Digital Camera Master

The first number you see in a digital camera description is its megapixel rating. A pixel (short for picture element) is one tiny colored dot, one of the thousands or millions that compose a single digital photograph. (One megapixel equals one million pixels.) You can’t escape learning this term, since pixels are everything in computer graphics. The number of megapixels your camera has determines the quality of your pictures’ resolution (the amount of detail that appears). A 5-megapixel camera, for example, has better resolution than a 3-megapixel one. It also costs more. How many of those pixels you actually need depends on how you’re going to display the images you shoot.

1. Resolution for Onscreen Viewing
Many digital photos never get further than a computer screen. After you transfer them to your computer, you can distribute the images by email, post them on a Web page, or use them as desktop pictures or screen savers.

If such activities are the extent of your digital photography ambition, you can get by with very few megapixels. Even a $100, 2-megapixel camera produces a 1600 x 1200-pixel image, which is already too big to fit on the typical 1024 x 768pixel laptop screen (without zooming or scrolling).

2. Resolution for Printing
If you intend to print your photos, however, your megapixel needs are considerably greater. The typical computer screen is a fairly low-resolution device: most pack in somewhere between 72 and 96 pixels per inch. But for a printed digital photo to look as clear and smooth as a real photograph, the colored dots must be much closer together on the paper150 pixels per inch or more.

Remember the 2-megapixel photo that would spill off the edges of a laptop screen? Its resolution (measured in dots per inch) is only adequate for a 5 x 7 print. Enlarge it any more, and the dots become visible specks. Your family and friends will look like they have some unfortunate skin disorder. If you want to make prints of your photos (as most folks do), keep the following table in mind:

These are extremely crude guidelines, by the way. Many factors contribute to the quality of an 8 x 10 printincluding lens quality, file compression, exposure, camera shake, paper quality, and the number of different color cartridges your printer has, among other things. You may be able to print larger sizes than those listed here and be perfectly happy with them. But these figures provide a rough guide to getting the highest quality prints.

The other important advantage that a camera with multiple megapixels gives you is the ability to create high-quality prints of select portions of your photo. Say you’ve taken a great shot of your kids, but they occupy just a smidgen of the overall picture. No problemif your camera’s got a lot of megapixels under the hood. Just crop out all the boring background and keep just the juicy parts. If you try that same maneuver with a picture that comes from a 2 megapixel camera, you’ll end up with a photo filled with unsightly pixels.