What is the first thing that crosses your mind when comparing two mobile cameras? Most likely it’s the Megapixels [MP]. Mobile companies spent millions in advertising their mobile camera especially highlighting its Megapixel count. But what does that even mean? how does that impact your photos and does more MP means better resolution? In this article, we shall answer these questions.
What is megapixel?
Megapixel which is also denoted by “MP” stands for million pixels. Let’s say you capture an identical image with a 1MP and a 20MP camera. This would mean the image captured by a 1 MP camera would be made up of 1 million pixels. while the image captured by a 20 MP camera would be made up of 20 million pixels. We have briefly talked about what is a pixel and how it affects the image in this article.
Does a higher MP mean a better image?
Technically yes, the higher the MP more detailed the image will be. But there is a catch. To truly enjoy that higher resolution you will need to see that image on a bigger display. On the other hand, if you are someone who takes prints of their images then you will need to take a print of 18 inches or bigger to truly enjoy the picture that you captured at 50 MP. Hence simply put higher MP will yield higher resolution images but to truly view them at that resolution you will need a bigger display.
Most social media applications can’t show your image above 2 MP. This means that you might have captured a great photo with your new phone with 50 MP, but the moment you upload it, it will be shown in 2MP to others. Even a phone with a 4K display is not capable of showing an image above 8MP.
Advantages of Higher MP
Based on on previous paragraph it might look like having a higher MP camera is not much of a use. And you will be right if you post pictures on social media or use your phone for most of the viewing. But there is one major advantage for those people who do a lot of editing. While editing such as cropping or rotating your landscape shot into portrait format, the resolution of the image drops. Hence for this situation, it is ideal if you take images at higher resolution. They can help with maintaining the quality of the image while editing it.
Similarly, people who work in advertising or conduct commercial shoots need to have a higher MP camera. Their work involves a lot of upscaling the image for the banner while downscaling the same image for their social media post.
Conclusion
Higher MP does produce higher resolution images but in the end, it’s your usage that will determine if you need a higher MP camera. Also, your usage might change from time to time. For example, if you go for 10 days vacation you will probably click over 1000 photos. If you use a higher MP camera then each image generated will occupy higher space. Hence in this situation, a lower MP camera would work better.
Also don’t forget megapixels are just one of the parameters which determine the quality of your image. The sensors, lens you use, and many other physical and digital components together define the quality of your final image. Hence next time a mobile company advertises its higher MP camera don’t simply assume your photos will be of better quality.