MEGAPIXEL - WHAT IS THIS?
One of the first terms that you will hear in digital photography is the word megapixel. Just what is it, and how is it related when buying a digital camera?
Simply put, megapixel is a measurement that refers to how much information a digital camera's sensor can "read" in order to make a picture. In digital photography, a picture is made up of tiny dots called pixels (short for picture elements). The more pixels there are in a picture, the more detail it has. And the more detailed a picture, the better the quality. This also implies that the picture can be printed at a bigger size. By the way, the proper term is resolution -- which refers to the sharpness/detail of a picture.
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Look at the sample illustration above. Obviously, the picture on the left, which used a lower resolution, is more jagged as compared to the one on the right (which is four times the resolution).
The same applies in digital photography. If you want to print big pictures, or wish more detail in your pictures, get a camera that has a high resolution rating.
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SAMPLE |
MEGAPIXEL |
APPROPRIATE |
| 640
x 480 800 x 600 1,024 x 768 |
Less
than 1 megapixel |
Posting
on the web/e-mail 3" x 4" prints 4" x 5" prints |
| 1,280 x 960 | 1 megapixel | 5" x 7" prints |
| 1,600 x 1,200 | 2 megapixels | 6" x 8" prints |
| 2,048
x 1,536 and above |
3
megapixels and up |
8" x 10" prints |
Here's a tip: a camera with a higher megapixel rating supports a number of lower resolution settings. So, you have a choice of how big or how detailed you want in your pictures. By the way, this also dictates the number of pictures the camera will be able to take -- higher resolution means less number of pictures, and is inversely proportionate.
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