How Many Megapixels Does It Take To Make A Good Mobile Phone Camera?
With some of the latest camera mobile phones featuring 14 megapixel lenses, it can make you feel like you’ve been left behind by the pace of innovation. But for the average user, are such advances in camera mobile phones worth the extra expense? Would most of us be able to see any difference at all?
Megapixels are used as a measure of a cameras resolution and therefore picture quality and indicate the number of image sensors built into the lens. So a one megapixel camera has one million pixels and a two megapixel model will have two million pixel sensors in it’s lens.
Are Megapixels In Monitors And TV’s The Same?
Technically, no. In a TV, a pixel consists of a single “dot” that can be one of several colors. Whereas on a camera lens, each pixel or image sensor only records one color (red, green or blue). So it takes three camera “pixels” to produce the same information for one screen pixel or dot.
Can Digital Camera’s Produce HD Quality Pictures?
Comparisons can prove technical as the technologies and applications are different, but a digital camera would need a resolution of about 2.4 megapixels to produce an image big enough to fill a standard HD display. (The image wouldn’t fit the full width of the screen as digital cameras normally take shots in a 4:3 ratio, compared with the 16:9 widescreen of HDTVs.)
You also need to bear in mind that a HD TV screen counts the number of pixels and not the size of each pixel. Therefore viewing an identical image that looks clear and sharp on your computer screen might appear blurred on a big widescreen high definition TV.
Are More Megapixels Always Better?
It depends. Although a camera with more megapixels will give a sharper image, there are many other factors that can determine the quality of the images produced. One is the lens, which is usually made much more simply than in digital cameras: how well this simplification works can affect the final result. Another factor is the flash: newer phones may have a Xenon flash, which is brighter than the older style LED flash, making better shots in dark conditions.
What Other Features Can Improve Resolution Quality?
Optical focus will zoom in by physically adjusting parts of the lens. This gives much better results than digital zoom, which simply takes the selected part of the image in view and blows it up.
Although optical zoom is a rare feature on camera phones and most will simply have a fixed focus or digital zoom, models with an autofocus feature will attempt to increase the image quality of the most important areas of the picture such as faces in a group shot.
How Many Megapixels Is Enough?
For the occasional snapshot, the 2 megapixels you’ll get almost as standard on anything but the cheapest phone should do. If you want the phone to effectively take the place of a regularly-used digital camera, you’ll probably want at least the 5 megapixels that is becoming standard on new smartphones. There are phones with cameras up to 14 megapixels, though by this point the inherent limitations of a camera phone may outweigh the benefits of an increased pixel count.
To discover more tips on comparing camera features read this camera phone guide article.
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