Megapixels???

[KaraM]

Not knowing anything about digital photography (yet), what's the advantages of having a camera with more megapixels? Is there really that much difference between 4, 6 and 10 megapixels?

~Kara

 

[clarinetJWD]

More megapixels means you can get larger prints, or crop more with less degradation of quality. 6 is kind of the semi-pro minimum these days, anything less and printing gets pretty limited. THere's a sizable difference between 6 and 10, though there is very little between 6 and 8 or 8 and 10.

BTW, welcome!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

There isn't as much difference as the camera companies would like us to think. There are plenty of other things that contribute to image quality.

I think the biggest advantage to more megapixels is that it's easier to make large prints and/or give you more leeway to crop your images.

I more important factor, IMO, is the physical size of the camera's sensor. Digital SLR cameras have a much larger sensor than 99.9% of digital cameras....which is one reason that a DSLR can give you better image quality, especially at high ISO levels.

Some people will say that there is little need to get more than 6 or 8 mega pixels on cameras like the Nikon D70 & D50 and Canon 20D & 30D...as you can make rather large prints from those cameras. However, more is usually better.

One thing that comes into play is when they cram all those megapixels into a small sensor. For example, a small digi-cam with 8 mega pixels...will most likely exhibit a fair amount of digital noise.