Megapixels?

[wdwdancerwannabe]

My DH bought me a new digital camera for Christmas!

Question.....it's 7.1 megapix...is this considered high? What is the highest you can get?

Would it be an accurate assumption that the higher mp's will take up more memory on my little "blue card".....??? I'm thinking I might get a new one...the one I have now is just 128.

Any advice? I'm not a photography expert!

 

[Stick_to_Disney]

7 megapixels is very high, but it is not the very highest.128mb card will hold about 45 pics.

 

[ukcatfan]

Yes, 7MP is getting on the high side. Above that is likely too much and more than the sensor can reasonably handle. On some models, it can already be too much and cause un-needed noise. This is especially evident in low light shots. Some manufacturers have been good at increasing the MPs while still keeping the noise low. They often use noise reduction software inside the camera to do this and that sometimes leads to reduced resolution/sharpness. The turning point seems to be around the 4-6MP range. More MPs is more of a marketing tool than an actual camera feature.

Depending on the actual physical size of the sensor, you are probably doing alright at 7MP. It could help to tell us what brand and model your camera is. Some companies do better at this than others. Not completely from personal experience, but Canon, Fuji, Nikon, and Sony seem to do well. Probably the worst reputation for noise is Kodak.

This just relates to point and shoot cameras. When you get to DSLRs, it gets much more complicated. A typical 6MP from a DSLR will be better than a 10MP p&s camera in terms of resolution and ability to print at large sizes.

Kevin

 

[handicap18]

Would it be an accurate assumption that the higher mp's will take up more memory on my little "blue card".....??? I'm thinking I might get a new one...the one I have now is just 128.

Any advice? I'm not a photography expert!

This is an accurate assumption. At 7MP each picture you take at the highest resolution (highly recommended) is going to give a very large file size. For my 6.1MP camera I can fit approx 320 pics on 1 1GB card. On a 128MB card I'd probably get only about 80. Which mean's you'd probably only get about 70 or so pictures on your card. Cost for media cards is very inexpensive, especially if your camera uses SD cards. You can get a 1GB SD Card for about $20. Compact Flash is a little bit more expensive. I'd definatly get at least a 1GB card and would seriously consider a 2GB (they go for between $30 & $40, again depending on the type of card).

 

[Amy]

And if you upload your pix to photobucket or some similar site, it'll take longer to upload. My old camera was 3mp and my Canon S3 is 6mp and it takes a lot longer to upload my pictures. BUT....the pictures are much better, so I guess it's worth it!

 

[Groucho]

Don't forget that you can always resize the photos when they're on the computer. Most any program can do cropping and resizing, I use Irfanview (as linked in my sig) as it's extremely fast, powerful, and easy. Chances are that you'll want to resize the photos before putting them on a photo hosting service anyway, as they usually give you a limited amount of space.

The number of megapixels isn't as important to good photos as the size of the sensor. Most PnSs have either a 1/2.5" or 1/1.8" sensor - the latter being larger. If someone has more megapixels but the same size sensor, it's unlikely that they'll get noticably more picture detail than you will.

You will definitely want a bigger memory card, though! At least one gig, since they're so cheap.