How many megapixels is 'enough'?

[ThemSkillz1]

so, where do you guys see the sweet spot at in today's market? everyone's needs are different, but where do you see the divide between enough, and too much?

[soupnazi]

For casual/slight enthusiast use, 3.2MP with a GOOD lense is all you need. Eg. Canon A75

[masteraleph]

3 is nice, but 4 is much better for printing 8x10s and cropping, so I'm going to go with that.

[Terry]

3 is the "sweet spot" if you are talking about price/performance.

4 MP = a big jump in price (unless it's a crappy cam with stupid no-name)

[Delphi00]

i think 3 will be good enough for most uses already...5 and 6 MPs would be overkill..

[SaturnBeat]

I agree with what the rest said. 3 MP is enough.

[ua549]

You can never have enough pixels. The more pixels the more one can do with an image. If you want to enlarge any photo above the usual 8x10 a >6 meg pixel image is required. I sometimes play with satellite images that must be enlarged to 11x17 (the largest size my printer can handle) for a good view.

[Abarine]

I voted 4.0; for the average consumer who just wants to take pictures and print them, that's the best price/performance balance. I haven't had any issues at 3.1, but I haven't tried enlarging the pictures much. Besides that, the image files are pretty large in that 6.0 area, and larger images mean more expensive, larger storage. If you're a professional photographer or someone who relies on image clarity (like UA), I'd go higher, but for most people, 4.0 is the sweet spot.

[richardginn]

You can never have enough Megapixels!!

Not even the ULTRA EXPENSIVE PHASE ONE P25 with 22 megapixels that will let you save a RAW file uncompressed in a small, tiny, not big 45 megabyte file is enough for me.

Now for a tiny 8 by 10 print you need over like 3 megapixels.

[ThemSkillz1]

looking at a few cameras, and was surprised to see so many recommend 3MP... i chose 4MP, however bigger is obviously better.

the reason for the poll was part curiosity, and part looking for advice. the canon s1 was definately a consideration, as i plan to take some wildlife photos and such, but for the price, quality, and extra megapixels, i think i would be better off with the the canon a80. printing 8x10s would be realistic then, and for equal price i could grab goodies, maybe even an underwater case ( ). the s60 is unimpressive for the price to me, and the s400/500s dont offer much for someone to learn on. from there on up, things get pricy, which kindve put me off since im new to photography.

im not set on canon, but besides sony and their pricier memory sticks, the competition doesnt seem to compare.

i have a feeling the 3MP limit would be a major holdback, especially when it comes to printing

[Trav2003]

I have a 3.2 MP Minolta Dimage z1.

I previously had a 3.2MP Tohsiba PDR-M71.

I didn't need more megapixels when I got a new camera, i rarely print pictures off, and I what i use is a lot of web-based stuff, so I crop and shrink it down to a few hundred pixels by a few hundred pixels anyway.

So I say, get me a 3.2 megapixel camera, throw in lots of features (i love a great movie mode, as I like making movies, but don't want to buy a full fledged video camera).

[Trav2003]

Originally posted by ThemSkillz1
looking at a few cameras, and was surprised to see so many recommend 3MP... i chose 4MP, however bigger is obviously better.

Not so obviously. There are plenty of 3MP digital cameras that are hundreds of times better quality wise, and printing off certain 3MP cameras would look better than some 4MP cameras. You really have to go off of more than the number of megapixels.

Its like a monitor, whats probably the most distinguishable thing about a monitor (besides size), probably the resoultion. But how many people buy straight off resolution? Nobody, it all depends on picture quality and other factors.

The same should go with a digicam.

[kpxgq]

i think "more mp is better" is a myth.. there are much more important things like the quality and size of the ccd...

my canon a75 set to 2.0mp mode has SUPERIOR... i MEAN SUPERIOR quality shots compared to my sony cybershot 2.0mp Point-and-Shoot

[MrDigital]

When printing:
3MP is good for 4x6 or 5x7.
4MP is good for 8x10.
5MP is good for 8.5x11 (borderless).
6MP is good for 11x14.

Anything bigger will cause crappy prints. So 5MP is good for anybody who has a standard printer and wants to print full bleed images.

-MrD

[MrDigital]

Originally posted by kpxgq
i think "more mp is better" is a myth.. there are much more important things like the quality and size of the ccd...

my canon a75 set to 2.0mp mode has SUPERIOR... i MEAN SUPERIOR quality shots compared to my sony cybershot 2.0mp Point-and-Shoot

You and Trav are both right except when it comes to printing. Nothing can defeat the lack of megapixels (except aftermarket resizers like S-Spline) when printing.

-MrD