How many megapixels is enough? Is that the right question?

So it comes up often that people ask photographers "how many megapixels should I look for in my next camera"? My answer, only half joking is 4 - 4 megapixels, or maybe 8 if you are wanting to get all crazy.

I know many are saying "WTF! My phone shoots more than that!" Yes, yes it does. The reason I say lower is this. A HD TV shows a bit over 2 MP and a 4K tv shows 8.2MP. Now go look at that giant 60" screen and ask "am I ever going to print that big?" Probably not. The largest most people have printed is a 8x10. Any modern digital camera is good enough for that. I have shot 8MP DSLR cameras and printed 20x30 easily. What you also have to remember is that you don't look at those large prints from 2" away. I just talked with another pro photographer who shot a billboard with 3MP in the early digital days. Bigger MP just means you eat up your memory card faster and store more stuff on your computer.

So the real question is what should you be looking for in a camera. The megapixels aren't really all that, but two other things are.

1)The optics. The reason your phone only takes decent-enough photos is a lousy lens. Very few phones have a glass lens - lost are plastic, and cheap plastic at that. Zeiss lenses in point and shoot are available and good lenses. You should be looking for the best quality glass you can get.

2) The sensor and processor. The sensor is important in that it will show how the camera works in lower light and challenging conditions. Does it got noise in high ISO settings? How about those long exposures? Does the processor help eliminate this. Does the sharpening algorithm work well or does it leave artifacts and color distortions? Do skin tones look true and rich (often a problem area). Basically, what does the image look like.

That said, yes I shoot a high MP camera. I also use extremely high quality glass and bodies. The only real thing that high megapixels does better is cropping. You can crop into the image hard and still get a good print. So the point is many people just buy a camera because it has a lot of megapixels, where shopping for great glass, sensor and processor can save you money and give you better photos.

So next time I think I will bring up HDR, falst HDR (the stuff in your phone) and exposure fusion techniques along with light painting in Photoshop. That should be fun and I will have photos to show what I am talking about there.

Until then, enjoy and keep taking photos! You never know when you will catch that once in a lifetime smile from a child or sunrise while flying over the lake.

Charlie