said by fartness:How? I don't understand the difference that leibold posted.
Most security cameras are fixed focus, meaning that they don't have a zoom lens that would let you zoom out (wide angle) to see the whole width of your property and then zoom in to get a good look at that suspicious guy standing at the edge of the driveway. While there is digital zoom that can partially make up for the lack of an optical zoom lens, the resolution of those cameras isn't high enough to get any detail when zooming in.
For an inexpensive fixed focus security camera it is therefore important to select a model with the right viewing angle: wide angle gives more coverage of the property but less detail and typically less useful distance while a tele lens will provide greater detail even at longer distances while omitting things that are outside of the narrower viewing angle).
If you find it difficult to make the choice between zoom lens and wide angle lens, you can pick a model that does have a zoom lens (those do tend to cost more then a fixed focus lens). If you do get a zoom lens it also makes sense to get a pan and tilt mount for the camera so that you can direct the camera where to point when you zoom in (the combination of Pan, Tilt and Zoom features in a security camera is often indicated with the abbreviation PTZ).