Megapixels?

Question

Is 8.0 mp a good quality?
What is a megapixel anyways?

Answer 1

Dear Krissy,

8 mega pixel is more like a good quantity than good quality.

And if you are talking about branded cameras in that range, they are all good! : )

A mega pixel is like a million pixels, example a picture taken with an 8 mega pixel camera will have 8 million pixels in it.

There is more to a camera than just the pixels. Quality would require you to look into other aspects of the camera like the lenses, a 6.1 mega pixel camera with great lenses could give you better pictures than a 8MP.

Cheers.

Answer 2

8.0 is pretty good and adequate for most purposes.

If you always plan and compose your pictures perfectly, you don't need a whole lot of pixels. These days, I'd say that 5 MP or even 4 MP is fine for the average snapshooter and this can be obtained without unreasonable expense. 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 an 8-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.

I have a few photos on Flickr to include in a discussion on how many pixels are enough. Go to my page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/tags/pixels/ Some of the pictures are from a 4 MP or even 3 MP camera, showing you what you might expect without any cropping. I think they are quite acceptable. Some of the pictures are from a 10 MP camera (the swan and the pansies), showing the value of having those large images so that you can crop a smaller image out of the original picture and still end up with a satisfactory image. There is one VGA picture, just to show what you could expect from 640 x 480 pixels - not much.

Ken Rockwell has an interesting article on pixels and the pixel wars: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

Having said all that, though, pixels are not the only measure of image quality. The sensor size is important as well as the image processing software included in the camera. (See http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04/476181751/
You need to read reviews if you want a critical understanding of image quality for particular cameras. Try http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ for more information on the cameras you are considering. Pixels are not the decision maker, but they are the tie breaker, so go for the higher pixel count.

You can go there and click on "Buying Guide" and then "Features Search" to specify how many pixels you want to look at.

You can also go to http://www.steves-digicams.com/default.htm and click on "Our reviews," where you will find catagories of cameras arranged by pixel count.

Answer 3

8.0 megapixels are good, but only it's one thing to look at. It is possible for a 6.0 mp camera to produce better images than a 8.0 mp camera. And an 8.0 camera can beat out a 10.0, as well. The actual size of the sensor is a big factor. So, a quality DSLR with a 6.0 mp sensor will produce better photos than a point & shoot camera almost every time.

And you must consider other things like the optical range, handling, metering modes, and upgradability. Don't get hung up on megapixels alone.

Answer 4

Yes 8.0 megapixels is very good quality. My mom's camera has 8.0 megapixels and it's brilliant. Megapixels are the quality of pictures. They get higher as they go up.

Answer 5

A "megapixel" is 1 million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays. For example, a camera with an array of 2048×1536 sensor elements is commonly said to have "3.1 megapixels" (2048 × 1536 = 3,145,728).

8mp is a good quality camera - I haven't owned many digital cameras myself (my current is 7.1mp and is perfect for non-professional work, very clear), but I've heard that a normal person can't really tell the difference betweem 7mp and 10mp, so although I'd want at least 6mp, after that, I doubt there's much difference in quality.

Answer 6

A megapixel is one million pixels. Do NOT listen to the answers that claim more megapixels = higher quality. This is simply not true. If you're planning to buy a compact, the more pixels they pack on the sensor, then the noisier the image will be (which is bad). Go to steves-digicams.com or dcresource.com to read reviews on digital cameras. They also have a variety of image samples.

Answer 7

8 mp are a lot. They allow theorically very large prints, like 20"x30".
Is it good ? It depends on what's before (optics) and after (processing)...
8 mp aren't good if subject is out of focus, if colors are inaccurate, shadows are noisy or dynamic range too low. They are good if everything else is good.

But don't forget, the most important for a good picture is the photographer's skill.

Answer 8

8 Mp's will give you a good quality picture up to 8x10 or if its real sharp maybe bigger. Pixels are the little dots that make up your picture ( thats oversimplified). A mega - pixel is 1 million pixels.

Answer 9

I always say 4 to 6 megapixels is sufficient for almost all shutterbugs. 8 is plenty.

Answer 10

that is really good

it means how many dots of color are in the picture