More megapixels, better photos?

Digital camera makers squeeze ever more megapixels into their products, and many people believe more is better. 

Consumers consider megapixels as a measure of quality. “How many megapixels has this camera?”, is a common question in photo shops.

Higher resolution does not always make better pictures.

6 megapixels is enough
As digital cameras have gotten more megapixels, consumers have learned that the more megapixels, the better, and thus they continue to want higher resolution, without thinking about it.

Very few people need a higher resolution than 6 megapixels. The enormous resolution some compact cameras have today, has its drawbacks. It requires much more of the camera to process such volumes of data, so the cameras will be slower, and it requires larger memory card.

Since it is essential to keep the size of the camera down, the size of the imaging chip and the lens is held down. When the resolution increases, while the size of the imaging chip is the same, it means that each pixel must be smaller. The camera captures less light, and must adjust the brightness up artificially. It all leads to more noise in the images. In addition, high resolution requires more of the lens, and many lenses today cannot keep up with the resolution of the imaging chip.

Quality
Next time you are looking to buy a camera, ask for image quality rather than the number of megapixels. There is unfortunately no clear correlation between the two terms.

Megapixels should be the addition of other features that make the purchase of the new camera more worthwhile. Lens quality, processor quality and image stabilization technologies are at least as important as pixel counts when determining image quality.