Do higher megapixels in a camera generate better quality pictures???

Question

What exactly are mega-pixels and why does it matter when selecting a camera?

Answer 1

not really, high mega pixel only benefit if you printer large size, if you a average user print small prints or like 4x6 you don't need more than 3 mega pixel in most case, if too high mega pixel might be too sharp in the photo and usually camera take longer to shot and store due to high pixel. Not to mention it wasted more space.

Answer 2

Technically yes if the if you want to make enlargements & the photo lab is any good.
I'm getting great photos even an impressive 8 x 10 from a 6.0MP Fuji camera no larger than a cigarette pack.
In reality how many people enlarge beyond an 8 x 10 ?
Picture frames are overpriced.
Get real. Most people cannot afford $3000 professional lenses capable of posters even if they do buy an $8000 20 megapixel camera body.
Do your photos really need to be the life size like the bra or panty posters at the local mall?
Note...Most home printers are garbage & will make the most expensive digital camera "appear" to be of poor quality.
I've even read in a blind study people comparing 2 paper photos not magnified on a computer screen were asked which photo was taken with a 10 megapixel camera & which photo was from the 8 megapixel camera.
Most people chose the wrong photos or couldnt tell the difference with their bare eyes.
Sure you can buy editing software magnify over 100 times & count the pixels & tell a difference if you want to really get technical & stress about it like some folk.

Answer 3

The definition of pixel:

A pixel (short for picture element, using the common abbreviation "pix" for "pictures") is a single point in a graphic image. Each such information element is not really a dot, nor a square, but an abstract sample. With care, pixels in an image can be reproduced at any size without the appearance of visible dots or squares; but in many contexts, they are reproduced as dots or squares and can be visibly distinct when not fine enough. The intensity of each pixel is variable; in color systems, each pixel has typically three or four dimensions of variability such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

To simplify, a pixel is a dot in an image, the higher the pixel or in this case megapixel rating, the higher the resolution of the picture. In other words more dots per square inch, etc.

The higher the megapixel rating the higher the picture resolutions.

A megapixel definition:
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).

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Higher megapixels don't necessarily mean better image quality. The size of the sensor must be taken into account. A DSLR with a large sensor and fewer megapixels will usually give better results than a digicam with a small sensor jammed full of megapixels.

The Nov. 2007 issue of Shutterbug Magazine (shutterbug.com) has an article about this. Its not a true "scientific test" but still worth reading.

Answer 5

Mega pixel's determine the clarity of the pictures, but if your not planning on making photos larger than 8x10 5-7 megapixels is more than enough. The larger ones are for professional who want to do serious editing or print poster sized photos.

Answer 6

megapixels is definitely not the most important criteria for better quality picture.

2 megapixel is more than enough for wallet-size pictures.

5, seven or more megapixels is good to let you zoom into the picture. Say you took a picture of your whole family, then want to extract a small portion of it to have just the portrait of your son who was miraculously smiling on that picture! ...

Good optics are much more important today, they have to let a lot of light come in, and for this they need to be big.
That lets you do a picture without flash and at a low ISO value.

Personally I would prefer a 2 megapixel DSLR than a 5 megapixel camera on a phone!
Of course the size and price is not the same.

Another nice feature is a stabilizer. I have one on my camera, it lets me shoot images a one tenth of a second instead of 1/60th second, without a tripod. Really nice for doing night shots without the flash or tripod.

Answer 7

a higher mega-pixel camera generate better quality pictures. with a 1mega-pixel camera the picture could come out blurry. take the same picture with a 2 mega-pixel camera and the colour is much better and all distortions are gone.
hope it helps

Answer 8

Whatever you do, do not listen to the jessica and shanizzel over there. Megapixels are only good for bigger prints. But also, its good to have a camera with atleast 4MP as you need to view it through your computer aswell.

Answer 9

The answer, of course, is "it depends", mainly on the size of the prints you want to make and whether you want to crop pictures afterwards.
For a very good discussion on this subject, see
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/deconstructing-the-megapixel-myth/

Answer 10

i believe this is the site to go to for camera info... search around the faq and it will tell you about megapixels... they are not the only factor, by any means, by which to select a camera.

http://www.dpreview.com/

i also like dealnews.com to find the latest discounts or rebates.