What megapixel to use for everyday pictures?

[JImmyK]

Originally posted by: Eli

Anyway, Megapixels are the MHz of the digital camera world. There are SO many other important things, like the lens.

It is entirely possible to get very good pictures with a 2MP camera and garbage pictures from a 4MP camera.

A 2MP image from a good camera will give you crisp, clear, perfect 4x6 prints and web size(640x480) images. I've had 8x10's printed with 2mp images that looked great...


<--- Loves my Canon A60

Voice of REASON! thank you.

Absolutely correct my brothers D20 is amazing but my GFs minolta S414 (4 megapixels) doesnt EVEN compare to my 3 yr old G1 that does only 3.2 MP, let alone his higher end D20.

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: DeMeo
I agree with Anubis.
Shoot at the max resolution. You can always downsize the image later if you need too.
Even if you're just shooting every day images, once in a while you're going to get one that you really like and you'll be wish you had shot it at a higher resolution.

That's what I do. I have a Sony dsc-v3, and shoot everything at 7mp. Then there's room for lots of digital zoom or whatever.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: kd2777

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
It's all about the megapixels

I shoot 6.1 or nothing at all

(Poorly disguised D70 gloat)


Seriously though, 2 &amp; above is plenty for everyday use...

Not trying to steal your thread, just trying not to start a new one, but how do you like that D70? I've been looking at picking up a good digital SLR. I have the Nikon N90 and love it, but I miss guessed how popular and useful digital cameras would be when I bought it afew years ago. My wife has a smaller 3MP Canon and it is OK but there is a tremendous lag from when you hit the button and when the picture actually takes. It pisses me off to no end to use it, but she loves it thus the OK rating.

Thanks

kd

I've had a 995, 5700 &amp; now the D70, I rationalized the D70 purchase by thinking IIRC that the average 35mm has ~7 megapixels, 6.1 should hold me for a good long time.

Will send you a PM on prices...

 

[pennylane]

Unless you're lacking in space, I say just do the max. But that's just me.

 

[ICXRa]

Glad I saw this thread, I have been really leaning towards the Canon Powershot S1 IS as 3.2 MP looked like it would be fine for my needs but perhaps I need to continue looking.

 

[Pliablemoose]

With 1 GB CF dropping to under $50, no reason to hold back.

 

[Hottie]

Another shoot at max user here, I have fuji F420 set @ 6MP and S5100 set @ 4MP Fine. Love it and download it to my lappy when needed.

 

[glugglug]

Hmm, I use 3.2MP on my 3.2 camera, always. If for no other reason than that I generally keep my CRT at close to that resolution, and don't want my wallpaper to look jaggy.

For quick (throwaway?) shots I use the "Normal" 3.2MP mode that gets 8:1 compression instead of the extra high quality that gets 4:1. So that the images take only like 750K each, which isn't too much of an issue if you have a decent size flash card and copy it to your PC regularly. Even 6.1MP is going to be around 1.5MB per pic at 8:1 compression, which you have to look hard for it to find any artifacts. So might as well use it.

 

[tami]

i'd go with 2mp. but i'd also use irfanview for resizing and other batch processes for images. it's a great program and it's free.

 

[Siva]

So since I can't buy a Nikon D70 without selling my precious Stratocaster, what should a noob like myself with about $300-$400 get?

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
For posting pictures on the web, you probably don't need anything above 420x560, which is about 2MP.

Thats .2MP

 

[0roo0roo]

yea, resize on the pc with batch processing. infranview? i think is freeware? u can never get detail back, u can lose detail/file size whenever u want.

 

[jjones]

The only reason I would shoot less than the camera's max res is to conserve on memory space, assuming that it does take less memory for 4 than it does for 6.

 

[RossMAN]

My A40 maxes out at 2.1MP I think