I’m going to admit something very personal and troubling to you today.  Until today, I had no idea what a megapixel was.  For all I knew, it was just some arbitrary number tacked on to the model number of a digital camera, intended to make your new toy sound more technically advanced.  Sure, I had a vague idea that megapixels in some way correlated to the image quality a camera produces, but which was more desirable—more megapixels or fewer?  And what exactly is the difference between megapixels and pixels?  For whatever reason, they didn’t cover this stuff in junior college. 

When you find yourself ignorant on a given topic, it’s always a good idea to ask someone smarter than you to teach you some basics.  So, I asked the Internet.  The Internet tells me that a megapixel is one million pixels, and that it’s a term often used to refer to the number of sensor elements in a digital camera.  For example, a camera with an array of 2048×1536 sensor elements is commonly said to have "3.1 megapixels."  So, the more sensor elements, the better image quality you get from a camera, right?

Well, sort of.  In theory, more megapixels are better.  But as camera makers cram more and more megapixels into their products, the limitations of the “more sensors=better” ideal are becoming apparent.  Chiefly, the sensor elements have gotten smaller and smaller as manufacturers race to stuff their cameras full of more megapixels, meaning some of the smaller, high-megapixel cameras out there today are less sensitive to light, leading to poorer image quality overall.

Why are camera makers trying to cram more megapixels into digital cameras?  Well, because most people are like me and don’t have any real notion as to what a megapixel is.  All we know is that more is always better, and camera makers discovered they could charge more for cameras that boasted a ton of megapixels.  That’s why today’s deal of the day is such a steal.  Not only is the Kodak EasyShare M341 a name-brand camera with enough megapixels (12.2) to churn out high-quality photos in any light conditions, but it also happens to be cheaper at BuyersHQ.com than you’ll find anywhere else on the Web.  It’s the best of both worlds!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to ask the Internet what “digital” means.