4K Cameras: Advantages and Disadvantages
Ever since the advent of 4K cameras, there have been debates about whether or not they are worth using for the average home or shop owner. They have a higher resolution, but is this resolution enough to justify the higher cost? Let’s discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of using 4K CCTV cameras.
What does 4K mean?
Image resolution is measured in pixels. Pixels are essentially little blocks that make up an image. The more pixels an image has, the more detailed and clear it will look.
Fewer pixels will cause each pixel to stretch further to cover the image space. This will make the images look quite blocky. To get the total number of pixels, you multiply the number of pixels in height by the number of pixels in width. 4K CCTV cameras will record images that are 8 million pixels or 8 megapixels (MP). The terms 4K and 8MP are used interchangeably because 8MP will refer to the total number of pixels, while 4K refers to the image that is 4,000 pixels horizontally.
Are 4K CCTV cameras better?
4K CCTV cameras get a lot of attention because they offer higher resolutions. For security cameras, having a good resolution is extremely important to capture incidents. If someone has broken into your home, you’ll want to have a detailed record of the events and a clear picture of the criminal to aid in the investigation. If the footage is too blurry to see anything, it will be worthless and your investment in the security system will have been wasted.
4K CCTV cameras will even have clear images when zoomed in. The problem with low-resolution cameras is that the images will appear blurrier the more times you zoom in. 4K cameras are so detailed that using 2x digital zoom will produce images that are still 2x clearer than 2 MP cameras.
Another benefit of using 4K CCTV cameras is that they will typically have a wider field of view, meaning you will be able to see more than one area with a single camera. So even though a single camera will cost you more than a lower resolution camera, you may end up saving money by not having to buy as many.
A common drawback that comes up whenever the topic of 4K CCTV cameras is discussed is that they will require more storage and bandwidth. As we explained earlier, higher resolutions will have a greater number of pixels, which translates to containing more data. 4K cameras require more storage and bandwidth compared to lower resolution cameras because there is more data that needs to be stored and transmitted.
However, these issues can be minimized by using H.265, which is a CCTV codec that works to compress the size of video files to reduce storage and bandwidth requirements.
H.265 is currently the most advanced codec on the market and is used by many 4K cameras to reduce bandwidth pressure and save storage capacity, which are definitely factors to consider when choosing a security camera, but the Most 4K won’t completely drain your system like it’s thought to.