Ultra-thin, point and shoot digital cameras are all the rage among young photographers (not so much with me). I always figured the people who opted for these slim-Jim cameras were more concerned with style and size than with picture quality. However, these days ultra-thin models are packing more megapixel capacity than ever before.
So how much do you really know about megapixels? Or perhaps the better question is, how much do you really need to know? If you are in the process of purchasing your first digital camera one of the first steps to understanding what kind of camera is right for you is to figure out how many megapixels you need.
A megapixel is, essentially, 1 million pixels. Digital images are composed of thousands of these tiny, tile-like picture pieces. Bottom line: The more pixels you have, the higher your image resolution will be. So what’s resolution? Resolution relates primarily to the amount of detail an image has when it’s viewed on a computer monitor or TV screen at 100%.
So let’s say you took an amazing picture of your daughter hugging her new puppy and you want to print an 8×10 of it to frame and display in your family room. If that’s as large a picture as you typically print (the average size print is 4×6) on your personal inkjet printer or at the one at your local drug store, then you don’t need to pay for camera that features 10 megapixels of detail. However, if you’re a more serious shooter with a passion for photography and digital image manipulation, 10 megapixels might be just what you need to print the masterpieces you’ve captured on your memory card.
As far as the relationship between pixels and picture quality is concerned, camera experts maintain that contrast ratio (the difference between the blackest blacks and the whitest whites) and color saturation (which measures how accurately your camera’s pixels reproduce in-between hues) are just as important, if not more so. (Which is something else you should note when shopping for a new digital camera.)
If you want to get away from all the megapixel mumble jumble you might consider Sony’s Cyber-shot cameras. They contain a new feature called “high-definition output,” which basically means that when you plug your camera into a high-definition TV, your photos appear as sharp (featuring high resolution, high color saturation) in which they were shot.
Related Articles:
Photography Terms You Should Know
Snapping Summer Memories—Going Digital
Should You Invest in an “All-In-One” Photo Printer?