Are More Megapixels Better For Digital Cameras?

Not necessarily:

Many people, especially Americans, think that bigger is better, and many times that's true, but not always.

Bigger is better for bank account balances but not necessarily for diamonds for example. A smaller stone with fewer or only tiny flaws looks better and is more valuable than a large one with visible flaws.

But many people are obsessed with numbers such as zoom lens ratios and these days the number of megapixels a digital camera's sensor has.

As I've said in past postings, there are other factors that determine the quality of a digital image besides the number of megapixels. Lens quality, the camera's onboard firmware, and the quality of the camera's digital sensor itself all contribute to the overall result.

One surefire way to find out if a salesperson selling digital cameras knows what they're talking about is if they tell you that what determines the quality of the picture is the megapixels of the camera. As this article mentions, the size of the sensor and the quality of the lens both have a huge impact. After a certain point, megapixels don't matter much for most people and can actually have a negative effect as sensors get too small.

See my previous posts:

• The Megapixel Myth
• The Truth About Digital Cameras
• How Big Can I Print That Photo?