Bothering about megapixels?

For most people, the first thing which comes to their mind when thinking about a camera is “How much megapixels does it have”? I was among those people too until I discovered that the number of megapixels does not really matter.

I guess that you are not here to learn the definition. Today, I will again share some of my knowledge acquired since the last months while practicing photography as a hobby. You may or may not agree with what I have written below but please do feel free to share any valuable data. btw, this article is intended for photography newbies.

A few years ago, they did weigh a lot before you make your final choice about your future camera or mobile phone. Most of the newer mobiles phones nowadays have a 2MP or + built in camera. And cameras? The simplest point and shoot cameras now have more than 6-8MP while Nikon’s latest entry level cameras like the D3000 and D5000 can shoot at a maximum of 10.2MP and 12.3 MP respectively.

Getting a nice shot

Unfortunately, shooting with a 24MP camera will not get you a nice image… Else everyone would be walking with huge cameras and boasting about being a ‘professional’ photographer.

You probably heard it loads of time, nevertheless I will repeat it again… The higher number of MP a camera has, does not make better images. It is just a lie 😛 and a misunderstanding which I hope will be cleared out after going through this post.

One needs to play with various factors first which are lightning conditions, the subject, depth of field, exposure among others. And above all, the Photographer and his skills!

Needs for shooting with a larger MP?

You probably need to shoot at the highest megapixel settings of your camera when :

• You will need to get a large print out of the shot for example on bill boards
• You will display that shot on a HUGE screen
• You will crop some important portion of the image without losing quality

Feel free to share any additional points here.

The chart

Technically, a picture shot at 2MP should look fine on a 4×6″ paper when printed.

Here’s a small table to give you an idea :

So, the next time you shoot a picture using your 3MP mobile phone, you can have a fairly good print out of 6.82″ x 5.12″ ( 17.32cm x 13cm).

More Megapixels = Bigger file size

Unfortunately, this is the bitter truth if you are always shooting at the maximum MP.  Personally, I rarely shoot using the 12MP that my D5000 can offer.

Let’s keep this section simple.
Below are the approximate size of pictures shot at Normal JPEG quality :

4288×2848 – L  – 3.0MB
3216×2136 – M – 1.7MB
2144×1424 – S   – 0.8MB

Most of us already curse our internet connectivity daily… Uploading a 0.8MB file will be more quicker than a 3MB one, isn’t it? On the top of that, most of us will upload them to Facebook which will in turn compress that picture, hence losing much details.

Months or years later, you will notice your available disk space running low! Why? Because the larger pictures are taking more than 3 times space than the smaller ones! And you will probably never need to print those pictures…

So, the next time you gonna click, think about how you gonna use and store that shot and keep in mind, better images does not necessarily mean bigger images…

Anyone wants to share some words about their experience or camera? Even mobile phone camera owners will do! Feel free!