At the beginning of the age of digital cameras, it was all about the number of megapixels. A 2-megapixel camera was better than a 1-megapixel camera and a 3-megapixel camera was better than a 2-megapixel camera. If you wanted a better digital camera, you simply purchased the one with the highest megapixel count. This method of determining the quality of a digital camera became ingrained in the minds of consumers and has been sustained by the camera manufacturers.

The number of megapixels was very important when the cameras only had one, two, or three-megapixels. There was a big difference between a 1-megapixel camera and a 3-megapixel camera. Now, however, most digital cameras have at least 5-megapixels and the resolution that the megapixels offer is quite good. So as megapixel counts have increased, their importance has actually decreased.

Yet megapixels are one of the things that determine the quality of a digital camera and of a digital photograph, so today we’ll investigate what megapixels are and how much they really matter.