About the Megapixel Count…

Should you buy a camera based on the megapixel count?

One aspect of any digital camera specification will be the number of megapixels it has and whether this megapixel rating will be suited to the type of photos you want to display or print.
Put simply, megapixels are a unit of measurement in an image.

Think of the photo as a series of dots – which it is - the more tightly packed the dots are, the better your picture will look especially when printed to a larger size.

The megapixel rating will partly determine the quality of your final photo.  Too few may result in your pictures being poorer quality than you want them to be.  Too many may make the camera more expensive – sometimes unnecessarily.

The higher the pixel count, the better the resolution. The higher the resolution, the larger and higher quality prints you can produce without significant loss of image quality. Higher quality photos take up more space on your storage device, but they will produce the best prints.
For many people, this is the most difficult decision to make when purchasing a digital camera.  How many megapixels is enough and how many too many?  Here are a few indications to aid in decision making.

3 megapixels or less

• Typically found on smaller, inexpensive cameras or cameras in combination with other devices (such as cell phones or PDAs).
• It will be hard to make a high-quality print of any size, but 3 megapixel cameras are great for e-mailing photos or posting photos on the web (eg: onto your facebook or myspace pages).
• 3 megapixel cameras are not recommended for family portraits or detailed high quality prints.
• Prints of 4 x 6 inches prints will be reasonable quality.  Anything larger than that may appear blurred.

5 - 7 megapixels

• This may be a good compromise between photo quality and cost for most casual point and shoot users.
• Great quality 4x6 inch and good 5x7 inch images are perfectly achievable and, depending on the camera larger image prints can be reasonable.
• You may also produce good 8x10 and even 11 x 14 inch prints.

8 - 9 megapixels

• capable of producing beautiful large format prints possibly up to 16 x 20 inches in some cases.
• With an 8 megapixel camera, you can get closer to professional quality images.

10 megapixels and up

• Super image quality, but higher cost. Ability to print large format photos with satisfying results.

There are now higher megapixel cameras available at reasonable prices, but they may have fewer features so you will need to list the features you feel that you can't do without (eg: image stabilisation, face recognition etc) and choose according to your priorities.

Don't get a camera that sounds outrageously cheap just for its megapixel range – the megapixel count is NOT the only important aspect.The Lumix FZ40 has a megapixel count of 14.1 but this is backed by a high quality feature set and sensor.  Other cameras with the same megapixel count which are cheaper could appear to be better value, but will produce very disappointing results in comparison due to an inferior sensor, components and build quality.

Another issue to remember is that a higher megapixel count means bigger image sizes, which in turn may require larger, more expensive memory cards and more space used on your computer hard drive when downloaded from the camera.  It's worth buying a quality memory card of at least 4GB or more together with your FZ40 purchase - you can get a better  deal if you bundle the two items.