by dfreely » Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:40 am
No, it does not effect "zoom" after a photo has been taken, nor does it effect the ability to "enlarge the photo without graininess".
Megapixels simply dictates how big a photo you can shoot, that's it. It does not effect quality or detail. The reason the two of you may think it has something to do with zoom/enlargement is probably because you're viewing a smaller, resized verison of the photo, since many image viewing programs will resize images to fit your screen size. When you're "zooming in" or "enlarging it", you're not actually doing either - you're simply beginning to view the photo in it's true size.
And the reason I don't think it matters these days is simply because the majority of people aren't going to need that many megapixels. Even a 7-megapixel camera shoots at around 3000x2300 pixels, and can be used to make poster prints of around 20" x 30". Most people don't even print above 8" x 10".
No, it does not effect "zoom" after a photo has been taken, nor does it effect the ability to "enlarge the photo without graininess".
Megapixels simply dictates how big a photo you can shoot, that's it. It does not effect quality or detail. The reason the two of you may think it has something to do with zoom/enlargement is probably because you're viewing a smaller, resized verison of the photo, since many image viewing programs will resize images to fit your screen size. When you're "zooming in" or "enlarging it", you're not actually doing either - you're simply beginning to view the photo in it's true size.
And the reason I don't think it matters these days is simply because the majority of people aren't going to need that many megapixels. Even a 7-megapixel camera shoots at around 3000x2300 pixels, and can be used to make poster prints of around 20" x 30". Most people don't even print above 8" x 10".