What Are Megapixels & Why Should You Care?

Cameras used to be film-based

Cameras used to be film-based. Limited to 30 shots a camera roll had to be given for developing into 4x6, 6x9 prints! What a pain!

But that era fortunately came to an end. Over 95% of photos taken are from a digital camera & very few of them end up on physical media. The rest lie on a hard-drive, cloud storage & the many social networking sites.

Chances are most of us already own a Digital Camera. My question is, how many felt the impulse to buy the largest Mega Pixel (MP) rated camera when they were out shopping for one? Chances are many.

Even today, Digital Camera manufacturing/selling companies tout the Mega Pixel rating. There are even segments 2-5MP, 5-8MP, 8-12MP & then there are the Professional cameras with Mega Pixel rating higher than 18!

Though the differentiation (& subsequent) grading is simpler with Mega Pixel rating, one has to ask. Whether getting a higher Mega Pixel camera will give me better photos?

The answer surprisingly is NO.. it will not. I will explain how. Let us first get the some basics straight:

Megapixels or Pixel Count:

Pixel Count is expressed as Mega Pixels and is simply multiplying the number of horizontal pixels by the number of vertical pixels. It's like calculating area. A 3 MP camera has 2,048 (horizontal) x 1,536 (vertical) pixels, or 3,145,728 Pixels. This is referred to as a 3MP!

The Myth:

While Camera makers have always touted the Mega Pixel count as a base line evaluation for camera quality, it is NEVER true. They use it because even a tiny linear resolution increase results in a huge total pixel increase, since the total pixel count varies as the total area of the image, which varies as the Square of the linear resolution. This gimmick is used by sales people and manufacturers to make you feel as if your current camera is inadequate and needs to be replaced.

The Reality:

Resolution (Pixel count) has nothing to do with picture quality. Sharpness depends on your photographic skill and not on the number of mega pixels, People's sloppy technique or subject motion or shaky hands of the amateur photographer blurs the image or matter more than the width of a microscopic pixel.

The Conclusion:

For normal 4x6" (10x15cm) prints, even VGA (640 x 480 or 0.3MP) resolution is just fine! Following that calculation, a 5-6 MP is god enough to Print a Billboard (& view it from 100 feet away)!

But wait, those billboards are over 100 feet away, go up close & you notice pixilation! Thats bad. New cameras capable of 10-14 MP are great for large posters or evening creating a custom photo blind. Photo blinds are personalised window blinds that have any image one chooses. However images should be taken at sufficiently higher resolution. Hence buy a camera with MP rating of @ 8-14 & you should be good to go.

Happy shopping!

by: Colin Staplehurst

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