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Do you remember the (stupid) commercials where a guy ran around a city asking people if they "got megapixels?" That was the figurative birth of consumers' American Idol like obsession with megapixels in cameras. And many savvy manufacturers jumped on this and made the megapixel the dominant camera spec or, at least, the most prominent. This phenomenon is similar to the coronation of the MPG (miles per gallon) when gas was around $823.52 per gallon. Car makers promoted the high MPG on a lot of their cars even though the cars themselves weren't the best of quality. Most of those cars were glorified bumper cars no bigger than a bicycle with a child-trailer attached. And just like megapixels, all the boys flocked to the girls with the big MPG's. I'm not saying megapixels (or MPGs) are insignificant. I'm saying that more megapixels (and MPGs) is not always better. Please note, I'm speaking relative to the "point-and-shoot" cameras that most of us buy and are included in cell phones, which I hate (I think posing for cell phone cameras at a wedding should be against the law). The expensive DSLR's are another topic for someone else on another day.

A common analogy is to look at pixels as little buckets that can "catch" light. And a megapixel isn't actually a thing. It's a million of those little light buckets (pixels). So, a camera with 2 megapixels has 2 million pixels. As with all digital cameras, a picture is taken by capturing light in the buckets and the more buckets, the better the picture quality... up to a certain point. The size of the buckets is the key because they are stored on a fixed size "table" called a sensor. If the table size is fixed, the only way you can fit more buckets on the table is to make the buckets smaller. Now, going back to my car analogy, where size mattered. Though a BMW 5 Series is smaller than a BMW 7 Series, you can make an argument that they are very close in overall quality. However, there is a noticeable drop in size and quality from the 7 Series to the 3 Series. The point I'm making is that as the buckets (pixels) in a camera get smaller, the quality of the pictures will eventually take a hit.

I can't make a blanket recommendation on the number of pixels you should look for but 5-6 megapixels should be fine for most people. This should give you high quality 4x6 and 5x7 photos. Considering, most photos never raise up off the camera or computer they're stored on, you could even get away with 4-5 megapixels. Please, keep in mind that I'm just giving you guidelines. You should always do some research and read reviews or (shameless plug alert!) hire Denity Technology Solutions to do it for you.

It counts as technology, so go hug your refrigerator. It's been good to you.

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