Which Camera Should I Buy?
My family, friends, neighbors and colleagues often ask me that question. And I can't blame them for getting confused - all those Sunday ads can be extremely confusing if you don't know what the terminology means, which reminds me I still need to post a FAQ sheet explaining some of these crazy photography terms.
In my opinion I personally feel WAY too much emphasis is placed on megapixels (MP). Normally the camera's MP is posted in big bold numbers. It's often the first thing you see other than a picture of the camera. People always ask me how much MP they will need in order to take a good picture. My answer to them is it depends on what you plan to do with your camera.
For those who wish to simply pick up their camera, point it, shoot it and print out a snapshot size photo (6x4 inch or 148 x 100 mm) a three MP camera will be plenty. Even 2 MP cameras are perfectly capable of taking a film quality 6x4 inch photo.
Those wishing to print larger photos, like an 8.5 x 11 (216 x 279) should consider purchasing a digital camera in the 4 to 6 MP range.
If you are interested in taking poster size photos, or if you think you will be cropping some of your pictures (digitally cutting a section of the picture and then enlarging it), a camera of at least 7 MP will be necessary, possibly as high as 10 or 12 MP for the cropping of small areas of a photo and blowing them up to full size.
But for most people, taking a picture and printing snap shot size prints is all they are interested in doing with their camera. My advice for those people would be to purchase a 3-5 MP camera and save your money. Why pay extra money for things you will never use? Or if you want, you could use the extra money to invest in a camera with a high quality lens or a high quality imaging processor.
Everyone wants their pictures to look nice. But a camera with many megapixels could be a huge waste of money unless you are interested in getting very creative in post processing activities. Generally I try to encourage people to purchase a camera with a little more MP and features than they think they will need just in case they decide at some later point to branch out and experiment.
Bottom Line: Don't waste your money on features and MP you will never need or use and save it instead for other things.