How to Choose a UniFi Protect Camera

This guide covers the ten G6 cameras the site tracks. Doorbells, the AI series, the G6 Edge and Mini Dome models, and the older G5 and G4 generations sit outside it. Within those ten, the recorder and the app are the same for every model, so the choice comes down to the camera body and what is inside it.

The range launched as three bodies around one sensor and has grown into three distinct groups. A core group shares a 1/1.8-inch 8MP sensor. A Pro group steps up to a 1/1.2-inch sensor with optical zoom. A coverage group trades detail for breadth with stitched, fisheye, or motorized views. The Security Cameras hub lists all ten side by side.

Start with the body, because the mounting position usually chooses it for you. A shelf indoors is a G6 Instant. An exterior wall or pole suits a bullet, an eave suits a turret, and anywhere within reach calls for a dome. A long frontage is a G6 180 job, a room seen from its ceiling is a G6 Pro 360 job, and a large open area worth steering around is a G6 PTZ job.

Then ask whether the view has to identify someone or only show that someone was there. Identification at distance, or in poor light, is what the Pro tier is for. The three Pro bodies cost $220 to $280 more than their core equivalents and need PoE+. G6 Pro Bullet vs G6 Bullet works through that step in detail.

Weather rating sorts indoor from outdoor, and it is easy to misjudge because every body looks rugged. IPX5 means the G6 Instant shrugs off a splash. It is not built for an exposed wall through winter, and Ubiquiti rates it from -20 to 40 °C, which is why it belongs indoors rather than in the rain.

Impact rating sorts reachable positions from safe ones. IK04, the rating on seven of the ten — the bullets, turrets, G6 Instant, G6 180, and G6 PTZ — certifies a 0.5-joule impact and covers light knocks. IK10, on the two domes and the fisheye, certifies 20 joules and is meant for stairwells, corridors, car parks, and entrances at door height. G6 Dome vs G6 Turret covers when that rating is worth $80.

Cold rating follows the body as well. The G6 Turret, G6 Pro Turret, G6 PTZ, and G6 Pro 360 are rated to -30 °C. The bullets, the domes, the G6 180, and the indoor G6 Instant stop at -20 °C. In a hard-winter climate that line can decide the body before anything else does.

The table puts every model on the same axes, using Ubiquiti's figures from techspecs.ui.com and US store prices. IR figures are manufacturer ratings for illumination reach, not identification distances.

Model	Price	Sensor	Horizontal view	IR	Power	microSD	Ratings	Min temp
G6 Instant	$179	1/1.8" 8MP	109.9°	6 m	USB-C, 7 W	Yes	IPX5 / IK04	-20 °C
G6 Bullet	$199	1/1.8" 8MP	109.9°	30 m	PoE, 9.9 W	No	IP66 / IK04	-20 °C
G6 Turret	$199	1/1.8" 8MP	109.9°	30 m	PoE, 12.5 W	No	IP66 / IK04	-30 °C
G6 Dome	$279	1/1.8" 8MP	109.9°	30 m	PoE, 9.25 W	No	IP66 / IK10	-20 °C
G6 180	$299	Dual 1/1.8" (16MP)	180°	20 m (40 m with Enhancer)	PoE+, 15 W	Yes	IP66 / IK04	-20 °C
G6 PTZ	$399	Dual 1/1.8" 8MP	109.9° to 26.6°	30 m	PoE+, 24.5 W	Yes	IP66 / IK04	-30 °C
G6 Pro Bullet	$479	1/1.2" 8MP	113.8° to 45.5°	40 m (60 m with Enhancer)	PoE+, 15 W	Yes	IP66 / IK04	-20 °C
G6 Pro Turret	$479	1/1.2" 8MP	113.8° to 45.5°	40 m	PoE+, 15 W	Yes	IP66 / IK04	-30 °C
G6 Pro Dome	$499	1/1.2" 8MP	113.8° to 45.5°	40 m	PoE+, 15 W	Yes	IP66 / IK10	-20 °C
G6 Pro 360	$499	1/1.6" 12MP	360° fisheye	15 m	PoE+, 13.5 W	Yes	IP66 / IK10	-30 °C

Read the table by group. The four core cameras are one picture in four housings, and the price differences buy a body, not an image. The three Pro cameras are likewise one picture in three housings, and two cameras in the table take an optional Enhancer: the G6 Pro Bullet reaches a 60 m IR rating with one, and the G6 180 reaches 40 m. G6 Pro Bullet vs G6 Pro Turret compares the two $479 bodies.

The coverage group is the odd one out, because each member gives something up. The G6 180 runs at 20 fps and the G6 Pro 360 at 24 fps, where every other camera here records at 30. The G6 Pro 360 lists person, vehicle, and animal detections only, without the face and license-plate recognition the rest carry. G6 180 vs G6 Pro 360 sets out which panorama suits which mount.

Most homes are covered by the $199 pair. Put a G6 Turret under each eave that overlooks a door, and a G6 Bullet where you want the camera to be seen. G6 Bullet vs G6 Turret settles that pair. Add a G6 Instant indoors where a cable run is impractical, as G6 Instant vs G6 Bullet describes.

Spend on the Pro tier one view at a time. A Pro body earns its price on the single approach where a face or a plate has to be readable: a gate, a road entrance, the far end of a driveway. Elsewhere on the same property, two core cameras watching two directions usually do more than one Pro watching one. For a Pro view in a reachable spot, G6 Pro Turret vs G6 Pro Dome weighs the housings.

Businesses tend to need the specialist bodies. Corridors, stairwells, and entrances at door height are dome positions, and G6 Dome vs G6 Pro Dome settles which dome. A shop floor or lobby suits one ceiling fisheye. A yard or lot that no fixed view covers suits the G6 PTZ, with one caveat. A PTZ watches one direction at a time, so it complements fixed cameras on the entries and does not replace them. G6 Turret vs G6 PTZ sets out that trade.

A camera is one part of a system. Every wired model uplinks to a PoE switch that carries power and data over one cable. That switch connects to a gateway or NVR running Protect, which does the recording. Only the Wi-Fi G6 Instant skips the switch.

Check the power class against the switch before buying. Ubiquiti lists each camera as PoE or PoE+ and publishes a maximum draw, and a port that supplies only plain PoE falls short of what Ubiquiti specifies for a PoE+ camera. An 802.3at injector on that one run is the alternative to a new switch. A run of cameras also adds up against the switch's total budget, which PoE budget planning works through. How to choose a UniFi switch maps port counts, PoE standards, and budgets across the switches this site tracks.

Storage decides how much depends on the recorder. The G6 Bullet, G6 Turret, and G6 Dome have no card slot, so every frame has to reach the gateway or NVR. The other seven list a microSD slot, which gives them somewhere to keep recording if that link drops. Either way, size the recorder to the camera count first: Protect storage sizing sizes the disk, and how to choose a UniFi gateway covers which gateways run Protect and what storage each carries. Protect camera placement covers heights and angles once the models are chosen.