FACT: Megapixels Aren’t As Important On Your Phone As You Think
Ever since the camera became one of the biggest selling points on smartphones, a lot of emphases has been placed on the number of megapixels a phone packs in its camera.
Even though the ‘megapixel war’ died down for a little while some time ago, today we see some big-name smartphone brands revealing cameras with megapixel counts upwards of 40.
But, does it really matter how many megapixels a phone camera has? How many megapixels are enough?
Before we dive into that, you need to understand what megapixels are.
What are megapixels?
Every digital camera has a sensor. This device is basically made up of light-sensitive photosites (also called pixels) that capture light photons as they enter the camera. The camera’s processor takes this light information from the sensor and uses it to recreate the image of the scene.
The total number of these pixels is referred to as megapixels. Mega- is a prefix that means ‘of one million’.
So, if a camera is said to be 12MP, that means it has 12 million pixels that capture light to produce an image. In simple terms, this means that the image is 4000 pixels wide by 3000 pixels high. This is known as the resolution.
The resolution or detail of an image is determined by the number of megapixels of the camera. For example, a picture taken with a 5MP camera will not have as much detail as one taken with a 20MP camera.
So the more megapixels a camera has, the higher the resolution of the images it will produce. This is important if you want to print your mobile photos, especially in very large sizes.
So, do more megapixels mean better picture quality?
No, they don’t. At least not entirely. There are other specs of a smartphone camera that contribute to picture quality such as the sensor, pixel size, and lenses.
The way digital photography devices were marketed in the past, consumers latched on to the idea that more megapixels meant better picture quality.
Perhaps in the smartphone camera sphere, consumers may have held a misguided belief that the higher the megapixel count is on a phone camera, the closer in quality the photos will be to those taken with a DSLR camera.
Before I learned more about cameras, particularly smartphone cameras, I would be disappointed every time my favourite brand of mobile phone had fewer megapixels than their competitors. Back then, I believed megapixels were everything.
However, it is the sensor that plays a major role. A big sensor generally means more resolution because you can fit more pixels onto it. Larger sensors also perform better in low lighting with less digital noise and high dynamic range.
Why? Because large sensors can also fit larger pixels. Just like how a large bucket can catch more water in the rain, large pixels can capture more light. The more light the sensor’s sizeable pixels can capture, the better the camera performs in low lighting conditions.
Obviously, the bigger the size of the pixels, the more space they occupy on the sensor. So instead of 20 million tiny pixels on a 1/2.55” sensor (commonly found on today’s smartphone cameras), you’ll end up with 12 million larger pixels on a sensor of the same size.
In this case, a 12MP camera could take better pictures in low lighting than a 20MP camera, although at a lower resolution.
How many megapixels are enough for a smartphone?
This is similar to asking how many bricks are enough to build a house. It depends on the size of the house, the size of the bricks and the design of the house you’re building.
If you’re building a large house with super fine details, then you’d need a lot smaller bricks than if you were building a small and simple house.
The same applies to the megapixels on smartphone cameras. It all depends on the size of the sensor (house), the size of the pixels (bricks) and what the manufacturer wants for the camera (design).
For example, if a smartphone company decides that they would like their device’s camera to focus more on light sensitivity than super high-resolution pictures, they would have larger pixels on their sensor. That means fewer pixels than on a camera with a higher resolution.
In other words, if two smartphones with identical sensors were compared, the phone with a 12MP camera could have better light sensitivity and therefore brighter pictures with less noise than a camera with double the amount of megapixels. However, the 24MP camera will have a larger more defined picture, albeit possibly somewhat noisier.
In the past, one of the reasons some smartphone companies padded their cameras with a lot of megapixels was so that the digital zoom wouldn’t degrade the quality of the photo too much when the image was cropped and expanded to fit the frame.
The number of megapixels that can be considered enough really depends on you and what you wish to do with your photos. If you’re going to sell your photos or make large prints and posters smartphone pictures, then a phone camera with 12 megapixels or more will work well for you.
If smartphone photography is nothing more than just an occasional pastime for you and you keep the pictures to yourself or only share them with a few friends and family, you might find that even a decent 8MP phone camera might be all you need.
In my opinion, smartphones don’t need to have 40 or more megapixels. Even 20 is a bit much, to be honest. In fact, some of the flagship smartphones from popular companies hardly go beyond 12 or 16 megapixels and yet they produce incredible photographs.
Do megapixels really matter then?
Yes, the number of megapixels your smartphone has does matter because it dictates how detailed the pictures from it will be. However, megapixels are not the only thing that matters as many consumers have been led to believe. Things like sensor size and pixel size have to be considered in a balancing act with megapixels.
To further understand the balance between megapixels, sensors, and pixel size, I’d suggest you read through this fully detailed guide on smartphone camera specs. It’s very easy to follow and will help you understand what really matters on a smartphone camera.
Originally published at https://thesmartphonephotographer.com.
