How Important is MegaPixel Count?

It's really funny whenever I hear this question... "So how many megapixels is your camera?"

I think I get this question several times a night at every wedding I shoot and sometimes when I do consultations with potential clients.

If I said, "I shoot with a 6.1 MP camera" and the person asking the question has one of the new 8 MP point & shoot $399 cameras, would that mean his camera is better than mine? If that were the case, why is my primary camera and lens over $3000?

Or if I said, "I shoot with a 12.3 MP camera" would that mean that I'm a better photographer simply because my camera "out-megapixel'ed" the other camera?

Nikon has a professional camera called the D2Hs that sells for $3500 without a lens. It's a 4.1 MP camera. But what a camera it is! It's the fastest camera out there for sports shooters (ok, I can hear the Canon fans booing me now) but it's only 4.1 MP. Why would a pro buy a 4.1 MP camera over a $399 8 MP camera? Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Megapixel count has become the standard by which many people base their purchasing decisions when buying a new digital camera. Oh, and small size seems to be a big factor too. But when it comes to professional photography, those things aren't as important as other factors.

There are image sensors and then there are image sensors. Some at 4.1 MP will blow away the image quality from others whose sensors are 8 MP or greater. All is not equal when it comes to megapixels.

I use three cameras at most weddings. Two are 6.1 MP cameras and the other is 12.3 MP. Why don't I just use the 12.3 MP on all my shots? Well, first, I doubt very seriously that many people can tell much difference between the two in terms of resolution for a typical 11x14 or smaller image. If you increase that to 16x20 or larger, perhaps you might see some quality improvement with the 12.3 MP camera. But that's not why I use the 12.3 MP camera. That camera happens to have the ability to produce great images for outdoor shots and for natural ambient light photos. It's much better than the other two cameras. But the 6.1 MP cameras I use give me more flexibility in post production corrections than the 12.3 MP camera. So I use those cameras often for shots with flash photography.

It's more involved than I care to comment on here on a blog, but suffice it to say that each camera has its strengths and weaknesses. But they are all far superior over most people's $399 point and shoot digital cameras with the larger 8 MP sensors.

That brings us to another point... why do point & shoot digital cameras have such small lenses that zoom in from ultra wide angle to telephoto ranges when big SLR (single lens reflex) digital cameras have such large lenses that only seem to zoom in small focal ranges? That will be covered on another installment!

What does this all mean for your wedding? Well for starters, nothing. It doesn't much matter what the photographer uses to capture your wedding day images as long as he or she is competent in handling the equipment used and has the artisitic ability to capture the image in a pleasing stylistic way. I've often said that it would be really cool to walk into a wedding wielding my cheap Fuji F10 point and shoot camera and taking an entire wedding day's worth of images from it. I bet it would look fantastic and the bride and groom probably would be just as happy with those shots as the ones that could have been shot with my cameras that cost mega-dollars. Why? Because I shot them, that's why!

Proper composition, lighting adaptations and other factors are more important than mega-pixels whether it comes from a point & shoot camera or an SLR. The photographer makes the image, not the camera. This is why I don't mind when others shoot next to me when I shoot the "formals" at weddings. I know my images are going to blow theirs away when they are compared. It just makes me look even better when they shoot! :)