4 Best Indoor Security Cameras (2023): For Homes and Apartments | WIRED

Many security cameras support local storage, enabling you to record videos on the camera or a linked hub. A few hubs have built-in storage, and some provide slots for hard drives, but most rely on MicroSD cards. Here are some details on what to look for (and a few recommendations).

The MicroSD card you choose should have fast read and write speeds so that you can record high-quality video and play it back without delay. We recommend going for Class 10 MicroSD cards rated as U1 or U3. You can dive deeper into what that means in our SD card explainer. Before buying, check the card type, format, and maximum supported card size for your security camera. Consider how many hours of video each card capacity can store. For example, you might get a couple of days of HD video on a 32-GB card. If you want to record continuously, you likely want a higher-capacity card.

We recommend formatting the card as soon as you insert it into the camera. You will usually be prompted to do this, but if not, there is generally an option in the settings. Just remember, formatting will wipe anything on the MicroSD card, so back up the contents first.

Some security camera manufacturers, like Wyze, offer their own branded MicroSD cards. They work just fine in my experience, but for maximum reliability, here are my favorites. Always remember to check the specs. Even different sizes of cards in the same range often have different capabilities.