How Many Megapixels Do You Need?
I recently chatted with Dan Kesselring from Panasonic to get some tips on how to buy a digital camera for my column in 24hrs.
Megapixel is where a lot of people get confused. It simply refers to the dots in the image.
If you have a 7 megapixel camera vs one with 10, you’re really only going to see the difference if you’re using the camera to make very large prints, say beyond 19×13. Dan says really 5 megapixels is enough for most of us who are just printing 4×6 or archiving family memories
When it comes to specific features, “image stabilization should always be top of mind,” says Kesselring. “Its almost become a generic term, but there are different types and optical is providing the best form of stabilization.” [link]
A test done by a German company is now coming out with similar information. More megapixels does not equal more better.
The study actually finds that picture quality over the last 3 years has actually decreased as megapixels have increased.
But why? Well, compact cameras are supposed to be small and reasonably priced. Therefore small image sensors, e.g. format 7.5 x 9.4 mm or 5.4 x 6.8 mm, are built into the cameras. To increase the pixel count, the sensor has to be divided into smaller and smaller pixels.
The result is a decrease in sensitivity of the camera and an increase in noise because the amount of light collected by a single pixel is smaller. [link]
So as the CCD sensors have to stay small for the point and shoot, they have a harder time getting the larger amounts of data processed properly. The study found the optimum relationship between CCD and MP comes in at 6 Megapixels.
That’s got to be the reason so many more people are stepping up to Digital SLR. Me? I’m not quite ready, so I picked up the Panasonic FZ-18 instead. It’s $500 list price, but I managed to grab it on sale for $250 at Amazon.com. What a steal!
Check out some of the pictures I’ve been able to grab with it:
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Since the FZ18 is kind of a “hybrid” between a DSLR and a point and shoot, it’s offering me the chance to just grab it and take a picture, or work with the settings for something more artistic.
For that sunset shot, I just pointed and clicked. Nice.
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