The problem of maximizing the lifetime of a wireless sensor network which uses video cameras to monitor targets is considered. These video cameras can rotate and have a fixed monitoring angle. For a target to be covered by a video camera mounted on a sensor node, three conditions must be satisfied. First, the distance between the sensor and the target should be less than the sensing range. Second, the direction of the camera sensor should face the target, and third, the focus of the video camera should be such that the picture of the target is sharp. Basic elements on optics are recalled, then some properties are shown to efficiently address the problem of setting the direction and focal distance of a video camera for target coverage. Then, a column generation algorithm based on these properties is proposed for solving three lifetime maximization problems. Targets are considered as points in the first problem, they are considered as discs in the second problem (which allows for considering occlusion) and in the last problem, focal distance is also dealt with for taking image sharpness into account. All of these problems are compared on a testbed of 180 instances and numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.