When buying digital cameras one of the important specifications to check is the megapixel count, with more pixels often comes a better digital camera.
Megapixels are each a million sensor pixels, each of which senses when it is hit by photons of light and builds up information about what colour that pixel of the image should be during the exposure. The maximum resolution of photograph a camera can take is restricted by the size of their sensor. The information from all of the pixels is then combined to create a digital image of small blocks, each with colour and light information. Cameras that have too low a megapixel count will show this in their blocky and undetailed images.
The megapixel count for a given camera can be calculated by multiplying the height by the width of the maximum size image the camera can take and alternatively a rough idea of the maximum resolution can be gained by doing the reverse.
There are advantages and disadvantages to very high megapixel counts though overall more is better. Negatives include the performance of the digital cameras in low light conditions where only a small number of photons will hit each sensor pixel, resulting in some randomness in the relative colour and brightness of pixels and visible as grainy 'noise' in the image. Higher counts also mean larger files are created that take longer to process, limiting the number of shots that can be taken in a given time and how many can be stored on a memory card. Noise can also be caused by adjacent sensor pixels interfering with one another, creating patterns of speckles that are most visible in the darker parts of images.
The sensitivity to noise varies from camera to camera, some deal with it better than others making it a good idea to look at sample images or try digital cameras for yourself before buying.
Greater numbers of megapixels allow higher resolution images to be taken which gives better detail and, for less experienced photographers, can be better than a lower megapixel count as it allows images to be cropped, reduced in size, to improve the framing of the subject without losing the detail that makes the photo look professional. How many megapixels you need also depends on what you will use the photographs for, any photograph that will be expanded to display a section of it or displayed in a larger size such as a large print or poster will benefit from having more megapixels in the digital cameras sensor.
Manufacturers use megapixel counts as a marketing tool as consumers perceive them as wholly advantageous so cameras that are higher up in a range of products will have higher megapixel counts and this will be matched with better hardware and lenses.
If you are buying new digital cameras a higher megapixel count is a good indication of the overall quality of it and where it is placed in a range in comparison to other cameras. It is a positive feature of a camera to have a higher count but should not lead a buyer to ignore the other features a camera has and compare them between models.
This could also be applied to the ever developing smartphones, as manufacturers seek to develop phones by adding increasingly capable cameras. As with the 8 megapixel camera on the LG Optimus 2X.
Megapixels are each a million sensor pixels, each of which senses when it is hit by photons of light and builds up information about what colour that pixel of the image should be during the exposure. The maximum resolution of photograph a camera can take is restricted by the size of their sensor. The information from all of the pixels is then combined to create a digital image of small blocks, each with colour and light information. Cameras that have too low a megapixel count will show this in their blocky and undetailed images.
The megapixel count for a given camera can be calculated by multiplying the height by the width of the maximum size image the camera can take and alternatively a rough idea of the maximum resolution can be gained by doing the reverse.
There are advantages and disadvantages to very high megapixel counts though overall more is better. Negatives include the performance of the digital cameras in low light conditions where only a small number of photons will hit each sensor pixel, resulting in some randomness in the relative colour and brightness of pixels and visible as grainy 'noise' in the image. Higher counts also mean larger files are created that take longer to process, limiting the number of shots that can be taken in a given time and how many can be stored on a memory card. Noise can also be caused by adjacent sensor pixels interfering with one another, creating patterns of speckles that are most visible in the darker parts of images.
The sensitivity to noise varies from camera to camera, some deal with it better than others making it a good idea to look at sample images or try digital cameras for yourself before buying.
Greater numbers of megapixels allow higher resolution images to be taken which gives better detail and, for less experienced photographers, can be better than a lower megapixel count as it allows images to be cropped, reduced in size, to improve the framing of the subject without losing the detail that makes the photo look professional. How many megapixels you need also depends on what you will use the photographs for, any photograph that will be expanded to display a section of it or displayed in a larger size such as a large print or poster will benefit from having more megapixels in the digital cameras sensor.
Manufacturers use megapixel counts as a marketing tool as consumers perceive them as wholly advantageous so cameras that are higher up in a range of products will have higher megapixel counts and this will be matched with better hardware and lenses.
If you are buying new digital cameras a higher megapixel count is a good indication of the overall quality of it and where it is placed in a range in comparison to other cameras. It is a positive feature of a camera to have a higher count but should not lead a buyer to ignore the other features a camera has and compare them between models.
This could also be applied to the ever developing smartphones, as manufacturers seek to develop phones by adding increasingly capable cameras. As with the 8 megapixel camera on the LG Optimus 2X.
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