Measuring resolution

     You have probably seen the labels: 1.2 megapixel, 2 megapixel, 3.8 megapixel… this is the amount of detail that the camera can capture, also called the resolution. A digital camera’s resolution is measured in pixels. The more pixels your camera has, the more detail it can capture. The more detail you have, the more you can blow up a picture before it becomes "grainy" and starts to look out-of-focus.

     Some typical resolutions that you find in digital cameras today include:

• 320x240 pixels - You find this resolution on very cheap cameras. This resolution is so low that the picture quality is almost always unacceptable. Cheap parts make this a very common resolution among web cameras. This is a total of 65,000+ pixels.
• 640x480 pixels - This is the low end on most "real" cameras. This resolution is great if you plan to e-mail most of your pictures to friends or post them on a Web site. Most of today’s popular ‘camera phones’ from manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson and Nokia are built with this resolution. This is 307,000+ of total pixels.
• 1216x912 pixels - If you are planning to print your images, this is a good resolution. This is a "megapixel" image size -- 1,109,000 total pixels or 1.1 megapixels.
• 1600x1200 pixels - This is "high resolution." Images taken with this resolution can be printed in larger sizes, such as 8x10 inches, with good results. This is almost 2 million pixels for every single photo.
• You can find cameras today with up to 10.2 million pixels. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the megapixel count, the higher the tag price.