When you plan to purchase a digital camera, you may be confused about the requirement in terms of mega pixels of the camera. This entirely depends on you requirement of the final images, and the purpose for which you wish to purchase the digital camera.

The first step is to be aware of the term pixel. When we talk about digital printing, a pixel can be defined as a dot of color which forms the whole image. One mega pixel which contributes to form the complete image is equivalent to a million pixels. So accordingly, the greater the number of mega pixels in a camera, the higher is the resolution of the final image, as it would determine the volume of data it can store.

The best way to determine your requirement is to check your own requirement in terms of the final printed version of the image. For individuals who just wish to upload images over the internet and are not interested in actually printing the images, a camera with one mega-pixel is sufficient. And even if they want to print the image, it can quite comfortable provide a clear picture for the print size of 4 x 6.

For individuals requiring better quality pictures in the sizes of 5x7 or 8x10, choosing a digital camera with two mega pixels would be good decision. In case you want to print superior quality images for sizes of 8x10, or even a slightly lower quality for 11x17 print sizes, a camera with 4 mega pixels is recommended. The superior quality prints in the sizes of 11x17 can be shot using 5 mega pixel cameras.

In general, people prefer digital cameras with 3.2 mega pixels, as it gives good quality results for print sizes of 5x7 and 8x10 and you can conveniently save the files on your computer as they do not take up much storage space.

Cameras over 5 mega pixels are only suited for professional photographers and are not recommended for people who want to purchase cameras for everyday lives. But, in case you are interested in clicking poster size photographs, such cameras are the best. In general the freelance photographers use cameras which are four and five mega pixels as these are sufficient for providing quality images.

So depending on your requirement and your plans for using the camera you can choose the digital camera for yourself. However it is always recommended to choose camera with optimized optical zoom and low mega pixels for best results.