Is there anything in a megapixel

[Huck]

I am still new to the digital world - can anyone help me with this question.

Is there a real huge difference in megapixels?

I currently have a 4.0 megapixel and going to upgrade to a DSLR. Is there much difference between a 6.2 and an 8.0 mexapixels. I currently shot a lot of things outside, but do some simple portraits on the side and shoot sports and things like that.

Thomas

[CaptainTom]

I wanted to jump on this thread early because I predict it will be a busy one.
The more pixels your camera records, the more information you have to work with when making prints. The more pixels you have, you can produce a larger acceptable print. If you are going to only ever make 4X6 prints, you don't need a high mp camera. If you are going to make 30X40 size prints, you need all the MP's you can get. Keep in mind that if you shoot a picture, and then crop it and resize it to let's say 8X10, in effect you have brought the image up to 16X20 size. If you have a lower mp camera (sensor) you should learn to compose your shots to fill your frame since you are limited in the amount of cropping that will produce a good print. Higher MP cameras have more "leeway".

Now, let the techno geeks explain how all of this works, and point out the flaws in my description. I am hoping to learn as well.

[mdurisseau]

I'm going to watch this with interest, as well...

[aggarcia]

The size difference between a 6.2 and 8.0 MP camera is actually pretty small, just like the jump from 8.0 to 10.0 MP. At a recent photoshop class there were hugh 40x60 wall posters. The class was asked to tel lthe difference between the shots taken with a D70s and a 20D. The class guessed wrong on all of them. We could not tell any difference in the posters. Like was mentioned earlier, the only difference might be in larger prints, but I have never been able to tell the difference.

[JamesB]

another note, you wont notice much, if any, quality difference between 4 and 6MP, or 8 and 10 MP. but you will notice a differance between 4 and 8 MP.

basically you need to double the MP's before you notice any quality differances.

there is a MP chart somewhere on the net showing the different sizes in MP's layed over one another so you can see the true size differance. I will try to find it or maybe someone here has it an can post it

James