Megapixel Madness - What does it all mean?
May 05 '00
Megapixel this, Megapixel that. What is a Megapixel anyway? How much is right for me? I’ll explain all that for you in layman’s terms so you can get a handle on what camera is right for your needs.
What is a Megapixel?
A Megapixel is One Million pixels. Have you ever zoomed in on a photo so close that you can see individual blocks of color? If you have, what you are seeing are pixels. String one million of those together and you have a Megapixel. All those blocks create an image.
Now that SOUNDS like a lot, but it really isn’t. The photos you used to take with an off the shelf 35mm camera are far higher in quality. A one Megapixel camera can create a photo of about a 3x5 photo you get from the “One hour photo guy” I mean, it can create the same quality of picture. Any higher than that in terms of actual picture size and you’ll begin to see degradation and pixelization (the blocks). An off the shelf 35mm camera can output an 8x10 photo quite nicely. For you to do that with a digital, you’ll need a 3 Megapixel or better (see below)
Take a look at the chart below to see exactly what size Megapixel camera you need to reproduce an “acceptable” print. Acceptable means you won’t really be able to tell it is digital vs. film.
Megapixel Chart:
Pixels = What the camera specs state
File size = How large the picture is on your capture card or hard drive
Print out size = Largest printable size with photo lab quality (normal 35mm prints)
Pixels............File Size..........Print out Size
(How many).........(Saved)..........(Acceptable quality)
640x480...............900k..................2x3 inches
1024x768............2 Megabytes........3x5 inches
1-Megapixel.......3 Megabytes........4x6 inches
2-Megapixel.......6 Megabytes........5x7 inches
3-Megapixel.......9 Megabytes........8x10 inches
6-Megapixel.......20 Megabytes.......11x14 inches
What “Mega” should you buy? (There are 3 choices at present)
640x480 : If you need to take pictures for the web (auction items, baby pictures) all you really need is a 640x480 camera anything more is overkill. You can pick up a 640x480 camera today for about $200.00 or even less if you look.
1 Megapixel : If you need to take pictures that you want printed at the standard 35mm size of 4x6 and have it look good (as good as a printout from the 35mm) you will need at least a 1 Megapixel camera. If you try to “blow” these images up to 8x10 or larger, you will run into the blocks again and it will be evident on your print that it is a poor image.
3+ Megapixel : If you want the best image that you can (you don’t HAVE to) print out at 8x10 you will need a 3 Megapixel camera.
Anything larger or higher in Megapixels will surely be overkill unless you plan on printing out posters!
There are other size Megapixels out there, 1.1 2.1 2.3, 3.1 but if you use the chart above, you’ll be able to figure out what they can do for you.
Ok, now I know what size camera I need, what else to I need to know?
Glad you asked! COMPRESSION A lot of cameras these days use the JPEG compression technology. JPEG is used to squeeze more pictures on the camera or storage card. JPEG is great for the web, but horrible for the digital camera image. JPEG introduces artifacts and guessing to make the file size smaller, thus rendering your 1 Megapixel camera into something much less than a Megapixel.
The really good cameras give you the option to capture/store an image in. TIFF format, which is a process that DOES NOT compress the image, leaving you with the entire Megapixel.
If you want the highest quality and you are comparing two similar Megapixel cameras always go with the one that has the TIFF file format, you’ll thank me later.
One last ‘Head’s Up’:
There are a few unscrupulous Camera makers out there who list their cameras at a higher Megapixel than they truly are. They claim higher Pixel counts with what they call “Interpolation”. What interpolation actually does is enlarge the pixel count by estimating and guessing what pixels should fill what areas while making the pixel count higher. So a true 2 Megapixel camera can be interpolated into a 3 Megapixel image. Be very wary of this, I have yet to see a camera do this correctly or convincingly.
Bottom Line:
Buying a camera today can be daunting. There are so many choices and so little information. Go into an electronic store these days and ask a salesperson what is right for you will get you a different response in each store you visit. Re-Read the guide and chart above, determine what size you need and then go buy the camera that is the cheapest and has the most features in that Megapixel range. Always keep in mind the print size limitation of the camera you are buying, it may be more important to you in the future than it is today.
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