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Digicam Buying Guide

How many megapixels do I need?

As much as we'd like to give a one-word answer, this is one of the trickiest questions in digital photography. So we'll provide a short and a long answer.

1. The short answer

For any images you plan to print or retouch, we recommend you stick to a camera with at least 6 megapixels. Web- and email-only photos should be fine at resolutions below that. For prints 8 x 10 inches or larger, look for digicams with an 8-megapixel resolution or higher.

2. The long answer

It depends on what you're doing with the picture and how you're doing it.

Hint: If you're going to display or print pictures at smaller-than-actual-pixel size, resolution doesn't matter much--opt for the camera with the best color.

The images below were shot with a 10-megapixel and a 5-megapixel camera, respectively, and scaled down to smaller-than-actual sizes. Aside from slight color differences, they should look pretty similar.


10-megapixel	5-megapixel

Hint: A higher resolution image generally lets you crop in closer and get better prints.

Let's say you want to blow up a detail shot or print a picture, that's where the extra resolution comes in handy, for both printing and Web display. As you can see from the images below, the 6-megapixel shot (left) is just not as sharp as the the 8-megapixel (middle) and 10-megapixel (right) shots.