What would you say is the preferred number of megapixals in a digital camera?

Question

I know that the higher the MP the better, but what would be the lowest megapixels you would recommend?

(Right now I have 4.1 and eccchhh. I'm looking at new cameras and I'm specifically unsure about a 7MP camera, or a 8MP. How much improvement is there? Is 7MP too low?)

Answer 1

More Mp just means you can print larger with the 'native' format, by that I mean without adding or removing pixels. The only other advantage is you can crop and still have a large enough file for print.

As a rule of thumb, 6Mp prints a tad over A4 size, 10Mp prints at A3+ size 'natively'. You can, of course, print larger than these sizes, but that means adding pixels (interpolation), unnoticeable in small doses, but very quickly looses quality unless you know what your doing and even then there are limits.

Make sure that any camera you buy quotes the genuine sensor Mp sizes, some quote the 'interpolated' file size, sensor size is the only spec that matters.

Chris

Answer 2

Higher MP doesn't always mean it's better... it's a gimmick that all the camera producers use to get people to buy their cameras.

Read this article by Ken Rockwell:

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

For a small point and shoot, I'd say between 5 to 8mp. For a DSLR, I'd say 8 to 12mp.

Answer 3

Mega Pixel, smega Pixel. There is much more to a camera tham it's MP #. A nikon D40 with 6MP will out shoot my Canon G9 with 12 MP in low light. The thing you are looking for is image quality,just about all of the major camera makers,Canon,Nikon,Sony,Fuji and Olympia will give you a good camera for your money. I have 5 camera's and the one that is most impressive for the money I spent is my Canon A-590. It was $200 after buying batteries and a SD card. Not as nice as my Sony but at $800 less I wouldn't think it would be. But it does take very good pictures.It is 8 MP and has a 4x zoom."Most compacts in this price range have 3x. It isn't a pretty little pink camera but like I said it takes very nice pictures if you do your part.

Answer 4

In theory the more pixels the better the image quality, in practice, particularly with compact cameras, more pixels are actually detremental to image quality.

Compact cameras have very small sensors, so cramming more pixels on means each pixel catches less light, the camera compensates by adding amplification, but this also degrades the image.

For a compact camera you will be hard pushed to buy anything lower than a 6 or 7 these days, many models have up to 12MP,  I would opt for an 8MP as a good balance, but buy branded as the lens quality is important too.  Panasonics use lieca designed lenses and have widezoom ranges.

Unless you print beyond A4 size then even 6 is loads, and if you do print beyond A4 size then I would recommend you get a digital SLR instead, as there is a big jump in lens quality and dpeth of field quality.

Answer 5

i would prefer 8 MP...go with the flow....its very nice you know....especially when you use SLR...its great!

Answer 6

I would recommend 8MP, seems to work great for larger size pictures such as 8x10

Answer 7

The market today is drawn towards high resolution and high megapixel cameras, thus leading to the theory that "more pixel=better image quality." But that is far from correct. Instead of improving the sensor quality, manufactures prefer to cram more and more pixels in their already cramped and noisy sensors. The small size of the sensors, plus the density of the pixels means more noise and more artifacts, NOT better image quality. Noise can be referred to as 'grain' and 'discoloration', something people most certainly don't want.

A good way to measure pixel density is to find the number of mp per cm2. The lower the number, the more likely your image quality will be nicer. That's why slrs offer huge sensors more than 3x the size of a compact camera's.

The only good thing with a higher megapixel count is that you have more of the image to work with if you consider cropping afterwards. It DOES NOT make the image clearer or sharper by all means.

If you don't print pictures much larger than A4, more megapixels doesn't really make a difference in the end.

Here are some sample shots of a Leica 5 megapixel camera: http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/leicadig...

compare it with this 10 megapixel camera: http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/sonyt300...

   Note that the Leica had much better and sharper images overall, despite the 5 megapixel difference from the Sony.

In the end, 7 or 8 megapixel would be nice, but anything over that would be overkill. Also choose a camera sporting nice lens- panasonics has some of the best in industry. Hope this helped =)

Answer 8

i would say be safe and get the 8MP...if anything you'll just have a better camera!

Answer 9

not at all 7 is a good amount why do you need some many pics as long as you do frequent dumps it will be no problem unless your a photographer or something