One megapixel equals one million pixels. So an eight megapixel camera is recording (roughly) eight million pixels in every photograph you take. We can generally say: The more megapixels, the better.

With more megapixels, our photographs will have more detail. And detail is important. To better understand megapixels, here is how much detail megapixels contain for image use:

• 1 megapixel can fill the screen on a standard 17" computer monitor.
• 3 megapixels fill the screen on a Full High-Definition (HD) television (1080p).
• 6 megapixels can be published nearly 7x10 inches in a high quality magazine or book.
• And 12 megapixels printed at 16x20 inches on an inkjet printer will show an amazing range of detail.

What Are Your Needs?

When considering how many megapixels you need in your camera, you need to think about how you use your photographs. For example, what is the largest print you've ever made from a photograph? A standard 8x10 inch print? If that's the case you can get beautiful 8x10 prints with as little as 3 megapixels. So you might not need as many megapixels as you've been led to believe.

That being said, there are advantages to buying a camera with more megapixels than you think you might need. They are as follows—

1. Cropping. When cropping a higher megapixel photo, you'll have plenty of pixels to spare. For example, you can crop an 8 megapixel photograph in half and still have 4 megapixels to work with.

2. Sizing. In digital photography, you can always make your photographs smaller without any loss in quality. You cannot, however, make them bigger. Once you make a digital exposure, the photo cannot grow without some loss in quality. (This loss in quality can be minimized through special software, but it can't be eliminated.)

3. The "What If?" factor. You're eventually going to take your favorite photograph. Don't you want your favorite photograph to be captured at the highest possible quality?

Doing Your Homework

But before you run out and buy the highest megapixel camera you can afford, it is important to remember there are other factors to photo quality (especially your camera's sensor— which we'll cover in the next tip— and your lens quality). Some 8 megapixel cameras will give you better looking photographs than the 10 megapixel camera you're drooling over (at a lower price, too).

Make sure you look at sample files from the camera you're considering purchasing and compare them with those from similar models. You can find sample images from most cameras online. Those sample images will tell you more about a camera model's quality than the number of megapixels it shoots at.

In my own work, I've decided that I won't shoot less than eight megapixels. But that's for what I'm doing with my photographs. What you do with yours should dictate your megapixel needs.