Megapixels

General Description

To explain megapixels, it's best to start with its smallest part: the pixel. Pixels are the tiny dots or squares that you see when you magnify an image. In general, an image with more pixels will have a clearer image that will enlarge easier than an image with fewer pixels. A megapixel is made up of one million pixels. Consumer-grade digital cameras range from about 1-10 megapixels.

In this wiki, we will take three common digital camera requirements--print resolution, camera price, and digital file size--and explain how megapixels can be used to determine if a camera meets your needs.

Megapixels vs Print Resolution

A major aspect of owning a camera, apart from taking the photos, is printing and sharing the photos. Assuming you take a good picture, the higher the megapixel, the more you can enlarge the photo without clarity degradation. For example, if you plan to print mostly 5x7 photos, you will probably only need a 3-4 megapixel camera. Use Design215 Megapixels Chart to help determine what megapixel camera you need to print or enlarge your photos. Megapixels not only affect how large you can print the photo, but how large the digital file size will be.

Megapixels vs File Size

As explained earlier, the higher the megapixel, the better the image resolution. This also means that the file size will increase too. Although the actual file size depends on several factors including color and resolution, the chart below can be used to give you a basic idea of how many photos you can take on a standard 32 MB memory card:

(Estimates based on www.bestbuy.ca calculator)

After you have narrowed your possible camera choices down to one or two, it’s time to see what you can actually afford.

General Pricing

Megapixels vs Price

As you might expect, it generally costs more to buy a 5-megapixel camera than a 3-megapixel camera. You can probably buy a 1-10 megapixel consumer-grade camera for anywhere from $100 to $1000 depending on the manufacturer and the camera specifications.

History and Recent Developments

The Future: Gigapixels

One day we will have a single camera capable of taking a gigapixel image--an image with one billion pixels (the equivalent to 250 times an image captured with a 4 megapixel camera). Today, these images are created by making a mosaic of smaller high-resolution images.

Since the prospect of buying a gigapixel camera anytime soon is unlikely, you can buy a camera rated in megapixels instead. When looking for a digital camera, use this guide and determine which megapixel rating is best for you.

Category

CategoryBuyingGuide