2.8mm Wide Angle
81.2° horizontal field of view - Complete coverage reference guide
About the 2.8mm lens
A 2.8mm lens delivers an extreme wide-angle view of around 96°, capturing nearly half the room from a single mounting point. It is the most popular indoor wide-angle choice for lobbies, retail floors, classrooms, small offices, and home entryways where you want one camera to see everything in front of it without leaving blind corners.
Best for
- •Lobbies, vestibules, and entrance halls where the entire incoming-traffic area must fit in one frame
- •Retail aisles and small shops where corner-to-corner coverage matters more than long-range identification
- •Classrooms, conference rooms, and meeting spaces with people seated around the perimeter
- •Home front doors, garages, and small driveways where you want context plus the visitor in one shot
Trade-offs
- •Faces are only identifiable within roughly 4–5 meters — beyond that, pixel density drops sharply
- •Edge distortion (the so-called "fisheye effect") bends straight lines near the corners
- •Subjects appear smaller and farther away than they actually are — operators may misjudge distance
- •License plates are unreliable except at very close range under good lighting
Real-world example
In a 5×5 m room mounted in a corner, a 2.8mm lens covers the entire opposite wall and most of the side walls. In a 10×10 m space, it captures the full floor area but loses face identification past the 5m mark. The most common installation mistake with 2.8mm is using it as the only camera in spaces longer than 8 meters — inevitably the far end of the room becomes a low-detail "context only" zone.
Compared to other focal lengths
Compared to a 4mm standard lens, a 2.8mm sees roughly 30% more horizontal area but cuts effective identification distance in half. Compared to a 3.6mm slight wide-angle, 2.8mm trades useful detail at distance for corner-to-corner coverage in tight spaces.
Coverage Width at Different Distances
| Distance | Coverage Width | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| 5m | 8.6m | Entrance/POS area |
| 10m | 17.1m | Retail floor, office |
| 15m | 25.7m | Warehouse aisle, parking |
| 20m | 34.3m | Warehouse aisle, parking |
| 30m | 51.4m | Parking lot, perimeter |
| 50m | 85.7m | Parking lot, perimeter |
| 75m | 128.6m | Long-distance monitoring |
| 100m | 171.4m | Long-distance monitoring |
Other Lens Options
Calculate for Your Setup
Use our FOV calculator to experiment with different focal lengths and distances.