It’s not the number of megapixels but the size of your camera’s sensor that counts.
Tan Chong Yaw 7 November 2008
Megapixels do not really matter anymore.
That might sound strange at first as most people regard megapixel-count as the main indicator of their camera’s picture-taking quality. Let me explain.
Megapixels are a measure of how many pixels you can stuff into a camera’s sensor - the digital equivalent of the film. One megapixel means one million pixels.
You need just a 3-megapixel camera to print a standard 4R picture and 8 megapixels are more than enough for an 8R - 8 x 10-inch - print.
If you do not have enough megapixels and are trying to print a large picture, the print will not turn out sharp. All diagonals will become jagged instead of being smooth.
However, as all new compacts now have at least 8 megapixels and some, like the Canon Ixus 980IS has hit 14, you do not have to worry about having insufficient megapixels anymore.
So when you are deciding which compact to buy, the number of megapixels does not really matter now.
What is more important, for good picture quality in a compact camera, is the size of the sensor. The bigger the sensor, the better the photo. Bigger sensors capture more light. More light captured means better colours and contrast.
With bigger sensors, photos taken indoors without flash or when the light is failing, have less picture noise - that is the fuzziness and strange bits of colours that weren’t there when you took the photo.
Sadly, compact cameras cannot have huge sensors because they need to stay, well, compact.
The sensor in a compact can be smaller than the nail of your pinky.
That is why compacts are bad in shooting in low light conditions without a flash.
Here is a tip - check the sensor size. It could be under CCD, CMOS, imaging element or image sensor but the dimensions would always read something like 1/2.3 inch, which is the size of the sensor.
The smaller the denominator, the bigger the sensor. For instance, a 1/1.6 inch sensor is larger than one which is 1/2.3 inch.
In comparison, the sensor of a professional DSLR is 30 times that of a compact, which explains why DSLRs are so much bigger.
Ironically, the solution to improving photo quality in a compact is to reduce the megapixel- count.
All things being equal, having less megapixels means that each pixel in the sensor can now have more light, which in turn improves picture quality.
So now that we know that we do not need anything more than 8 megapixels for a compact, will camera makers give up the megapixel race?
Not a chance.
Just as most consumers judge the performance of a PC by its GHz, megapixels in a camera is the easiest way for salesmen to compare the performance of their cameras with other makes.
To educate the consumer would take too much effort, too much time and too much marketing dollars.
And that is the mega-truth behind the megapixel myth.
1 comment:
Debunking the megapixel myth
It’s not the number of megapixels but the size of your camera’s sensor that counts.
Tan Chong Yaw
7 November 2008
Megapixels do not really matter anymore.
That might sound strange at first as most people regard megapixel-count as the main indicator of their camera’s picture-taking quality. Let me explain.
Megapixels are a measure of how many pixels you can stuff into a camera’s sensor - the digital equivalent of the film. One megapixel means one million pixels.
You need just a 3-megapixel camera to print a standard 4R picture and 8 megapixels are more than enough for an 8R - 8 x 10-inch - print.
If you do not have enough megapixels and are trying to print a large picture, the print will not turn out sharp. All diagonals will become jagged instead of being smooth.
However, as all new compacts now have at least 8 megapixels and some, like the Canon Ixus 980IS has hit 14, you do not have to worry about having insufficient megapixels anymore.
So when you are deciding which compact to buy, the number of megapixels does not really matter now.
What is more important, for good picture quality in a compact camera, is the size of the sensor. The bigger the sensor, the better the photo. Bigger sensors capture more light. More light captured means better colours and contrast.
With bigger sensors, photos taken indoors without flash or when the light is failing, have less picture noise - that is the fuzziness and strange bits of colours that weren’t there when you took the photo.
Sadly, compact cameras cannot have huge sensors because they need to stay, well, compact.
The sensor in a compact can be smaller than the nail of your pinky.
That is why compacts are bad in shooting in low light conditions without a flash.
Here is a tip - check the sensor size. It could be under CCD, CMOS, imaging element or image sensor but the dimensions would always read something like 1/2.3 inch, which is the size of the sensor.
The smaller the denominator, the bigger the sensor. For instance, a 1/1.6 inch sensor is larger than one which is 1/2.3 inch.
In comparison, the sensor of a professional DSLR is 30 times that of a compact, which explains why DSLRs are so much bigger.
Ironically, the solution to improving photo quality in a compact is to reduce the megapixel- count.
All things being equal, having less megapixels means that each pixel in the sensor can now have more light, which in turn improves picture quality.
So now that we know that we do not need anything more than 8 megapixels for a compact, will camera makers give up the megapixel race?
Not a chance.
Just as most consumers judge the performance of a PC by its GHz, megapixels in a camera is the easiest way for salesmen to compare the performance of their cameras with other makes.
To educate the consumer would take too much effort, too much time and too much marketing dollars.
And that is the mega-truth behind the megapixel myth.
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