Questions · Cameras
Are more megapixels always better?
No: they are only better if those pixels land where they are needed and if there is enough light to use them. Raising the resolution with the same lens at the same distance does increase the detail per metre, and that is real. But it has three costs that all turn up together: more storage, more load on the server and worse behaviour at night.
The night part is sensor physics and it surprises a lot of people. On a sensor of the same size, packing in more pixels means each pixel is smaller and collects less light. That is why a very high resolution camera can give a noisier image at night than a lower resolution one with bigger pixels, and in dark scenes the one with fewer megapixels is the one that works. Manufacturers make up for it with bigger sensors and better processing, and that is part of what you pay for at the top of the range.
The right way to put it is the other way round: first, how many pixels per metre are needed at that point and what width of scene has to be covered; the minimum resolution comes out of that. Buying above it is paying for drive space every day in order to see nothing new.
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