Digital Photography - Knowing Your Mega pixels!
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by: DanFeildman
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Word Count: 424
Are you having megapixel envy each time you walk by the camera section of your favorite electronics store? So do I. But, do we really need more and more pixels? The answer depends on what we intend to do with the images. First, a quick definition of megapixel:
Megapixel is a fancy term for "million pixels". A single pixel is the smallest unit of color that a camera's sensor is able to capture. The more pixels the sensor can capture the sharper the image the camera can replicate. When comparing cameras, mega pixels can be abbreviated as "MP".
So how exactly do we know how many pixels we need from our camera? The first step is to have in mind what your intent is for your images. This is important when the purpose for the images require a high resolution digital photo. Photos for only the computer screen need only a low resolution image, making any camera adequate if that is your only need from your photos. High resolution photos are most frequently needed for printing or developing pictures. Using this example, lets use the goal of printing photos to address our question about mega pixels.
Next we must determine the largest print size we would like of our photo. Let's presume that we won't be needing poster-sized images of our photos for wallpapering our home, so poster prints will fall into the "seldom or never" category. With extreme sizes eliminated, we have the three most common photo sizes to think about. According to online photo labs, the following minimum resolutions are adequate to create high quality prints:
4 x 6": 640 x 480 pixels (0.3 megapixels) 5 x 7": 1024 x 768 pixels (0.8 megapixels) 8 x 10": 1536 x 1024 pixels (1.6 megapixels)
I have found through my own trial and error that my 3 megapixel camera serves as the bare megapixel minimum that I would use for an 8 x 10" print. Mega pixels any lower will begin to show pixilation under close inspection. To prevent this, double the above megapixel recommendations when buying a camera. The example shows that if your goal is only for 4 x 6" prints, a 0.6 megapixel camera is plenty. Most digital cameras start a 2 mega pixels, which would be enough for quality prints up to 5 x 7".
Once you know the minimum mega pixels required for your image needs, you can move forward to other aspects of your camera in order to be prepared to capture whatever moment comes your way.
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