Megapixels: Myth or Reality?

Posted by on 01/27 at 06:28 AM Permalink
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When it comes to technology, more is always better, isn’t it? More memory, more hard drive space, more screen resolution. In the case of digital cameras, you keep hearing – from manufacturers, sales people, and friends and family – that more megapixels are the measure of a camera’s quality.

But is this true? Or are we being sold a bill of goods? Well, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Megapixels are an important factor when choosing a digital camera. But they shouldn’t be the deciding factor, nor are they the most important.

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    Posted by Alejandro Izaguirre  on  01/27  at  09:49 AM

  1. Your tip has been very interesting, nevertheless I should add another important factor that should determine the decision over the amount of megapixels that a camera should have.

    Despite the photography issues like lightning and lenses, most of the people nowadays do not print their photos. They keep them in their Hard Drives or upload them to the Internet for sharing with others and vewing them later.

    Even though the quallity of the image, in terms of image resolution, is related to the megapixel size of the camera, when viewing, that resolution will always be limited by the resolution delivered by the screen in which you are viewing the pictures.

    If, for instance, you take a picture in the highest resolution mode of your 8 megapixel camera but have a 15” 1024x768 pixels flat screen in which you plan to view those pictures, you will likely be wasting at least 5 megapixels of valuable memory of your flash card for each picture you take. With this type of screen, you won’t be able to appreciate more image quallity above the 3 megapixel threshold because the screen is unable to deliver it.

    So, if you plan to print in large formats, bring the megapixels on. If you plan to view your photos in your PC, be aware of the limitations impossed by your screen, switch the resolution mode in your camera to fit that limitation and save more memory space of your expensive memory card.

    Alejandro Izaguirre
    Caracas-Venezuela

    2. Posted by Jason Haeckel  on  01/27  at  01:09 PM

  2. I’m very surprised you did not mention optical & digital zoom in this tip.  When ever I’m looking for a digital camera I always take into account these to factors.  Optical zoom capabilities make all the difference in the final product. The higher the optical zoom, the farther away from the subject you can be and still get a great, clear, crisp quality shot.

    3. Posted by Adrian Tobin  on  01/27  at  02:50 PM

  3. There is one factor not covered in this article - the time taken to acquire the image. The smaller the image sensor, the longer it takes to capture the picture information. Two years ago, I bought a 4MP camera which takes quite good pictures and allows fo enlargement to A4 size at good quality. After I had just collected my camera, I took it to a wedding and tried to take a picture of the bridal couple walking down the aisle after leaving the church. I have some photos of the church floor as I did not allow for the delay in taking the picture! I have lots of great pictures taken around the world with a Nikon SLR camera which has a shutter speed of 1/2000 to 30 seconds and there is no delay between pressing the shutter release and acquiring the image. The Nikon is a F601 film camera!

    4. Posted by Robert Holt  on  01/27  at  06:18 PM

  4. Howdy Folks,

    I read this Tip and for the most part agree with what you said for now.
    I think that’s going to change real soon with full frame CCD imaging sensors!
    Nikon and Canon are making steps in that direction using bigger sensors all the way up to full frames!

    Canon has full frames coming on all there cameras
    planned,except the entry level cheap point and shoot cameras that stay with the small sensors.
    even they will be bigger then most of your entry
    level cameras!
    the reason for this is they make there own sensors and can do it for lot less then the others that depend third party manufacturers.

    Canons top pro. camera is full frame 21 Megapixels and takes breath taking pictures that uses every bit of the 21 Megapixels.
    so that means Megapixel are very important to the
    camera if it has the right censor to handle them.
    just side point this camera can shoot high definition too.
    something that is already on our TV screens!

    Nikon is working with bigger sensors and has 12- bit Image Processing Engine in its new D80’s
    10.2 Megapixel camera not full frame yet, but well on its way.

    So I think things will change real soon as these
    full frame cameras become more avordable and as you can see with Nikon there are some already here with bigger sensors and not to expensive.
    Canon has some bigger sensors 10 meg. cameras
    available at the geek web site now.

    some links that will speak better then me below.

    http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/full_frame_vs_aps-c.html
    http://photo.net/equipment/canon/fullframe/
    http://www.ophrysphotography.co.uk/pages/news.htm
    http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital cameras/12-megapixels_ratings.html

    brobob

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    6. Posted by Henry Hill  on  01/28  at  06:42 AM

  6. All things considered the most important part of your camera’s description is the size of the CCD and the # of pixels that the ccd can hold. You find that this is the criteria for professional cameras as things like lens’s are changed for differing needs.
    For amature cameras a lens with 3X,5X, 8X, or 10X OPTICAL zoom can be usefull but not if you have a low pixel count.

    7. Posted by richard  on  02/07  at  08:03 PM

  7. hey i just would like to say that it is not atall the megapixels its the kind of camera and the price you paid for it. on a laptop screen if you took a 20 mp picture and a 1 mp picture taken by the same camera on a laptop screen they would look the same because a laptop screen has 1 million pixels and a laptop screen can display a just fine for me so my casio exilim camera takes pictures in 7 mp and 3 mp
    i always have it set to 3 then when i put the pix on my computer i convert them to 1mp unless. some cameras phones say they have 1 or 2 megapixels but the pix look like crap if you have a quality camera it would look good. so.. unless you are viewing ur pix on a huge plasma screen tv or printing them out on really really fine quality 2 megapixels is plenty for you

    8. Posted by Cyril  on  02/11  at  01:24 PM

  8. You left one part out of the image quality contributors.
    Digital camera generally don’t save data in a RAW format, except at the high end, they process the images, usually into a JPG format. The quality of this process varies. Speed and image quality can be affected.
    I had a Konica that had a rapid picture mode. The images were always of much lower quality. It’s because the processing had to occur quickly and therefore quality was sacrificed for speed.

    The image processing hardware/firmware is critical in a camera’s picture quality.

    9. Posted by GeekMike  on  02/11  at  03:05 PM

  9. @Cyril - thank you for that feedback!

    -GM

    10. Posted by brobob  on  02/11  at  05:44 PM

  10. Howdy Folks,

    I thought I would just come back and talk about few points that some folks did not understand!
    I posted before that there digital cameras that can shoot full frame pictures and they need more megapixels to do so! and I gave you guys links to go and read about them.

    Yes some are high end digital cameras I also pointed out that canon was making bigger sensors and processors built in to them that where point shoot cameras, then there is the 10 megapixels Kodak that is available right on this web site including 12 optical zoom!!! that takes outstanding pictures.

    That camera is way past the 8 megapixels that this whole blog was about the megapixels being enough for most cameras and I agreed with them!
    what kinda got me, if your going offer inexpensive Kodak camera like that Kodak one.
    I think the tip should match what there talking about in the tech tip!!!
    you need more megapixels for the 12 optical zoom
    and it will take fast action shots that you can use for 8x10 pictures with more megapixels.

    I like to print my pictures out at 8x10 size because I can and fix little things like red eye,light,color and so on in photoshop software.
    I think the manufacturer no what there doing when they make the middle of the road cameras and the
    high end cameras that professional use!
    that need much more megapixels for good reason they need it to work and I gave all reasons for that in very first post and many more after.

    I have lot cameras mostly low end ans I took some
    pictures one the fasted things in the world Humming Birds! with low end point and shoot digital camera 8 megapixel with 3x optical zoom.
    I did this in Jpeg back then I now shoot in tiff
    format.
    you should see the clarity of my new Humming Bird shots and videos coming to you tube soon as I edit them.

    http://members.tripod.com/brobob/bobshummers.html

    I used my canon film camera and could not get any
    shots that where not blurred, you be the judge.

    11. Posted by Stewert  on  02/12  at  11:09 PM

  11. Last six months....I used Canon digital camera which I bought from Circuit City store through Couponalbum.com site....It works very well.....!

    12. Posted by Tyler  on  01/21  at  01:39 PM

  12. I think that depending on what you are using your camera for primarily depends upon what you should consider buying. I personally like a camera that I can change lenses on.
    Narconon VistaBay

    13. Posted by Bob  on  01/21  at  08:32 PM

  13. I could not agree more about having the freedom to change lenses, my Canon has removable lenses.
    I find the more you zoom the more megapixels you need and there for bigger and bigger sensors!
    I believe Nikon has 21 megapixel sensor.
    there has to be reason for this is it over kill,
    well my Brother has one and it takes way better shots then my point and shoot! but it cost about three grand,he says you get what you pay for.

    Now this blog started out that eight megapixels was enough!
    I think this now shown that the more you want do with your photos and if you want 8x10 or bigger then the old eight megapixels is just not going to get it!

    We even have 750,hard drives now and two TB drives, HD Blue ray takes more pixels why more storge space and resolution is impotent! 

    Is more better you bet it is and its not just buzz word or sales pitch, I said that back when this blog started out,now I rest my case!

    The bottom line is up to you and what you do with your pictures,if you are happy with low grad shots
    then that’s fine, if you want better you can get better its up to you, but don’t be fooled with mediocre when you can spend few bucks more and get the best bang for your buck and stunning pictures to boot!

    14. Page 1 of 1 pages

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