One of the most misleading things about digital cameras is the stated number of megapixels.  These numbers have been going up and up with each passing year, but that isn’t always the best thing for the quality of your photos, especially if you’re buying a point and shoot compact camera.

We’ve all seen cameras that boast about the number of megapixels it has, but what exactly is that number, and what does it mean?  The simplest explanation is that the company took the largest size it can save a photo at, and then they multiply the number of pixels width wise by the number of pixels height wise.  So if a camera says it shoots at 10 megapixels, it means that the largest image it can shoot is usually going to be around 3648 x 2736.

While this sounds like a lot, and it is, if your camera doesn’t have a large enough sensor you will end up with a lot of potential “noise” and “artifacts” in the shot.  These can potentially make the photo look grainy, blurred or any other number of potential problems.  So while your first instinct may be to select the supposed highest resolution the camera offers, you actually may be better off going with a lower setting so that you can increase the clarity.

It is also a matter of what format your camera saves the images to.  The smaller the file size, the more compression the format uses and that could lead to even more image quality problems.

One of the final factors to consider is where you will be using the image.  If you plan on making a print of it, then yes, you do want to go with the higher file size and as little compression as possible.  If you are only going to be using it on a blog, showing it to friends on a screen and so on, then you are fine with higher compression rates and lower resolutions.

Picking a camera isn’t that difficult really, it just seems like it some days.

Tags: image formats, photography tips, Photography tutorials

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 9:35 am and is filed under Photography tutorials.