Digital Camera Advice

A common mistake that people make when selecting which digital camera to buy. Specifically, looking at the number of MEGAPIXELS (MP) is definitely the wrong way to go since that does not say anything about the quality of the captured photographs. This is, in my opinion, a marketing ploy!

What makes the biggest difference, apart from the lens, is the size of the sensor (CMOS or CCD). You want that to be as large as possible to get better quality images. In my opinion, a point-and-shoot 6-8 MP digital camera performs much better than a 10-12+ MP camera of the same price-range (since larger sensor cameras are typically more expensive), particularly in terms of contrast and noise. For the larger (and more expensive) SLR cameras a 12MP spec makes more sense since the sensor is also large. Nevertheless, even an HD monitor cannot display 12MP so it doesn't make much sense to trade noise for image size (MP#).

Remember, an 8MP image is roughly the size of 4 HD images! And when it comes to printing an image, a x4 HD image will print at 12''x21'' at 360DPI. Most people can't tell the difference between an image that was printed using 360 and one printed with a larger DPI setting. Nevertheless, even for a 720DPI (crazy!) setting you get a 6''x10.5'' printed image. As a side-note, don't get fooled by some printer-manufacturers DPI specs that multiply DPI with the number of base-colors that the printer uses.

In my opinion, an SLR with a lower MP# (but still big enough to be displayed on a full HD monitor) would be the best choice. I'm glad that some camera models stayed away from the MP marketing hype in favor of photo quality. For cheaper point-and-shoot cameras I would definitely stick to a 6-8 MP specification.

Finally, it's always a good idea to check out www.dpreview.com when deciding on a camera.

Remember, you could always bridge the gap between a point-and-shoot and an SLR camera photo quality by applying enhancement to your digital images, e.g. by following the steps shown in Instructions to enhance your photos. It's cheaper (free) than buying an SLR and it will work for most of your photos!