The Difference Between Pixels and Mega Pixels

If you have ever been in a store to buy digital cameras, you have probably seen a huge sticker next to the camera saying something about mega pixels. All you know is that the higher the number the better the quality, but why? Lets go over exactly was pixels and mega pixels are and how they work.

Digital cameras produce pictures that are made up of lots of little dots called pixels. If you have ever messed around in a paint program on your computer you probably noticed that when you try to paint a squiggly line it looks very blocky. This is because the resolution of your painting is very low. The larger amount of pixels equals greater quality and smoother lines because its packing more pixels into a much smaller space. A mega pixel is one million pixels. The average mega pixel range of cameras found at the store range between 1 -11 mega pixels.

Many people when in search to buy digital cameras ask “How many mega pixels is enough?” We would suggest getting a camera with a minimum mega pixel rating at 5 mega pixels. This way your prints will look excellent without looking blurred. Pictures will also look amazing on the computer at this rating and allow you to do alot of specific tweaking to the pictures.

An obvious method to buy digital cameras is to go for the digital camera with the highest mega pixels. This method can also break the bank. Keep in mind that some of the more high quality cameras actually take better pictures and don’t need as many mega pixels. Brands like Canon and Nokia have state of the art technology and are much better at capturing color which means that the pictures will look just as good as a camera that has a bit of a higher mega pixel rating.

The higher the mega pixel of the camera usually means that the digital camera has many other features as well. Rarely do you find a 10 mega pixel camera that only takes pictures. Most digital cameras of today also can take High Definition video and have all kinds of digital filters and zooming capabilities. Take this into account when you are pricing cameras that fit your budget. Like we mentioned before, brands make a big difference. Quality brands use quality lenses, image sensors, color sensors, and give you a much more raw looking image. Most of these upper end cameras have optical zoom instead of digital zoom. The reason for this is that digital zoom often pix-elates the pictures and makes them look fuzzy.