TechCorner - How many Megapixels do you need and how many is too many?

in this tech Hornet video I want to look at how many megapixels do you really need in this crazy world of large number marketing where bigger must be better we are hearing about cameras with 40 50 60 even 100 megapixels there are even mobile phones currently on the market with 48 megapixel cameras so in this video we are going to look at how many megapixels do you really need to answer that we need to have a quick refresher on camera sensors sensors come in a variety of sizes with medium format full-frame crop frame and micro four-thirds being the most common there is also a mobile phone sensor which I include here for comparison I'm not going to talk about Mobile's in this video but just keep in mind that typical sensor size of a phone as we go through this video so the way a sensor works is that it has certain number of pixels spaced equally edge to edge as the sensor gets smaller the pixels need to get physically smaller to fit the sensor as an example if you have a full-frame 20 megapixel sensor and a micro four-thirds 20 megapixel sensor the pixels on the micro four-thirds will be half the size of the full-frame sensor if they weren't they physically wouldn't fit the reason we care about pixel size is that as the pixels get smaller it impacts your cameras dynamic range and low-light performance if there is enough interest I may do a separate video as to why that is the case but for now you just have to trust me so although technology and low-light performance improves with every generation of sensors this relationship still applies this is the reason why mobile phones are so bad at taking photos at night so although higher resolution sensors will give you larger and sharper images there comes a point where each sensor size weather image quality starts to decline that's why there is a market for medium format cameras if you really need 60 100 or 150 megapixels you will also need a sensor so you are not compromising the image quality as the pixels can remain large enough to give you the best image quality possible this is why high-end professional DSLR cameras such as the Nikon d5 or the Canon 1dx are only 20 megapixels and deliver amazing image quality the takeaway from this is larger sensor pixels result in better image quality and the more pixels you cram on a sensor the smaller each pixel needs to be so how many megapixels do you really need if you are planning on only viewing your photos on a computer or digital screen than from Full HD you only need three megapixels yes you heard that right three megapixels a full HD screen has a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels a 3 megapixel camera has a resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels giving you a higher resolution at what your screen can display many people these days have transitioned to 4k which is 3840 by 2160 pixels a 10 megapixel camera will give you an image size of 38 72 by 25 90 which again comfortably covers the entire screen now let's pause here for a second consider these facts if you talk to anyone about the image quality of a 4k screen they will tell you how amazing it looks so why is a 10 megapixel camera considered outdated if you have no intention of ever printing your images then technically you don't need anything above 10 megapixels especially if you only shoot JPEG and don't do any editing so now that we are on the subject of printing let's have a quick look at print sizes to start 300 dpi is considered photo quality printing any higher and you just wasting ink as your eyes will not be able to see the difference at normal viewing conditions a typical 6 by 4 photo is 1,800 by 1200 pixels a 3 megapixel camera will give you a higher resolution than that moving to an 8 by 10 which is the print size of a photo our model would carry in their portfolio is 3000 by 2,400 pixels that's equivalent to an 8 megapixel camera with a little room left over for cropping let's say you want to print something larger to hang on a wall an 18 by 12 perhaps that's only 20 megapixels and an 18 by 12 is a very large print and keep in mind that the larger the print the further away you will be standing to view it so you can actually reduce the print resolution down from 300 dpi as the print size increases if you've ever seen a billboard up close it looks more like color noise than a photo but viewed from a distance and it looks photo quality so even if you are producing billboard images you really don't need anything above 24 megapixels so now that we know these facts why would you need a high-resolution camera some of the reasons include ability to crop down sampling and retouching cropping should be self-explanatory with larger images you can crop down to adjust composition or effectively zoom into the image without any loss of quality a higher megapixel camera allows you to throw away more of your photos through cropping without any loss in quality down sampling is simply exporting a large resolution image to a lower resolution the advantage is that the exported image will have less noise and appear sharper this is also true when shooting 4k video and down sampling to full HD but that's definitely a topic for another video when it comes to the world of retouching the more pixels you have to work with the better the retouch results will be since your editing software has more information to work with requiring less guesswork from the software this is why you will find most fashion and product photographers shoot with high resolution medium format cameras medium format provides a sensor size appropriate for the ultra high resolution and a large pixel count is perfect for high-end retouching so how many megapixels do you need as you can see that depends entirely on what you are planning to do with your images you need to ask yourself how are your images going to be displayed for most people 12 megapixels is plenty 22 24 megapixels is more than enough for the majority of photographers and it's a great balance point between resolution low-light performance and dynamic range just remember that sensor size plays a part in all this a 16 megapixel crop sensor will give you the same image quality as a 24 megapixel full-frame with the main difference being image size so don't fall into the marketing hype of numbers with bigger must be better like everything in life too much of anything is not good for you and if you think you can just get a 48 megapixel camera phone and get the same quality you would from a full-frame camera you're going to be greatly disappointed thanks for watching this tech corner video please comment below with any questions and if you found this video informative police subscribe and press the bell icon so you don't miss out on future videos

Channel: MartyK Photography

Views: 11,210

Keywords: megapixels, photography, how many megapixels, camera, camera megapixel, photography tutorial, photography 101, martyk, martyk photography, print resolution, tech corner

Id: wRKPZU5I9Qs

Length: 7min 34sec (454 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020