What Are Megapixels

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What are Megapixels?

Megapixels define how much resolution a digital camera will record the scene at. Unlike analogue silver halide film cameras, digital cameras don't have the resolution for "free". For example, the Kodak KB18 would be a camera costing about USD 20 or less and yet you can get enlargements to 8"x10" or 12"x16" if you wanted, because the silver halide film has lots of resolution. The actual acuity or sharpness may not be as outstanding as a USD 400 SLR camera, but the scene would be rendered fairly well on 35mm film.

With digital cameras, you actually have to "buy" resolution - if you buy too cheap a camera, the pictures it produces would be very coarse and blocky with little discernable detail. if you pay USD 10000, then you could get a digital SLR rivalling film (nearly) but that's a lot of money.

The categories are:

sub-1 Megapixel.

There are a fair number of "no name" cameras that fall into this category. Most of them can reach out to 640x480 pixels. They come more from the web and computer world than from the world of photography. It would be hard to print even a 3R size snapshot (the usual size for holiday snaps) with any clarity. However, this size of picture would be acceptable for web pages, quick emails and viewing on screen. There would be no zoom lens equipped cameras in this price range.

There are some more "serious" sub 1 Megapixel cameras around:

The Konica e-Mini - "The e-mini M can be used as a digital still camera and as a monitor-mounted web cam. In addition, it is designed with an integrated MP3 player and audio recorder - making it a palm-sized, four-in-one entertainment solution. The e-mini M offers both fine and normal image storage, video outputs (NTSC and PAL), audio recorder, LCD text display monitor, and 10 second self timer."

The Kodak mc3 is an mp3 player, a digital still camera, a web cam and a Quicktime .mov recorder (mono sound).

You can see, that these are more fun cams than "good enough" picture taking tools.

1.3 Megapixel

Currently (January 2002), there are a few that could do 1024x768 pixel pictures. The Canon A-10 has a glass zoom lens causing it to be one of the more expensive in this category. The Olympus C-100 has a fixed focus glass lens. It does take MJPEG movies, with no sound at 320x240 or 160x120 pixel size. The Olympus has USB connectivity.

2 Megapixel

In this category are:

Olympus Camedia. This would be "entry level" cameras which would produce at least fair 3R size snapshots and possibly 6"x8" or 8"x10" photos. Most of them would have 3x optical zooms.

Be aware that these rate to only ISO 100 silver halide file sensitivity.

3 Megapixel

These would be another USD 300 to USD 500 more(?) than the 2 Megapixel. The newer ones would have sound in (e.g. the Pentax Optio) recording for the QuickTime movie recording. This resolution would definitely be more than adequate for 3R snapshot size. There might be some features allowing manual control of picture taking.

I saw a Canon Powershot G-1. This is designed to emulate a silver halide film camera - size, shape, weight. It even makes synthesised "click" sounds when you shoot.

It can take a Compact Flash Type 2 device which means the owner put in a 340Mb IBM Microdrive. It takes external flash units and allows the traditional shutter, aperture priority settings.

It has a wide aperture and can rate to equivalent ISO 400 film sensitivity.

Finally, it has the option of storing the pictures uncompressed.

4 - 5 Megapixel

The classic non SLR would be the Canon Powershot G-2.

There are a plethora of digital SLRs.