Digital cameras are rated by the maximum resolution they can achieve.
If you're looking to buy or upgrade your digital camera, you've no doubt heard of megapixels. Just what is a megapixel? Find out what a megapixel really is and how you can accurately determine just what sort of pictures you'll get with a new digital camera.
Megapixels Explained
Put simply, a megapixel is roughly a million pixels. More accurately, it is a count of the total pixels---or single points of color---contained in a digital image. A camera that takes 1,280 pixel by 960 pixel images is considered a 1 megapixel camera (1280 x 960 = 1,228,800 -- just over 1 million, or 1 megapixel).
Maximum Resolution
Digital cameras are rated by the maximum resolution they can achieve. For instance, a 5 megapixel camera can typically capture images at 5, 4, 3 or even below 1 megapixel. Cameras can always capture clear images at less-than-optimal resolution for the optical sensor, but they cannot capture more. Cameras that claim to exceed the maximum resolution of the optical sensor use "interpolation", or a "best guess" at the colors in-between, but the resulting photos tend to be fuzzy and/or blurry when viewed at full size.
Calculating Megapixels
The formula is pretty simple; multiply width times height in pixels and round to the nearest million. If your camera takes pictures at 2,560 pixels by 1,920 pixels, then it's a 5 Megapixel camera (2,560 x 1,920 = 4,915,200 -- roughly 5 million). It may be more accurate to put a decimal point for hundreds-of-thousands, but camera manufacturers still tend to rate their cameras by whole megapixels, even when they have to round up to the nearest million.
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