Do more megapixels matter?
Marc: I’m buying my husband a point-and-shoot digital camera for Christmas. How many megapixels is enough?
Marc: I’m buying my husband a point-and-shoot digital camera for Christmas. How many megapixels is enough?
This is a very common question, but there’s a lot more to a digital camera than megapixels, which is a way to measure how many little dots make up the image.
But to answer your question, if you’re printing a regular 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 photo from this camera, then 6 or 7 megapixels is ample – yes, despite the fact there are 12-megapixel point-and-shoot digital cameras in the marketplace.
Why? The are only two key advantages to more megapixels: if you’re interested in turning a photo into poster-sized prints or if you want to digitally zoom into a photo on your PC and crop it. Most of us never do these things, especially the former.
Important features to look for in a camera is a quality lens and processor, image stablization, face detection, battery life, optical zoom and simple buttons/menu navigation.
back when cameras where hovering around the 3-4 megapixel range they were saying that anything over 8 would be redundant now we have 12's and we'll all be needing glasses soon
I agree with the above comment. Would you expect anything less from a blog accessed through MSN? It's not like industry is going to discourage you from buying new products because they're redundant. Everything is relative, especially for capitalism.
Marc your comment on 6 or 7 megapixel is over rated. For printing pictures 5×7 your eye could not tell the difference between 3 or 6 megapixel picture. On a 50" HD tv screen you could see the difference. With a 3.1 megapixel camera I have blown pictures to 24×36 on a drafting printer and you can count the rivets on a DC3 aircraft.
Go for lots of optical zoom and set camera to highest quality storage size if you want great pictures. Digital zoom only degrades picture quality.
Ok, whoever wrote the comment about "would you expect anything less from MSN," etc….by your logic I would say you SHOULD buy a 12MP camera )and hey, buy it from MSN Shopping!), but I (Marc Saltzman, who is free to write about whatever I want on this MSN-hosted blog) wrote that you DON'T need a 12MP camera…6MP or so will do for most applications…or even less. Your comment makes no sense.
Marc
Having purchased many digital cameras over the years, I believe that most of what Marc is saying is correct. Higher megapixels are in some cases, unnecessary. HOWEVER, at my wedding, i had a 6.3 megapixel digital camera and when I went to blow up the pictures, YUP I wished that I had a higher megapixel camera.
So my recomendation is for you to buy the Fuji 12mp camera. It is not expensive and it takes a great picture, plus if you decide that you do want to blow up the picture, you can do whatever you want.
If you are NEVER going to blow up pictures, then buy a 6 or 8 mp camera and save a hundred bucks.
Hi Al
Mega pixels count most definitely, however not for display on any size HDTV where your pixel count at the max is 1920 x1080 if you've got the latest greatest tech so for that purpose a little over 2 mega pixels is sufficient. I shoot 6.1 and 8.0 mega pixel dslrs for live entertainment. I've blown up pix to 20×30 off the 6.1 without difficulty if the lighting was good at the gig and i could keep the iso low enough, a little grainy if i had to push things ( not much different than film just a different kind of noise. Fo my money it has to be the whole package not just MP. you need quality glass with some speed ( read big aperture with sharp edges)Optical Zoom only no digital zoom, you can always crop later if you want to reduce image quality) a good Image stabilizer (no substitute for a tripod but you can't always use a tripod) an external flash option (built in ones are only good for a few feet)
the great thing is now days you really don't have to break the bank to get most of these options and higher mega pixels have plummeted in price. Look at the new Pentax d200 announced last month it covers all these for 799
It's alittle bit like apples & oranges. One of the greater contributers to increased picture resolution is not just the number of pixels you have but, almost as importantly, the pixel pitch. Pixel pitch in ordinary terms is pixel size. The bigger the pixel the more light information it captures. Most point & shoot cameras use very small, usually no more than 1/2" diagonal, sensor. When you pack 12MP into a package that small the pixels are also exceedingly small and as such are incapable capturing as much light information. When you go to a DSLR the APS-C size sensor is roughly 6-8 times as large and as such so are the pixels. Because this larger pixel can capture more information you get better resolution, better color depth and tonal range as well as sharpness. Of course when you go to a full frame sensor like the Canon 5D, 1DsMkI, II,III or the new Nikon D3 then you really hit the highest pixel pitch and as such these cameras are considered pro cameras because of the need for quality. To put it in prospective… for goofing around or if I'm going to shoot in a situation where I wouldn't want to risk my DSLR's I have a Fuji S602Z. It takes bueatiful pictures at 3.1MP and as long as I don't blow them up past 8X10 it will do the job. Last year I bought a Fuji S9000 at 9MP (sucessor to the S602Z) and was truly dissapointed with the rubbish that came out of it. Contrasty pictures with no color flow, lack of sharpness, etc. All culprits of low pixel pitch. To the defense of the high pixel count point & shoots most of the better ones come with software that can "fix" some of the problems but if you want true quality start with a bigger sensor. There are several point & shoots coming out with DSLR sized sensors like the Sigma SD1 or better yet a cost effective DSLR like the Nikon D40X or the Canon Rebel Xti. Of course optical quality is probably the biggest contributer to picture quality so don't skrimp on the lens.
I guess all what we're trying to say here is that:
1) It all depends on the application!
2) How much can you afford.
3)Size of the Camera (Point-shoot Vs DSLRs.
It's sad to think that most people buy digital cameras these days and take thousands of pictures (I have 15,000 pictures for 2007) and just get dummped in hard drives without getting printed or even looked at. Correct me if I am wrong =)