When you head out to buy the perfect IP security camera for your home or office, you need to be properly informed about the features that you should prioritize in your decision. It is important to be able to make a choice that fulfills on both the quality and the price criteria. However, the market is full of various product ranges of security cameras, all promising different features, and specifications. You can stop your confusion over the technicalities by focusing on the major feature for selection – resolution. The camera resolution dictates the final quality of the image or recording captured by it. Depending on the resolution, you have the option of choosing from a few different types of cameras. Here is a detailed look at the resolution feature of IP security cameras to make buying the right one easier for you.

Understanding camera resolution

Today the pattern of analysis for camera resolution is based on the count of pixels captured by the sensor. These are counted in terms of the horizontal and vertical pixels. The higher the pixel count, the cleared is the quality of the image or recording captured by the camera. The range of high definition cameras has been developed by improving on the resolution quality with each technologically advanced product in this range. 

Understanding aspect ratio

The relationship between the range of horizontal and vertical pixel count in a camera is referred to as the aspect ratio. This ratio further defines the camera quality. You should always prefer a wide format aspect ratio camera for clearer image quality. However, for security cameras, you do not have to go overboard, since a 16:9 ratio can very well provide you crisp quality footage for your security purposes. 

Types of IP cameras based on resolution

Depending on the ratio of pixels to the sensor, the IP cameras are further defined in multiple types.

Megapixel IP camera

Any camera that captures more than a million pixels in their sensor can be grouped under the category of megapixel resolution camera. 1-million pixels, in this case, would be 1-megapixel camera while you can also find 2, 3, 8, or even 10-megapixel versions in the market. The 4K resolution camera is probably the most defined in this range of cameras, providing recordings of almost cinematic quality.

A High Definition IP camera 

The high definition camera range is more common in the broadcast market as compared to the security field. However, if you are investing for a commercial grade security system, you can always look into this option. The variations of 720P and 1080P are the most common in this category of cameras. The ‘p’ in this case refers to progressive or that the sensors are only capturing the vertical pixels and not a matrix of the vertical and horizontal as explained for the megapixel cameras.

If you are buying an IP camera to focus on a wide commercial space, you should think about investing in a third party lens with a narrow –angle to add to the resolution quality. In addition, a lens with a higher shutter speed will help to capture videos without a lag time between frames.