How many mega pixels should you buy?
One question I hear quite often is people asking about how many mega-pixels they should have in their new camera. There is of course no right and wrong answer here; it all depends of what you are thinking of doing with the pictures you are going to take.
Let us just make sure everyone know for sure what a pixel is. In the world of digital prints, a pixel is just a dot of a color that ultimately makes up the image. Therefore one megapixel is equal to one million pixels. It is important to be aware of that the more pixels your camera has, the more information it will record into every image. Said in a different way; the more detail your images will have.
If you are having trouble deciding how many mega pixels you need, you should think about what size prints you will most likely be using. If you are not planning on printing out your images at all, but just want a camera to share pictures on the internet, then you won’t need more than a one mega-pixel camera. You could also use it to print out 4 x 6 images with such a camera, with an acceptable quality. One mega pixel is today of course very cheap.
If you think about printing out 5 x 7 images, then a 2 mega pixel camera will be what you are looking for. It will produce good quality 5 x 7, but can also be used for 8 x 10 prints with a fair quality. Should you want to print 8 x 10 with excellent quality, then a 4 mega pixel camera is a obvious choice. A 5 mega pixel camera will of course do even better, and is meant for pictures that will print high quality 11 x 17 prints.
Most families will find that a 4 mega pixel camera will suit their needs just fine, and could be considered the best choice for families. Here the quality of both 5x 7 and 8 x 10 prints are very good, but also the file sizes that these cameras will create, are not so large that you need to worry about available space on your computer.
Cameras that have 6 mega pixels or more, are really unnecessary for all, but are more suited for those more serious photographers. Like professional photographers will most likely want something above 7 mega pixels, because they are planning on printing out very large images, like post-size prints and similar sizes. When this is said, the choice is yours to make. We will also advice you to buy a camera that maybe has less mega pixels, but increased optical zoom. The conclusion is however to buy a camera that you think will fit your need now and in the future.
