Megapixel and Image Quality

One of my colleagues told me that he will buy a new digital camera. I asked him what camera he is getting. He said that anything will do as long as it is a 10 megapixel and above camera.

Imagine this: I have a 12 megapixel camera and all I do is post photos on my Facebook or Friendster, email photos, and print 3R or 6x4 photos. Do you think it is practical to get a 12 megapixel camera to do those things? While it is true that the more pixels you have, the larger your prints can be, it does not always mean that you get better image quality with more megapixels. Here's a list that correlates megapixels to print size:

• 2 megapixels = 1200 by 1600 pixels = 4 x 5 inches
• 3 megapixels = 1536 by 2048 pixels = 5 x 7 inches
• 6 megapixels = 2400 by 3000 pixels = 6.5 x 10 inches
• 10 megapixels = 2592 by 3872 pixels = 8.5 x 13 inches
• 12 megapixels = 4368 by 2912 pixels = 9.7 x 14.5 inches

Stop buying phones with 5, 6, 7, or 12 megapixel camera that almost always give crappy image quality and get yourself a decent dedicated digital camera. You may get yourself a 14-megapixel-China-branded camera that plays mp5 (whatever that is), but don't expect high quality images to come out of it. Better get a 6 megapixel camera with nice optics or always check review sites like Cnet.com, PCWorld.com, Cameras.co.uk for, yes, reviews.


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