Polaroid Cameras I brochure What the heck is a megapixel?, Megapixel 4064 x

What the heck is a megapixel?

Mega is a prefix that means million. A pixel refers to the element on the CCD that captures light. Thus a 4 megapixel camera has approximately 4 million sensing elements on its CCD.

The megapixels a camera has nothing to do with the size of the image, but has everything to do with resolution. You can get a print of any size with any camera, but the image quality will be better the higher the resolution.

Here is an extreme example:

1600x1200 pixels 80x60 pixels

The following is a guide to the maximum size of pictures from common cameras:

2-megapixel - 1600x1200

3-megapixel - 2048x1536

4-megapixel- 2272 x 1704

5-megapixel- 2568 x 1928

6-megapixel- 3072 x 2000

8-megapixel- 3264 x 2448

11-megapixel - 4064 x 2704

The higher the number of pixels, the greater the need for storage. An image stored in a 4 megapixel camera takes twice the memory space as does that from a 2 megapixel camera.

Cameras can take pictures in lower resolution. For example, a 4 megapixel camera can be set to take pictures in 2 megapixel or 1 megapixel mode. The only advantage to this is the reduction in required storage space; more pictures will be stored on the memory card. For example, a four megapixel camera will take pictures at 2272 x 1704 and also 1600x1200 as a 2-megapixel camera would. When would you want to cut down the resolution? If you know that you are producing photos for the web or eBay or any purpose where resolution is not needed, go ahead and use the lower resolution. Otherwise, shoot at the highest resolution of your camera.

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