A Pan Tilt Zoom camera (PTZ) allows you to pan (back and forth), tilt (up and down), and zoom (focus in and out) your camera remotely. The PTZ is controlled using a remote PTZ controller or you can control it through most DVRs (look for PTZ support). The disadvantages of a PTZ camera is that they are very expensive (usually around $1000 without the controller). And all the moving parts make it susceptible to wear and breakdown. There are some new digital versions of PTZ cameras just coming on the market that have no mechanical parts. These PTZs are very promising but are still a little too expensive to be practical for most uses. PTZ cameras require a data cable to be run to the camera in addition to the video and power cables. Unless you have a person who is watching the scene and adjusting the field of view of the camera based on whats going on its not as useful. Most times you are better off buying more of the non-PTZ cameras to continuously cover the area rather than a PTZ.