4 MP, WiFi or PoE depending on cabling |
| Large grounds or car park | PTZ with optical zoom or several bullet cameras with NVR |
| Recording with no monthly fee | Local NVR with hard drive or microSD in camera |
| Permanent, reliable installation | PoE (cable), never WiFi |
Not sure exactly what you need?
We design the complete system for you: number of cameras, locations, recorder and final quote. No site visit needed for the initial proposal. If you then want us to install it, we cover Málaga, Marbella, Torremolinos, Estepona and the whole Costa del Sol.