Megapixel Myth

I came upon this article about Olympus officially ending the race for higher megapixels.

They said that from their point of view, 12MP is the max for consumer cameras. Bumping up more megapixels is like putting a bigger horsepower to a car with lousy brakes and wobbly suspension.

I completely agree with their opinion. Higher megapixels used to matter when digital cameras were 1 to 3 megapixels high. But once you get past 6 megapixels, you really wouldn't see much difference especially if you're only uploading your photos to flickr or Facebook.

I've used a 5MP camera for over 5 years with hardly any problems about pixelations on my photo prints. At 12 megapixels, you can print poster size. But what consumers actually print that size? Very very few.

Olympus said that if you want a higher megapixel, then it's time to buy a full frame Digital SLR like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which is 21.1 MP or the Nikon D3X which is 24.5 MP. Better yet, go with film.

Also, with higher megapixels, the smaller the sensor. The smaller the sensor, the less sensitive it is to light.

In my opinion, 6MP is plenty enough for general use, especially for web use. It's good enough for prints up to 8 x 10". So if you want to print bigger than that, then you can go up to 10MP.

But if you're using a P&S camera that's over 10MP, you're wasting your money. Buy a DSLR with better lens and a bigger sensor.

The quality of your photos are dependent on your ability to take a proper photo and your art. Not on a camera's technical quality.

Here's a link to the article.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/03/why-weve-reached-the-end-of-the-camera-megapixel-race.ars

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