Here is the short answer: for a typical UK home, a four-camera 5MP system with a recorder that holds at least a fortnight of footage is the sweet spot. Not eight cameras. Not necessarily 4K. Four, at 5MP, aimed properly.
The two ways people waste money on this are almost opposites. One is buying too few cameras and covering only the front door, so the back is wide open. The other is buying an eight-camera bundle because it was on offer, then hanging four of them where nothing ever happens.
We have specced systems from the Villa Road counter since 1975, and the same four questions decide almost every job.
1. How many cameras does a house actually need?
Count entrances, not walls. A camera earns its place if it covers a way in or a place things are taken from.
- Terrace or flat: two. Front door and rear access.
- Semi-detached: three to four. Front, drive, back door, and the side gate if there is one.
- Detached with a drive: four. Front elevation, drive, rear, and garage or side.
- Larger plot, outbuildings, corner site: six to eight — and at that point you are planning coverage, not buying a box.
Four covers most British houses properly, which is why four-camera kits outsell everything else on our counter by a wide margin. A shop is a different calculation — the till, the stockroom door and the entrance each earn a camera of their own — and our guide to retail shop security systems covers where the commercial job diverges from the domestic one.
The next question is the one that gets answered wrong most often.
2. Resolution: why 4K is not the automatic answer
More pixels is not the same as more evidence. Resolution sets the ceiling on detail; the lens, the lighting and — above all — the distance decide whether you get anywhere near it.
A 5MP camera at six metres will give you a usable face. A 4K camera at twenty-five metres will give you a very high-resolution picture of a person you cannot identify. Distance beats megapixels every single time.
4K also costs you at the other end: bigger files, faster disk fill, less history retained on the same drive. Our position after fifty years — 5MP is the right default for a home, and you should only step to 4K when you have a genuinely long view or a specific need to zoom into recorded footage after the fact.
The Hikvision 5MP four-camera kit is the configuration we recommend most.
The 5MP four-camera kit pairs four audio turret cameras — 2.8mm lens, IP67 rated, with IR — to a four-channel AcuSense hybrid DVR. The 2.8mm lens is the wide one, which is what you want on a house: it takes in a whole drive or a whole rear elevation from a single fixing point.
Trade tip: mount at 2.5 to 3 metres, not at gutter height. Above about three metres you are looking at the tops of heads, and a hat defeats the entire system. Low enough for faces, high enough to be awkward to reach — that is the window, and it is narrower than people expect.
3. If you genuinely need 4K
Long drives, wide frontages, or anywhere you expect to zoom into recorded footage later. The Hikvision 4K four-camera kit is the same architecture at the higher resolution.
The 4K kit supplies four turret cameras with an AcuSense DVR. Budget for storage accordingly — 4K fills a drive faster, and retention is the thing you will actually miss when you need it. For the full picture on that, see what makes a good 4K CCTV system.
4. Smaller properties: two cameras, done properly
A flat, a terrace or a small semi does not need four. Two well-placed cameras beat four badly-placed ones every time, and they leave you channels spare on the recorder for later.
The 5MP two-camera kit puts two audio turret cameras (2.8mm, IP67, IR) on a four-channel AcuSense hybrid DVR — so you buy two cameras now and add two later without changing the recorder. On a tighter budget, the 2MP two-camera kit covers the same ground at a lower resolution, and the RekorHD RHD4KB2G-CL is a 2MP analogue 4-channel two-bullet-camera kit supplied with a 500GB drive.
5. Recorder and storage — the bit nobody asks about until it is too late
Every kit here is an analogue system on a DVR. That matters, because analogue and IP are two different architectures with different cabling and different recorders, and they are not mix-and-match. If you are weighing the two, read NVR vs DVR before you buy anything — it is the decision that constrains every later choice.
On storage, the number that matters is not drive size, it is days retained. Aim for a fortnight minimum. Two weeks covers a holiday; a few days does not cover the Monday you get back and notice the shed door.
Trade tip: set motion-triggered recording on the cameras that watch a road or a footpath, and continuous recording on the ones covering your own doors. Continuous everywhere fills the disk with an empty driveway; motion everywhere risks missing the two seconds before a trigger fires. Mixing the two per-camera is what experienced installers actually do.
6. The three placement mistakes we see every week
- Too high. Gutter height gives you hats and shoulders. 2.5–3m gives you faces.
- Pointed at the sunrise or a security light. The sensor meters on the brightest thing in frame and everything else goes black. Offset your lighting from your cameras.
- All four aimed outward at the boundary. Feels thorough, catches nothing useful. Aim at the places people must stand: doors, gates, the side of the car.
Home CCTV Systems, Summarised
| Property | Cameras | Resolution | WME pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat or terrace | 2 | 2MP | 2MP 2-camera kit |
| Small semi, tight budget | 2 | 2MP + 500GB | RekorHD RHD4KB2G-CL |
| Semi, room to expand | 2 of 4 channels | 5MP | 5MP 2-camera kit |
| Detached with a drive | 4 | 5MP | 5MP 4-camera kit |
| Long views, later zoom-in | 4 | 4K | 4K 4-camera kit |
A word on the law
Domestic CCTV that captures only your own property sits outside UK data-protection obligations. The moment it takes in a pavement, a shared drive or a neighbour's garden, you are processing other people's data and responsibilities attach — signage, retention limits, and responding to requests for footage. Our guide to CCTV rules and regulations in the UK covers it properly, and it is worth ten minutes before you drill.
Expert Help in the West Midlands
Villa Road, Birmingham, since 1975. Bring a photo of the front and back of the house and we will mark the camera positions on it — and we will tell you when three cameras will do the job you were about to buy six for. We can demonstrate the recorders live at the counter, which is a far better way to judge an interface than a screenshot.
Browse CCTV kits and bundles or the full security and surveillance range. Installing it yourself? Start with our complete UK CCTV installation guide. Get in touch for a spec.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cameras do I need for a home CCTV system?
Four covers most British houses: front, drive, rear and side or garage. Count entrances rather than walls — a camera earns its place only if it watches a way in or a place things get taken from.
Is 4K worth it for home CCTV?
Only for long views. At typical domestic distances, 5MP already resolves a face, and 4K mainly costs you storage and retained days. Distance to subject matters far more than resolution.
How long should a home CCTV system keep footage?
A fortnight minimum. Two weeks covers a holiday, which is precisely when you are most likely to need to look back at something.