Security cameras: how to choose well in Belgium
A security camera does not stop a burglary. What it does is deter anyone who sees it, show you what is happening while you are away, and keep a usable record. This page explains how to choose a camera system for a Belgian home or shop, what it really costs, and what the law requires of you.
The four choices that decide everything
1. Wi-Fi or wired?
A Wi-Fi camera goes up without running a network cable: the right answer in a rented home, during a light renovation, or for an outbuilding at the end of the garden. It has two limits. It always needs a power socket, and its picture is only as good as the Wi-Fi signal where it is mounted.
A wired IP camera using PoE receives picture and power through a single Ethernet cable. No socket to plan for, no dropouts when the Wi-Fi weakens, nothing to jam. For a fixed, long-term installation, especially outdoors, it is the option we recommend. It requires a recorder with PoE ports or a PoE switch.
2. Which resolution?
4 MP is the sensible standard: enough detail to recognise a figure, clothing or a vehicle at an entrance or in a courtyard, without weighing down storage. 8 MP (4K) is worth it when the scene is wide or you need to zoom in afterwards — car park, long façade, gate entrance. See the 4 MP cameras and the 8 MP cameras.
3. Which form factor?
- Bullet — cylindrical and visible from a distance: the deterrent outdoor format for driveways, gardens and fences.
- Dome — discreet and often vandal-resistant: indoors, entrance halls, anywhere within reach.
- Turret — exposed lens you adjust without removing a cover, with no infrared glare off a bubble: a good compromise under a canopy or on a façade.
- PTZ — motorised, with remotely controlled optical zoom: for large areas, rarely useful in a house.
4. Where does the footage go?
Three options. A microSD card in the camera, enough for one or two Wi-Fi cameras. An NVR recorder, which brings every camera onto one hard drive and stays viewable from your phone: the solution from three cameras upwards. Finally, the cloud storage some manufacturers offer, which adds a subscription.
When sizing the drive, remember that Belgian law limits retention to one month (see below). Buying storage beyond that makes little sense; pick a surveillance hard drive sized for that period.
How much does a security camera cost?
The prices below are the shop's prices at the time of writing, excluding VAT (21% added at checkout). They are entry prices: each line links to the full range.
| Equipment | Example | Price excl. VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Motorised Wi-Fi camera (pan/tilt) | Dahua 3 MP Wi-Fi dome | from €69.89 |
| Indoor IP camera | Dahua Entry 4 MP mini dome | from €98.42 |
| Outdoor IP camera | Dahua Lite 4 MP bullet | from €110.62 |
| Camera integrated with the Ajax alarm | Ajax BulletCam 5 MP | from €158.54 |
| Video doorbell | Ajax DoorBell | €252.89 |
| 4-camera recorder with PoE | Dahua Lite 4-channel NVR | from €138.18 |
| Recorder for Ajax cameras | Ajax 8-channel NVR | from €260.22 |
A complete example
A house with four points to cover — front door, back door, driveway, garden — is equipped with four 4 MP bullets (4 × €110.62) and a 4-channel PoE NVR (€138.18), or about €581 excl. VAT, plus a hard drive chosen for the recording period you want. No subscription is needed: recording is local and remote viewing works through the manufacturer's app.
Where to mount your cameras
The quality of an installation is decided at mounting time far more than on the spec sheet.
- Between 2.5 and 3 metres high. High enough not to be torn down, low enough to see a face rather than the top of a head.
- With your back to the light. A camera facing the setting sun or a glass wall only shows a black silhouette.
- Never behind a window at night. Infrared bounces off the glass and the picture turns white.
- On the passages, not the rooms. One camera per entry point: a panoramic view covering three doors lets you identify no one at any of them.
- Only your own property. Not the street, not the pavement, not the neighbour's garden — that is the legal rule, and it also avoids disputes.
What Belgian law says
Video surveillance is governed by the Act of 21 March 2007, known as the "camera law", amended in 2018. For a private individual, it depends on what the camera films:
| The camera films… | What you must do |
|---|---|
| The inside of your home, for personal use | No declaration |
| Your entrance, driveway or garden | Declaration on declarationcamera.be, confirmed every year, plus a pictogram and a processing register |
| The public road | Not allowed, for individuals and businesses alike |
For a shop, a co-ownership or a business, the declaration is always mandatory. Footage may be kept for one month at most, unless it can help prove an offence or damage. The declaration is free and done online.
A note on municipal grants: most Belgian municipalities subsidise mechanical security — locks, cylinders, glazing — and almost always exclude cameras and alarms. Check your municipality's rules before counting on one.
Camera or alarm?
To be clear: if you want to be alerted during an intrusion, you need an alarm, not a camera. A camera without an alarm often shows you the burglary the next day. The two complement each other — the alarm detects and alerts, the camera shows and proves — and with Ajax both are controlled from the same app. See our guide to home alarms in Belgium.
Conversely, do not buy a camera "just to see" if nobody will watch the footage. A useful camera is one where you know, before mounting it, which question it has to answer.
Install it yourself or have it installed
A Wi-Fi camera goes up in an hour. A PoE installation means running cables outdoors, drilling through walls and setting up the recorder: doable for a handy DIYer, but that is where most placement mistakes happen. We install in Brussels, Liège, Charleroi, Namur, Mons, La Louvière and Nivelles.
Not sure whether a camera works with an existing recorder? Write to us with the model numbers: we check before you order. The full range: video surveillance.