Yes, in many ways. This camera is high resolution for analog recorders, one of the best you can get for analog CCTV.
This camera has a varifocal lens that allows you to zoom in. When zoomed in, this camera can pick up license plates at about 26' line of sight. It also has a great feature (HLC) High Light Compensation which dims down the headlights of a car to give the best chance of grabbing a license plate even when the vehicle is driving at the camera.