Megapixels
Million picture elements
That is literally the description: How many million dots a digital image contains.
| What | Megapixels | x times y | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old TV picture | 0.4 | 720 x 576 | For many years, people were happy with this resolution |
| Typical computer screen | 1.3 | 1'280 x 1'024 | Many computers still work with this resolution |
| Full HD screen | 2.5 | 1'920 x 1'280 | Standard high-quality TV picture |
| 4k TV resolution | 8.3 | 3'840 x 2'160 | High-resolution TV pictures |
| Nikon D90 | 12 | 4'288 x 2'848 | Lowest resolution camera I have |
| Nikon D850 | 45 | 8'256 x 5'504 | Highest resolution camera I have |
What does it look like
The pictures below have been resized to different resolutions, I have asked your browser to display them in their original resolutions. You can be the judge of what makes sense. Please note that the original 45 Megapixel image was converted with 87% quality for JPEG encoding to reduce file size.
This wiki has a maximum size for uploads, so I had to choose an image that compresses well to make sure that the 45 Megapixel image would stay within reasonable size. This is with the Nikon 180 at a distance with aperture f/2.8 which is quite sharp on the flower in the middle, but very soft around the rest. If I wanted to show you how important the resolution of a camera is, I would have photographed a detailed map hanging on the wall. Unlike a natural picture like this one, a map may have relevant information for you when you look up close, so the more pixels, the better.
800 pixels wide, 0.4 Megapixels
1'280 pixels wide, 1.1 Megapixels
2'560 pixels wide, 4.3 Megapixels
3'872 pixels wide, 10 Megapixels
5'478 pixels wide, 20 Megapixels
8'256 pixels wide, 45 Megapixels, original
These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.