What is the most important aspect of any digital camera? Resolution. Which is why the first thing you’ll see in advertising for any camera is how much resolution it has measured in megapixels (millions of pixels;pixels is a loose acronym for “picture elements”).
Resolution Measurements
Resolution is the paramount concern in digital photography because it refers to the quality and clarity of an image.In the digital world resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi),pixels per inch (ppi),or in the case of cameras, megapixels (mp).
So,if resolution measured in megapixels is the most important aspect of any digital camera purchase,how do you know what is good,better and best? Or,at a minimum,what you will need? To gain a fuller understanding of these questions and how to answer them,it makes sense to start at the beginning and examine the differences between digital and film resolution and between digital resolution and what we see with our eyes.
Bits vs.Analog
Digital files of any type,whether audio,video,graphics or photographs have in common that they are a collection of bits.So,sight and sound information from the real,“analog”world is taken and converted to a bit”format that can be calculated and displayed or played back by computers.
In the world of photography,the limitation of bits,generated from pixel information,is that they lack subtlety.A bit is square in shape and can only be one color.So,a transition from one color or shade to another must be made up of a series of very small,but nevertheless blocky steps.
This is not the case with film (or analog) photography,because the entire image is made from light of different wave lengths as captured within one large rectangle of celluloid film.As such,it can and does have smooth,continuous transitions between colors and shapes. The great thing about digital cameras now – as opposed to the early days when only 1mp cameras were available – is that the size of the transitional steps between pixels has gotten much smaller as higher megapixel cameras have become more common and affordable.
