Is 4.0 megapixels enough?

Question

I'm in the market for a new digital camera. I don't do professional photos- just pictures of the kids, dog, holiday, etc. I would like to be able to print photos that look decent, though. The largest I would ever print would be 8x10. Would this camera be good enough?

Answer 1

Pixels - How many are enough?

If you always plan to compose your pictures perfectly, you don't need a whole lot of pixels. 4 MP is fine for most shooting and you will get beautiful enlargements if you enlarge the full image. If you want to allow for cropping, which means enlarging only a portion of your image, the more pixels the better.

Imagine taking a scenic view and then noticing that the middle 20% of the photo would make an even better picture. Suppose you take a picture of a whole group of people and Aunt Clara really, really looks great in the picture, but everyone else looks lousy. If you have the pixels to work with, you can still make a decent print of Aunt Clara that she would be happy to have.

If you buy a 6-to-10 MP camera and don't want to TAKE large photos, you can always set the camera to a lower file size. You can never go the other direction, though. Unless the cost is a major issue, buy the camera with more pixels. You will never be sorry that you did, but you might one day be sorry that you didn't.

Here are a few samples from a 4.0 MP camera. The first and last were cropped a fair amount, too. These pics were taken with the Coolpix 4600 with no tricks or gimmicks or filters or anything. They had some "very minor adjustments" in Photoshop. If you bought this camera today, you would be able to go out and snap these pictures yourself.

500KB - http://members.aol.com/swf08302/benfranklin.jpg
Supported on a metal fence for about a 3 second exposure
The camera was in "auto" mode and I just held it still.

1.7 MB - http://members.aol.com/swf08302/commsthouse.jpg
Just a grab shot of a particular house

2MB - http://members.aol.com/swf08302/sunset20060214.jpg
Pretty winter sunset

38KB - http://members.aol.com/swf08302/solstice20051221.jpg
That's Venus up in the sky

Answer 2

Get the highest MP camera your budget will allow. Try to stick with name brands. MP is not the entire story of picture quality. You have other things to consider, such as lens quality and the software compression program built into the camera.

I think to get a really good 8x10, you should have at least 5 MP.

Norm

Answer 3

Yea definetly. I have a sony DSC-S60 with 4.1 mp and its great. I have enlarged several pictures from it and they are all excellent quality.

You might also want to check different aspects of the camera as well. Startup time is important as is the time between pictures. My brother's camera takes forever to process one picture. I would recommend looking into that, as dogs and kids can be very spontaneous.

Answer 4

A 4.0 megapixel camera will give you decent 4X6 shots and reasonable 8X10's, but the shot will look a bit grainy.

Answer 5

4.0 megs is good for what you want to capture. Don't go lower then 4.0 or your pictures will not be that great. Especially if your trying to capture your kids or dog playing. lower megs will be blurred on moving targets. You'll get pretty good pictures with 4.0 megs, but 5.0 or high is better for a more sharp, clear, and larger professional looking pictures.I recommend if you can aford it get a higher meg.

Answer 6

its pretty decent. I'd go ahead and get it if I were were u. But if you have the extra money, maybe a 5 or 6 could be great also.

Answer 7

yes its good enough. thats what i have and most of my pictues turn out normal. but if you want them good, try 5 megapixels. 6 & 7 + are really really good. dont get anything lower than 4.

Answer 8

If you are printing normal size pictures then it is enough.

Answer 9

yes. even 3 is decent