Shutter Shot: Megapixels: Do they really matter?

Now when most people go looking for a camera, the first thing they look at is the megapixels. It's been the decision point for tons of people, and for good reason. Well, not really they were just tricked, but that's good enough a reason for me to share this with you; and hopefully getting rid of this misconception.

So for those people out there who have no idea what a megapixel is, it's essentially how many pixels a camera has. Now each megapixel has one million pixels. So an 18 megapixel camera has 18 million pixels. Although truthfully, megapixels don't matter at all unless you're going to be printing poster size images. So really anything above eight megapixels or so will look great on any computer screen. So if you're looking to print really large prints, the more the better, but how many of us are really going to be doing that.

So if megapixels don't matter, what does? Well there are really three things that contribute to having a great quality image. The camera sensor, the lens, and post processing. To discuss these briefly, the camera sensor should optimally be a DSLR sensor, as they are larger and have more pixels per sensor size. The point and shoots don't have such sensors. As for lenses, the kit lens is good at everything but not great at anything. Meaning it will serve you OK for most areas, but not great in any specific. Do get the best image quality from a lens go with the l lenses if you are shooting Canon, or Nikon's pro lenses. They are made out of the best glass around; resulting in the best image possible. And post processing, is post processing. Making the image look its best.