Like in many other fields there are plenty of myths or misbelieves in the digital photo market. Understanding why those myths are wrong can help you take better photos and be a better photographer.



One very common myth is the mega pixels myth that more mega pixels is better. While generally peaking having more mega pixels is not a bad thing comparing two digital cameras only by the number of mega pixels is very wrong. There are many other camera features that result in better digital photos. For example the quality of the lenses is critical the flash quality for indoor photos other features. Always compare cameras as a while look at all the important features that make good digital photos not just mega pixels.

Another myth is that digital cameras with more mega pixels have bigger light sensors also known as CCD. This is wrong. While there are a few common sensor sizes they usually do not correlate with the number of mega pixels. A 2 mega pixels digital camera can have the exact sensor size as an 8 mega pixels camera. There are consequences to the ratio between the number of mega pixels and the sensor size and thus always look in the digital camera specifications what the sensor size is do not assume it is bigger just because the camera has more mega pixels.

Another myth that has to do with printing digital photos is that before uploading photos to an Internet server they should be compressed. Most digital cameras store digital photos in compressed JPEG format. Once a digital photo is compressed it can not be further compressed and thus trying to compress the JPEG photos before uploading them is a waste of time. The myth is true only if you choose to save your digital photos in a non compressed RAW format which is something only high end professional photographers tend to do.

Another misbelieve is that digital photos since they are computer files and since they can be viewed on the computer screen can simply be printed using your standard home printer. While you can print photos with any simple printer the quality of the digital photo prints would be low. To get good quality photo prints you need a special photo printer that uses special photo paper both not very cheap.

Yet another mega pixels myth is that digital photos with more mega pixels look better when viewed on a computer screen. This is wrong. Computer screen have a low resolution compared to photo prints. For example a high end 1600 by 1200 pixels computer screen has only 1.92 million pixels. So a 2 mega pixels digital photo displayed on such a high end screen in full screen would still have 80 thousands pixels too many. If you display a 4 mega pixel in such a screen the computer will discard 2.08 mega pixels that do not fit. On such a high end screen a 2 mega pixels and a 16 mega pixels digital photo would look the same. The only advantage of a 16 mega pixels digital photo in such a case would be if dropping and zooming in to parts of the digital photo are needed.