The Truth About Digital Cameras: Don't Waste Your Money on More Megapixels
December 12 2006
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As you might know, I am a gadget geek and really enjoy digital photography and sharing tips I've learned along the way. For those of you looking for a new digital camera this Christmas, New York Times tech guru David Pogue explains why more megapixels don't add up to crisper, sharper images.
Pogue took photos with 5-, 8- and 13-megapixel digital cameras, had them printed and blown up to poster size (16 X 24 inches). After they were attached to the window of a New York Circuit City store, he then asked passersby to pick out which ones came from the "better" cameras (to most people, meaning more megapixels).
Dozens of people stopped to take the test Pogue conducted for nearly 45 minutes and a little crowd gathered. Almost everyone (95 percent) gave up because they couldn't discern the difference between the three images, even when pressing their faces up against the prints.
Only one person out of the whole bunch correctly identified the megapixel counts of all three prints, and she was a photography professor, and as Pogue noted, very lucky.