Of Megawhozits and Pixawhatzils - What do Megapixels mean? Digital Camera Shopping - Page 2
© Karin Rex
Imagine a 1" square picture shot at 100 dpi (dots per inch). The image is made up of 100 x 100 pixels and looks nice and sharp at this size. However, if you decide to enlarge the picture to a 4" square, the resulting image will not look so good. Why? Because, enlarging the picture does not increase the picture's number of pixels. So you are now looking at those same pixels spread out over a much larger area, resulting in an image that is only 25 dpi and very grainy.
Likewise, if you take that same 1" square picture at 100 dpi and decide that you want to crop out (remove) 3/4 of it and then enlarge just the remaining area to 1", you again will end up with a grainy 25 dpi photograph.
Resolving the issue
In addition to asking yourself how you will be using your digital camera, also ask yourself if you are the type of person who will take the time to learn how to use digital imaging software (a computer program that allows you to manipulate your images on your computer). If you are more likely the type to take pictures, delete the ones you don't like, and then print the rest as 4 x 6 snapshots as is, then you can probably get away with buying a camera in the lower megapixel range (and therefore save yourself some bucks).
If, however, you intend to invest the time necessary to learn how to use digital imaging software and want to be able to crop and enlarge photographs (among other things), then you should probably give yourself permission to aim for a camera with a higher megapixel count.
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