Systems and methods for encoding regions containing an element of interest in a sequence of images with a high resolution are provided. Such systems and methods can include a camera that can capture the sequence of images of a monitored region, a detection processor that can identify a first region that contains an element of interest within the sequence of images, and an encoder that can encode the first region within a first subset of the sequence of images with a first resolution and encode a second region within the first subset of the sequence of images outside of the first region with a second resolution that is less than the first resolution, wherein a number of the sequence of images in the first subset of the sequence of images is less than all of the sequence of images and is based on a predefined parameter.