Do megapixels matter?

When it comes to camera’s there is one thing most people flex with… That’s right, megapixels. Nowadays when you buy a camera you tend to look at the amount of megapixels first. But do they matter? Before we answer that question, let’s look at what megapixels actually are and what they do.

An image sensor of a camera contains pixels. Those pixels gather information about the image you’re taking a photo of. They register what colors are available and where they are located in the image. This information altogether creates a photo. For example, a 20.2-megapixel camera has an image sensor with over 20 million pixels. You can take a photo of about 4000 by 5000 pixels. More pixels on the sensor means more pixels in your photo, which translates to a more detailed photo. Just to be clear, we are talking about resolution here!

Let’s say you want to send your girl a dickpic. You take a photo that is originally 4000 by 6000 pixels which makes it a 24-megapixel photo. Before you send it, you notice that some other girl’s panties are on the top right corner of the photo.

So, you decide to crop the photo. When you crop the photo you essentially zoom in on the photo, so now you have let’s say a 3000 by 4000-pixel photo which makes it a 12-megapixel photo. You can still see the details on your captain and his lieutenants. If you just send it to her, the average person wouldn’t notice that it’s a 12 megapixel dickpic, because phone screens are too small for that.

However! If you want to enlarge and print your photo, that’s a whole other ballgame (no pun intended). In order to print a A4 sized photo it has to be at least 10 megapixels. For an A3 sized photo you’ll need at least 17 megapixels. Why you ask? Because otherwise the space between two pixels will become too big. Therefore, the transition between the pixels will be less smooth and your little friend won’t look so detailed anymore. Oh, by the way! In a low light situation, a camera with less megapixels will likely produce a better image than a camera with more megapixels. Because there are less megapixels, each pixel has a bigger area which means each of them can capture more light. If you like to take your dick pics at night, this is just a heads up (again, no pun intended).

So, will more megapixels give you a better photo? Not necessarily. There are more things that come into play. Like the sensor size, the sensor type and the lens you use. Therefore, before you take that photo, just ask yourself one question: “am I going to print it?” If your answer is no, then it doesn’t really matter. If your answer is yes, then… yes, more megapixels are recommended.

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