Guides
How much camera resolution you actually need
Two megapixels covers general scene recording; four earns its keep at entrances, tills and gates where a cropped face or plate must stay sharp. Past 4MP, camera and storage costs climb faster than the benefit for most premises. Placement decides more than pixels — aim well before paying for more resolution.
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What each tier buys
At 2MP you get a clean scene and recognisable people within a few metres — right for corridors, stock rooms and general shop floors. At 4MP you can crop into a face at the doorway and still read it. In Islamabad money: a four-camera 2MP analogue package installs for PKR 55,000–85,000, while a four-channel 4MP IP system starts around PKR 110,000. The gap buys identification, not just sharpness.
The storage tax
Doubling resolution roughly doubles the disk needed for the same number of days. A 4MP system keeping thirty days wants twice the drive of its 2MP equivalent, and quotes that skip this line are quietly selling you shorter retention without saying so. Decide the days first, then let the resolution set the drive size — never the other way around, and never from whatever drive happened to be in stock.
Mix tiers deliberately
Nothing forces one resolution across a system. The sensible pattern for a shop is 4MP on the entrance and the counter — the two positions where you may one day need to prove exactly who did what — and 2MP everywhere the question is only what happened and when. One recorder handles the mix without complaint, and the budget lands where identification actually matters instead of being spread thin across every position.
How many megapixels do I need for CCTV?
Is 8MP worth it for a markaz shop?
Rarely. You pay for it twice — once at the camera and again in the drive — for detail a small shop never uses. The same money on a better entrance camera and a month of retention serves you better.
Does higher resolution improve night footage?
Not by itself. After dark the sensor and available light decide the result, and a good 2MP sensor often beats a cheap 4MP one. Low-light quality is a sensor question, not a megapixel count.
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