How many megapixels do you need?

ozdentcom · Oct 25, 2003

Many people get high end digital cameras (4 megapixels and above) and never use their full capabilities. If you only have a printer capable of A4 (or letter) size you don't need more than 3.2 megapixels. I've included recommendations under "Other Digital cameras" on my website http://ozdent.com

bogleric · Oct 26, 2003

I would actually disagree on the megapixel size for the camera. I always tell people to get as much as you can afford for a couple of different reasons.

One is if you are going to edit the picture, the more data you have to work with the better the picture will be in the end.

Also while your home printer may not utilize the additional data, if you have the image professionally developed digitally they will utilize the additional data and in some cases that can make a very large difference.

However I do agree that there is no point in buying a high megapixel camera and then only taking pictures at 3mp by lower the settings in the camera.

Sterling_Sinner · Jan 6, 2004

Many people get these skimpy 1 and 2 MP cameras and try to blow up their pictures to 8X10 and find that it gets fuzzy and never realize it's because they don't have enough pixels to enlarge an image to that size. Many people don't think they ever need to make their photos that size but there is always a picture that they take that they eventually look at and try to enlarge it.
All I can say is what everyone suggests and get as many MPs as you can afford because it really sucks to hit that limit in print size and image quality

tr0gd0o0r · Jan 6, 2004

Any one know of a website where there is like a table or somethign that tells megapixels vs how big it can get

joseph · Jan 18, 2004

For 5x7 snapshots 2-3 maga pix are fine. If you are interested in quality 8x10 or larger, 3.2 will not do it at all.

steve817 · Jan 18, 2004

tr0gd0o0r said:
Any one know of a website where there is like a table or somethign that tells megapixels vs how big it can get

http://www.ezprints.com/help/ResolutionGuide.asp

Has what you are talking about but it's for their lamda printers and does not apply to inkjet.

wwjoeld · Jan 19, 2004

if you get your prints done at a photo lab, you can get great 8x10's, i used to work in one and i did my stuff in the lab with my 3 MP cam, and they were good, if i tried it on my photo quality printer it wouldn't have turned out as good, inkjet prints a lot differently than digital labs.

wwjoeld · Jan 19, 2004

if you get your prints done at a photo lab, you can get great 8x10's, i used to work in one and i did my stuff in the lab with my 3 MP cam, and they were good, if i tried it on my photo quality printer it wouldn't have turned out as good, inkjet prints a lot differently than digital labs.

steve817 · Jan 19, 2004

steve817 said:
http://www.ezprints.com/help/ResolutionGuide.asp

Has what you are talking about but it's for their lamda printers and does not apply to inkjet.

Oh and BTW they can do a bad a** 16x20 off a 3MP camera. I had a 20x30 done off of a 6 MP camera (EOS D 60) and was way impressed.

usayit · Jan 25, 2004

I use the canon d30 3mp digital slr and get great 5x7s and 8x10s from the lab. Got pretty good results from the local drugstore's Kodak picture maker too....