Comparisons
2MP or 4MP — where the extra resolution pays
Spend on 4MP only at the positions where you may need to identify someone — the entrance, the till, the gate. Everywhere else 2MP is enough, because 4MP roughly doubles the storage needed for the same retention. A mixed system gives identification where it counts without buying a bigger hard drive than the job needs.
Last reviewed
What doubling the pixels actually buys
The ability to crop into a recorded frame and still read a face or a plate. On the entrance of a mart in I-10 or a jeweller's counter, that crop is the whole point of the system. On a corridor or a stock room you will never zoom in — you only need to know that someone passed — so the extra pixels sit unused while quietly eating drive space.
The storage cost nobody quotes
A 4MP stream writes roughly twice the data of a 2MP stream at the same frame rate. Swap four cameras from 2MP to 4MP on the same drive and your fifteen days of footage becomes seven or eight. Price the drive into the comparison: the honest gap between the two systems is the camera difference plus a terabyte or two of storage.
The mix that works in practice
For a typical Islamabad shop: 4MP on the door and the counter, 2MP on the floor and the store room. For a house in Bahria or DHA: 4MP on the gate, 2MP on the porch and boundary. That split usually costs a few thousand rupees more than all-2MP and far less than all-4MP, and reviews better than either flat choice when footage is actually needed.
Is a 4MP camera worth it over 2MP?
Does 4MP see better at night?
Not by itself. Smaller pixels gather less light, so a cheap 4MP camera can look noisier after dark than a decent 2MP one. Sensor size and infra-red quality decide the night picture.
Should I skip both and buy 8MP?
Only for wide scenes you plan to crop later — a forecourt, a yard, a society gate. For an ordinary shop the money does more work as a second camera or a larger drive.
Rather have it done?
CCTV installation means a free survey of your shop, office or home, a camera plan that covers gates, counters and blind corners, cabling run through conduit, a recorder sized for the days of footage you want, and phone viewing working before handover. A four-camera 2MP package in Islamabad or Rawalpindi runs PKR 55,000 to 85,000 fitted.
CCTV installation in Islamabad — prices and scope