The Truth About Digital Cameras

Tech writer David Pogue recently conducted a test to see how much megapxels matter in a digital camera:

We blew up a photograph to 16 x 24 inches at a professional photo lab. One print had 13-megapixel resolution; one had 8; the third had 5. Same exact photo, down-rezzed twice, all three printed at the same poster size. I wanted to hang them all on a wall in Times Square and challenge passersby to see if they could tell the difference.

Even the technician at the photo lab told me that I was crazy, that there’d be a huge difference between 5 megapixels and 13.

Anyway, we ran the test for about 45 minutes. Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints. A handful of them attempted guesses—but were wrong. Only one person correctly ranked the prints in megapixel order, although (a) she was a photography professor, and (b) I believe she just got lucky.

I’m telling you, there was NO DIFFERENCE.

This post is going to get a lot of people riled up, I know, because in THEORY, you should be able to see a difference. But you can’t. I’m hoping this little test can save you some bucks the next time you’re shopping for a camera.

Something to keep in consideration of next time I go shopping for a digital camera. As someone who takes a lot of digital pictures, I believe Pogue's findings. Another advantage of smaller resolution is that you can fit more photos on one memory card. (This has been an issue for me on a few of my overseas trips when I've been away from comupter access for weeks at a time.)

For most people, the main reason I can think of to opt for the higher resolution cameras is if you plan on cropping pictures before printing them out. Think of it as the equivalent of an after-shot zoom.

(Hattip Lifehacker)