Is it the more megapixels the better the camera/picture or the less megapixels the better the camera/picture?

Question

Is it the more megapixels the better the camera/picture or the less megapixels the better the camera/picture?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Neither. Don't worry about megapixels.

Answer 2

the more mega pixels the sharper the image not just that but if you wanted to enlage the picture the more megapixels you have the higher the quality of the image enlarged. Just remember the greater the number of mega pixels per picture(which can be set by the user) the more memory they take up.

Answer 3

MORE!!! more megapixles the better cause the picture wont come out grainy...

Answer 4

The sensor in the camera is what takes the pictures and determines the megapixels, not the lens. The more megapixels you have the better your image will be.  Megapixels are nothing but digital dots.  The more dots you fit in a confined space, the more detail you will see in the overall picture.  More megapixels give you the option of cropping or blowing up the image while still keeping a lot of the detail.

Answer 5

Not really

In order of importance:

lens quality

Analog to digital converter and other image processing in the camera

Size of the sensor.

Size of the actual pixel

and last the pixel count on the sensor.

For instance, a 6 mp sensor on a DSLR will always produce a superior image (this of course if the same person is taking the shots) to any P&S camera, no matter how many pixels are jammed into the tiny sensor (15 times smaller than a DLSR's)

This link will explain it all.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.h...

Answer 6

Yes, but that is only the tip of the iceberg though..

Its the type of sensor that is very important too.

For example a CCD will capture light differently than a CMOS. A CCD will yield sharper images than a CMOS, but the CMOS will better color than the CCD.

CCDs, when compared to the eye, have only 30-40 percent light sensitivity in the visible spectrum. CMOSes on the other hand, have 95+ percent of the light sensitivity of the human eye.

CCDs cover more of the invisible light spectrum, specifically infrared and thus makeing single ccd cameras very good for light amplification...such as the sony nightshot.

If you get a better camera with 3 ccds, to get better color reproduction, you loose a lot of infrared capability, though.

CMOS chips do have a noise problem which is why they were shunned at first, but better A\D converter came about and noise reduction. The images are softer because of the noise reduction, but almost unnoticeable.

This is not a problem in digital cameras, but digital video cameras do not have physical shutters. 3 CMOS chips are known to be used to compute a noise mask and apply a noise filter in some video cameras like the EX1 and EX3......

CMOS are completely digital and have A\D onboard, no matter what anyone says.

If an external A\D converter is implemented, it is only for show, because no extra data can be encoded because it DOESN'T exist. Each pixel is its own A\D on the CMOS.

CCDs have external A\D processors.

Size of the sensor is only important if there is an actual increase in picture resolution between from the smaller sensor.

For example, the D3 and D700 are pretty much overpriced cameras because their sensor size is 35mm full frame BUT they have the same amount of megapixels as the D300, an APS-C camera....meaning only that detail is reduced, but so is noise. Not really worth $5k......

Lenses are a in issue to. Because APS-C cameras use a smaller sensor, they need a better lens. With 35mm lenses, you can use all kinds of crappy lenses.because any defect is probably going to go unnoticed, due to the pixel pitch...

Answer 7

A high Mp count just means you can print larger without sacrificing quality. If you will only print A4 size then 6Mp is all you need.

10Mp or higher mean you can print larger (A3+) or you can crop a substantial amount of the picture and still get a good A4 print.

The point to note is at smaller sizes there is no difference except that assuming the same size sensor a 10Mp has finer pixels than a 6Mp sensor, in other words it has a higher resolving power (can capture finer detail). This means it will be a lot more likely to show up a mediocre lens for what it is, so quality lenses are required - extra cost, A lot of this extra information is 'interpolated' out when you print small.

Another hidden cost is the larger files require more computing power not to mention storage space, so you may need a computer upgrade.

Chris  

Answer 8

The quality of the image in an electronic image increases as the density of the pixels increases.  To imagine it, compare a picture that you colored on graph paper with 1 inch squares vs. one with 1/4" squares.  You would have more detail visible in the one with more squares.

In a digital image, those squares are represented as pixels.  So the MP rating is how many million pixels are contained in a square inch of the image.  The higher the number, the more detailed the image.

This means that not only will you have clearer images, but that you can expand the images to larger sizes without the pixels becoming visible as individual entities.

The only downside to high MP images is that they take up more space on the memory cards, or if you are emailing them to someone.  But memory cards are cheap, so that's no reason to not get a 5-8 MP camera if you can afford one.

Answer 9

More megapixels generally means you can print the image a little larger and crop it a little more. The downside of more pixels is that each pixel has to be smaller, thus increasing noise at low light levels.

When it all comes down to it you really only need about 5mp to print a picture any the regular sizes. Anything above that is unlikely to be used by the general consumer. Since pretty much every digital camera comes with over 5mp it's something you shouldn't really worry about. Base your decision on which camera has the better optics as well as features that are useful to you.