Megapixels+and+print+size

=Megapixels and print size=

Suggested megapixels for high quality prints
The more megapixels a camera has, the larger size photos you'll be able to print and still maintain fine detail. Keep this in mind when purchasing a digital camera, particularly if you want to print large photos.

Here are the recommended number of megapixels based on print size.

Print quality also depends on a number of other factors, such as the quality of the original image or the type of printer and paper you use. If an image is dark or blurry, resulting prints will be poor. Images printed on inkjet photo paper using a photo printer will yield the best results. Reprinted from http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-photos/printing/print-size.php
 * ~ Max Print Size ||~ Buy a camera with ||~ Resolution ||
 * 4 x 6" || 2 megapixels || 1600 x 1200 ||
 * 5 x 7" || 3 megapixels || 2048 x 1536 ||
 * 8 x1 0" || 5 megapixels || 2560 x 1920 ||
 * 11 x 14" || 6 megapixels || 2816 x 2112 ||
 * 16 x 20" || 8 megapixels || 3264 x 2468 ||

Pixels
A pixel is a contraction if the term **PI**cture **EL**ement. Digital images are made up of small squares, just like a tile mosaic on your kitchen or bathroom wall. Though a digital photograph looks smooth and continuous just like a regular photograph, it's actually composed of millions of tiny squares as shown below. //On the lefright the full image, on the left the area ismagnified to show individual pixels// Each pixel in the image has a numerical value of between 0 and 255 and is made up of three color channels. So for example a pixel could be 37-red, 76-green and 125-blue and it would then look like this. If it was 162-red, 27-green and 12-blue, it would look like this. There are over 16 million possible combinations using this scheme and each one represents a different color. Computer savvy readers will note that each color in this scheme can be represented by an 8-bit number (byte), so the color of each pixel is defined by three color bytes. This scheme can be expanded, for example to use 16-bits (two 8-bit bytes) for each color. Images using three 8-bit values are sometimes called //24-bit color images//. Images using three 12-bit values for color definition are called //36-bit color images//, and those using three 16-bit values are called //48-bit color images//.

Pixel Count
One of the main ways that manufacturers categorize their digital cameras is in terms of //pixel count//. What this is is the number of individual pixels that go into making each image. Today this number varies between 1 million (//1 Megapixel//) to around 14 million (//14 Megapixels//). A million pixels is abbreviated to MP, so a 1MP camera has 1 million pixels and a 3MP camera has 3 million pixels. Currently most popular consumer digital cameras have between 2MP and 5MP. A 3MP camera can make excellent 4"x6" prints and very good 5"x7" prints. If you intend to make lots of 8"x10" prints, then perhaps a 4MP or 5MP camera would be a better choice. Sometimes two numbers are given, total pixels and effective pixels. Total pixels count every pixel on the sensor surface. Usually the very edge pixels aren't used in the final image. Effective pixels are the number of pixels actually used in the image after the edge pixels have been dropped. //Typical maximum image size vs. nominal Pixel Count. Sections Reprinted from http://photo.net/equipment/digital/basics///
 * || 3MP || 4MP || 5MP ||
 * Largest Image (typical) || 2048 x 1536 || 2272 x 1712 || 2592 x 1944 ||
 * Print size at 320dpi || 6.5" x 4.8" || 7.1" x 5.4" || 8.1" x 6.1" ||
 * Print size at 240dpi || 8.5" x 6.4" || 9.5" x 7.1" || 10.8" x 8.1" ||