How Many Megapixels Does It Take To Make A Good Mobile Phone Camera?

You can now buy camera mobile phones with as many as 14 megapixels. Although most camera phone handsets come with around 8 megapixels, many consumers are bound to ask if such big jumps in mobile technology really make that much difference for most average users. Is it worth spending the extra money to get a higher megapixel camera, even if you are a bit trigger happy?

First let’s look at megapixels themselves. They 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?

Not quite. In a screen, a pixel consists of a single “dot” that can be one of several colors. Whereas on a digital camera lens, each pixel or image sensor records just one colour, either red, green or blue. So it takes three camera “pixels” to produce the information for one screen “pixel”.

How Do Phone Camera Resolutions Compare With High Definition?

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.

So With Megapixels It’s Simply A Case Of Bigger Is Better?

Whilst bigger might seem better, it’s not so black and white in practice. 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. A second critical factor is the camera flash which is often a Xenon version on newer phones. These give off a brighter flash than older LED versions and therefore better pictures.

Can Other Camera Features Give Better Quality?

An optical focus or zoom can make a big difference when trying to home in on an object in the distance and works by adjusting part of the camera lens itself rather than relying on a processor chip to do this digitally.

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 Too Much?

If you’re simply an occasional phone photographer the usual 2 megapixels on most phones should be adequate for many users. If you take your phone snapping more seriously and demand high quality results as good as an average dedicated camera, then you’ll need at least 5 megapixels. Going any higher with the current level of technology often means you would be better off buying a dedicated digital camera and using your phone as a backup.

To discover more tips on how to compare camera features read this guide to buying camera phones article.