| If I asked a new camera buyer to describe his or her | | | | asked. |
| new camera to me, I would be willing to bet $100 that | | | | In the simplest terms, your image sensor is basically the |
| within the first 3 sentences, I heard the word | | | | replacement for the film in your old school film |
| megapixels. I would also be willing to bet $1000, that the | | | | cameras. Sounds like a pretty important part of the |
| word image sensor never comes up in the description | | | | equation now doesn't it. Well, your right it is. The image |
| whatsoever. You may be asking yourself, well who | | | | sensor, is basically digital receptors that are sensitive to |
| cares? In reality, you should if your considering buying a | | | | light. Kind of like film was. The thing that makes an |
| new digital camera. You really need to know what | | | | image sensor better is size. A bigger sensor, allows for |
| your getting, and what is the difference between | | | | hold more receptors, and consequently more pixels. |
| megapixels and image sensors. | | | | Where manufacturers get into problems, is when they |
| Most people understand, that megapixels affect the | | | | try to cram too many pixels into a image sensor that is |
| resolution of the pictures they are taking. That higher is | | | | not really equipped to handle it. When this happens you |
| better, give that the more megapixels you have, the | | | | can actually degrade the quality of your pictures, and |
| higher resolution of pictures you can take. And why is | | | | end up with image distortions in the guise of image |
| that important? Maybe because they get better | | | | noise. Basically small artifacts that occur throughout |
| pictures? Well, maybe but not necessarily. Maybe | | | | your image that shouldn't be there. |
| because we've just been taught that more is better, | | | | In summary, more megapixels can be a good thing |
| so higher megapixels must be a better thing. Well, I'm | | | | when used with a large enough sensor to handle them. |
| hear to tell you, that myth is not necessarily true. If fact, | | | | So when comparing cameras take both megapixels |
| it can actually degrade the level of your picture quality, | | | | and sensors into account. If you look at two cameras |
| if your image sensor can't handle the extra pixels. | | | | that are 10 megapixel cameras, but one has a sensor |
| Image sensor you say, what is that? Well, glad you | | | | that is 20% larger, then that is the camera you want. |