I want to purchase a new digital camera, whats megapixels? What do they do?

Question

How many megapixels should an excellent camera have?

Answer 1

Anything more than 4 MegaPixel is good enough for beginner. MegaPixel have NOTHING to do with image quality what so ever.

The megapixel myth was started by camera makers and swallowed hook, line and sinker by camera measurebators. Camera makers use the number of megapixels a camera has to hoodwink you into thinking it has something to do with camera quality. They use it because even a tiny linear resolution increase results in a huge total pixel increase, since the total pixel count varies as the total area of the image, which varies as the square of the linear resolution. In other words, an almost invisible 40% increase in the number of pixels in any one direction results in a doubling of the total number of pixels in the image. Therefore camera makers can always brag about how much better this week's camera is, with even negligible improvements.

This gimmick is used by salespeople and manufacturers to you feel as if your current camera is inadequate and needs to be replaced even if the new cameras each year are only slightly better.

To prove this point. Look at what NY Times tech writer David Pogue did.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/21pogues-posts-2/

Please, do yourself a favor and read the link below too. It will save you money and help bust the Megapixel Myth.

Answer 2

You need a minimum of 3 mega pixels and preferably 5 or 6. Many cameras now come with up to 8 or 10 but I'm not convinced that the improvement is other than at the margin (and don't forget, the more mega pixels, the more storage space is taken on your computer). The answer to your direct question. the higher the pixels the better the picts is answered by 'it all depends' The 'all depends' is how big do you anticipate enlarging your pictures to? If you are content with 6x4 or 7x5 (or their digital equivalents) then 3 megapixels will be fine. If, however, you intend to blow up to poster size, then you will need to go for 8 or 10. But don't forget that a digital camera, just like a film camera, is only as good as its lens. Crap lens = crap pictures. Then you need to consider what kind of camera you want to buy, a compact, a 'bridge' or a DSLR? If you are going to start with a compact please try to get one with a proper viewfinder - this current habit of trying to compose on the LCD screen which is hardly visible in sunlight is total nonsense. Make sure that the zoom range you want is optical, not digital. Remember that the flash is only good enough for 10 feet or so. It won't work. for example, in a large sports stadium.

Answer 3

As Sam said, a pixel is a single block of color in an image. Looking at a photo in the paper, you can see the pixels. That is an example of a low pixel number.

A megapixel is 1 million (1,000,000) pixels to the image. So, a 5 megapixel image is 5,000,000 pixels. An 8 megapixel image is 8,000,000 pixels.

The megapixel rating is the total number of pixels wide by the number of pixels high of the resulting image. A photo image's dimensions are typically of the ratio 4:3 (4 pixels wide to 3 pixels high). To figure out how good that is, the following formula can be used:

WIDTH = SQRT(4 * Megapixel / 3)
HEIGHT = WIDTH * 0.75

So, an 8 MP camera will, using this formula, the width will be 3266 pixels wide and 2449 pixels high. Multiply the two together to see if I'm right - 7998434. If you raise the height to 2450, you have 8001700. Pretty close, right?

This really comes into play when it comes to printing out. A conventional inkjet printer at home is printing at 150x150 pixels per square inch (also called 150 dots per inch - dpi). A good printer will go to 600x600, and really good ones to 1200x1200. Now, that will take that big image you have to about 3 inches by 2 inches, however, that is really, really fine printing and far beyond what is needed.

A typical photo is usually 300 dpi. So, an 8 MP camera (3266 x 2449) will result in a great quality photo up to 10.88 x 8.16 inches. If you are looking to blow photos up, the higher the megapixels, the better. If you are looking to print large standard 6" x 4" photos, you're going to encounter some cropping (cutting off of the edges) - usually the tops and bottoms of your images. So, 6" wide would be 1800 pixels (6 x 300), and given our formula earlier, that would make our height 2400 pixels (1800 x 0.75). Multiply the two together, you have 4,320,000, or a bit over a 4 MP camera. Since you'll probably do some resizing and playing with images at home once you get comfortable with it, 5 MP is the minimum for what you want for regular use.

But, as we all know, bigger is better. The market is starting to see 9 MP consumer level cameras.

However with that being said, don't let just the megapixel number blind you. Look for light level sensitivity, manual controls, large view finders and all the other bells and whistles you would look for in a conventional 35mm camera.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

If you like a fantastic picture quality - as poor pictures are annoying especially when the subject is far in the background - you need lots of megapixels.

The more megapixels they are, the better you can see your partner on the photograph. You will be able to point out his shaving rash, spot, little hairs on his ears and that sort of thing. The quality is simply amazing and that is an understatement.

Unfortunately, the more the pixels, the more you pay generally!

But I hope you get one as you can store these great memories in great quality on your pc.

Good luck and happy clicking!

Answer 5

Images are made up of little dots called pixels. Pixel stands for PICture ELment. Put enough of them together and you have a picture. They are arranged horizontally and vertically. Get close enough to your computer screen (or use a magnifier) and you'll see them.

Technically, the more megapixels, the better the image and the more you can inlarge it wihout it losing its clarity.. I looking to by a new camera and I want something around 5 or 6 megapixels.

Answer 6

This article may be helpful, "Deciding How Many Megapixels You Need":

http://cameras.about.com/cs/choosingacamera/a/megapixels.htm

Answer 7

Excellent? 8mp. However, 5mp will make very good 8 x 10 pix. 3 will make good 4 x 6.

Get a SD/mmc compatible. Get a 256mb card for 3 mp or 512 mb for 5mp.

Also, you should get a card reader. It saves batteries for getting pix into computer.

Answer 8

Megapixels are just saying that you can see the picture better.you can't see the square pix in the picture.Alot of megapixel are better the higher the number the better.

Answer 9

MEGAPIXELS ARE WHAT GIVE YOU A QUALITY PICTURE THE LOWER THE NUMBER THE WORST THE PIC LOOKS YOU HAVE TO AT LEAST GET A 5 TO HAVE A QUALITY PIC

Answer 10

Six megapixels is ok but bigger is better(and more expensive)