With that in mind, determine how large your physical print will be in inches. Let's use 8x10 inches as an example slightly smaller than A4. Because we know it is 8 inches by 10 inches, and we know we need pixels per inch, how do we determine the length and height in pixels?
Simply by multiplying the length and width by each! That gives us a figure of pixels by pixels. So we know that the picture we take with our camera has to be pixels by pixels in order to be of sufficient quality to print out at 8 inch x 10 inch size. But how do we convert that to megapixels?
We simply need to determine the total number of pixels in the image - i. Remembering back to high school, we can calculate the area by multiplying the length by the height. So we multiply pixels x pixels, giving us a total of 7. Finally, one megapixel is one million pixels, so if we divide that number by one million, we'll get the required number of megapixels. In this case, that results in 7.
So this means that as long as the photo is taken on a camera with 7. That sounds complicated when written out, but it's actually quite simple. To recap:. If you never plan to print out your pictures and you want to use them exclusively online like on social media , you'll need fewer megapixels.
This is because online viewing requires less resolution than physical printing. The magic number for online viewing is 72 pixels per inch, as opposed to PPI for printing. So the resolution for online photos is less than a third of that required for print, which means that almost any modern-day camera will take images of sufficient quality for online viewing.
As an example, one of the largest photo sizes you'll find on social media is the Facebook cover photo. Facebook recommends your image be pixels by pixels. Using our formula, that means we only need a camera that has 1. This makes a smartphone perfectly capable of producing photos to use online. Photos that will primarily be used only in digital mediums have a lower megapixel requirement.
As you've gathered by now, you don't actually need a huge amount of megapixels in order to post online or make small prints. However, a higher megapixel count can become much more useful when you start to crop into your photos.
Maybe the picture you took includes extra space around the subject that is not required, and you'd rather crop in tighter on the subject.
For this reason, you'll want to have a significantly more megapixels at your disposal than the bare minimum. Having excess megapixels provides more flexibility to crop your images while still retaining high picture quality. On the other hand, having too many megapixels can have some detrimental effects as well. One of the most common examples is in low light performance. At the beginning of this article we discussed the size of the pixels on your image sensor.
Remember we said that the larger the pixel, the better it can capture light. This means that, on two sensors of the same size, the sensor with less megapixels will by necessity have physically larger pixels than the sensor with more megapixels, and therefore will theoretically have better low light performance.
As a result, the A7S II's much larger pixels provides that camera with superior low-light performance, at the expense of resolution. The Sony A7 lineup contains a range of cameras that all have the same sensor size full frame but have quite different sensor resolutions megapixel count.
But don't throw out all your high resolution cameras just yet. There are many other factors that can influence low light performance, such as image processor, type of sensor, and so on. As such, it's not a guarantee that a lower resolution sensor will outperform a same-sized higher resolution sensor in low light, and in fact there are a great many exceptions to this rule. But it is something to keep in mind. Another common issue with a high megapixel sensor is that more megapixels means that more data is stored, meaning the resulting pictures have larger file sizes.
This means you'll have to plan for larger memory card capacities and hard drive space to store the same amount of photos. While this may not be critical as the cost of storage continues to decrease, but suffice to say a happy snapper probably doesn't need every photo to be 50 MB in size! However, compared to purpose-built cameras, smartphone cameras' sensors are still much smaller. So, with all other elements being equal, an 8-megapixel DSLR will produce far better images than an 8-megapixel compact camera, just like the 8-megapixel compact camera will capture better images than your 8-megapixel smartphone.
Where megapixels do matter is the size you want your final picture to be. You need to have a camera or smartphone whose megapixel count matches how you plan to share your photographs. This is particularly important if you plan to print your pictures, because print quality depends on having enough pixel data to define the picture. Please see tables for guidelines on how many megapixels you need for different size prints and for sharing on various social networks.
Having more pixels than you need can actually hurt image quality. Photos with too many megapixels also take much longer to upload and might even fail partway through. And if you're uploading on the go, you're eating into your wireless data cap more than you need.
If you plan to back up your images to one of the best photo storage and sharing sites , however, you'll want to upload them at the largest size possible, to avoid any issues with compression.
Of course with the continuing megapixel inflation by camera makers, you may have no choice but to buy a camera with far more resolution than you need. Fortunately, traditional digital cameras, as well as camera apps for smartphones, allow you to adjust the resolution down, which is one option. Another is to downsize the photos after you shoot them but before you upload them to a printing service or social networking site.
Even some of the best photo editing apps allow you to select the output resolution. This option will fill up your memory card faster, but it has the benefit of giving you more flexibility, for example if you decide later that the quick snapshot you took is actually worthy of a full-size print.
For most people, the highest resolution files needed will be for when you use one of the best photo book services to create a physical photo album. However, with a small-sensor digicam, this will increase image noise, thereby reducing image quality. Exceed your vision with Epson. See www. Please deactive Ads blocker to read the content. Your co-operation is highly appreciated and we hope our service can be worth it. Wild World. Image Archiving. Sidebar Tips Buying.
Latest news, reviews, tips, and new ways to improve and inspire your photography. Recommended cameras and lenses. Low Light Photography 2nd Edition. Travel Photography 3rd Edition. The new GoPro Hero9 Black features the highest megapixel camera of any popular action camera. While more megapixels makes your camera capable of capturing more light and producing higher resolution images, there are some definite drawbacks to shooting with more megapixels.
The advantages of a high megapixel count come down to being able to produce larger images. As the world is becoming increasingly infatuated with big-screen, high-definition televisions, it only stands to reason that cameras with similar capabilities are the wave of the future. While the advantages of using high megapixel cameras to create large, clear, high-resolution images are numerous, there are some downsides to an increased megapixel count:.
Here are three ways to connect your camera to your computer. Want to print your photos wirelessly? The number of megapixels you need depends on how you intend to use your camera. A general rule is that a print requires pixels per inch one megapixel equals 1 million pixels.
So an 8 x 10 print would need 2, pixels x 3, pixels for a total area of 7. A 16 x 20 print would require 4, pixels x 6, pixels for a total area of So professionals who will be making larger portraits must have a camera with higher megapixels. Photographs intended solely for an online audience are generally a small file size, meaning that low megapixel cameras can be used to create high-quality digital images.
For example, many Facebook profile pictures use photos of 1. While the number of your megapixel needs will vary based on how you intend to use your camera, with print size a major consideration, any camera of at least 12 megapixels should be suitable for regular use. Bryan Haines is co-founder and blogger on ClickLikeThis. We cover action cameras and outdoor photography with a focus on GoPro cameras.
He is a travel blogger at Storyteller. Travel and co-founder of Storyteller Media , a company he started with his wife, Dena. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Why does the Nikon 16mp take better pictures than the Sony 20mp? I take mostly nature pictures.
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