Megapixels (million pixels) is the way people measure digital cameras’ potential photo size. When choosing a digital camera, the key question is really how large do you want to be able to pint and still maintain quality. Since my company FinerWorks, focuses on large photo prints, we have a chart for our customers so they can see what their “new” digital camera is able to accomplish. The size (in inches) it shows is based upon the standard 3:2 aspect ratio which is the default dimensions of most digital photographs. This chart does not take into consideration any resizing you might do to a photograph once the image is taken and assumes you are taking your photo at its highest resolution. The great thing about digital cameras today is that you can usually make very big prints.
| Recommended Print Sizes (in inches) | ||||||||||||
| My Camera’s | Total | Fair | Good | Excellent | ||||||||
| Megapixels | Pixels | (72 PPI) | (150 PPI) | (200 PPI) | ||||||||
| 1 | 1225 | x | 816 | 17.01 | x | 11.33 | 8.17 | x | 5.44 | 6.13 | x | 4.08 |
| 2 | 1732 | x | 1155 | 24.06 | x | 16.04 | 11.55 | x | 7.70 | 8.66 | x | 5.78 |
| 3 | 2121 | x | 1414 | 29.46 | x | 19.64 | 14.14 | x | 9.43 | 10.61 | x | 7.07 |
| 4 | 2449 | x | 1633 | 34.01 | x | 22.68 | 16.33 | x | 10.89 | 12.25 | x | 8.17 |
| 5 | 2739 | x | 1826 | 38.04 | x | 25.36 | 18.26 | x | 12.17 | 13.70 | x | 9.13 |
| 6 | 3000 | x | 2000 | 41.67 | x | 27.78 | 20.00 | x | 13.33 | 15.00 | x | 10.00 |
| 7 | 3240 | x | 2160 | 45.00 | x | 30.00 | 21.60 | x | 14.40 | 16.20 | x | 10.80 |
| 8 | 3464 | x | 2309 | 48.11 | x | 32.07 | 23.09 | x | 15.39 | 17.32 | x | 11.55 |
| 9 | 3674 | x | 2449 | 51.03 | x | 34.01 | 24.49 | x | 16.33 | 18.37 | x | 12.25 |
| 10 | 3873 | x | 2582 | 53.79 | x | 35.86 | 25.82 | x | 17.21 | 19.37 | x | 12.91 |
| 11 | 4062 | x | 2708 | 56.42 | x | 37.61 | 27.08 | x | 18.05 | 20.31 | x | 13.54 |
| 12 | 4243 | x | 2828 | 58.93 | x | 39.28 | 28.29 | x | 18.85 | 21.22 | x | 14.14 |
| 13 | 4416 | x | 2944 | 61.33 | x | 40.89 | 29.44 | x | 19.63 | 22.08 | x | 14.72 |
| 14 | 4583 | x | 3055 | 63.65 | x | 42.43 | 30.55 | x | 20.37 | 22.92 | x | 15.28 |
| 15 | 4743 | x | 3162 | 65.88 | x | 43.92 | 31.62 | x | 21.08 | 23.72 | x | 15.81 |
| 16 | 4899 | x | 3266 | 68.04 | x | 45.36 | 32.66 | x | 21.77 | 24.50 | x | 16.33 |
Note: As you can see, it is rare even for the highest end digital cameras to achieve the larger print size and still be rated in the excellent column. Do not worry since most photo enlargements, even from professionals that do such things as bridal portraits or prints for galleries, rarely are seen at the “Excellent” level. Most of your largest prints will tend to hover in the Fair to Good level unless you have a super expensive digital camera. To help with matters, when printing on canvas or the fine art paper, you have more room to work with since the textured surface of the media helps hide any deficiencies.
