Does Mobile camera MP Size Only Decides Better Photos?

So, MP Size Only Decides Better Photos? Simple Answer- No. A mobile device with a 20-megapixel camera must take a high-quality photo. This is what the majority of us believe, where to make a good photo from mobile, the megapixel of the camera is not the only thing to consider, but it required the proper optimization technique. How many megapixels mobile camera you need a perfect photo? Do numbers of megapixels matter and what other important factors which you need to know before purchasing a mobile phone by its rear camera? Here we will discuss these matters in details and conclude that how to buy a good camera phone.

Every day, mobile technology is improving, especially the quality of a mobile camera. They are getting bigger and better every year. Whether it’s Samsung, Apple or Google, they always market their new launch of Smartphone by explaining that how many new megapixels camera they have introduced in their new mobile. The latest numbers of megapixels make your current mobile out of date.

If you bought a mobile phone last month with a 12 MP camera, and you wish to buy a new mobile phone with a 20 MP rear camera. Does it mean a thing when it’s come to take a better photo? Does an increase in megapixels amount matter to make better photo quality or it is just marketing hype? Megapixels do matter but up to a certain point.

What are megapixels?

To understand the term megapixels, first, you need to understand what a pixel is. A pixel is a dot in your photo, and your picture is made of millions of dots. There are one million pixels in a megapixel. The light has been captured by each pixel and turns it into data. This data has been combined to create an image.

The quality or detail of your image will be automatically improved with the more pixels. It is not necessary because the pixel captures both good and bad information which include saturated appearance, quality of colors, low light and grainy. These all can make the photo bad. So, more megapixels are useful to capture the information, but it collects both the good and noise (bad) data which can ruin your photo even if you have a high megapixel camera in your phone.

Is more megapixels mobile camera better? No. 

Camera MP Size Don’t Decide Better photos. It is not necessary that the quality of the photo will automatically improve just because you have captured it from a high megapixels camera. The sensor of the camera plays a significant role to make the picture perfect, Software also makes an important role.

Let’s take an example of a 12MP camera phone and a phone with a 20MP camera. By know, you must know that the 20MP phone camera will make a better photo but what if it has the same sensor which a 12MP phone camera has? A picture taken from the 20MP camera would be better, but it could be equally worse if the size of the sensor is not improved according to the number of megapixels. To get a better photo from the 20MP camera, the size of the sensor should be smaller. To Better Understand I attach the Samples Below. The photos are taken without using any filter. Used Mobiles are Samsung Galaxy J7 2015 (13 MP Rear Camera) and Google Pixel 2 XL (12.2 MP Rear Camera).

Let’s take the example of Google pixel 2 and three which have only 12.2 Megapixel as a rear camera but works better than all of the devices. You can Easily notice how much details and Noise reduction happened in Pixel 2 Devices. However, some devices have a 16+20 MP rear camera, but they are not well. It purely depends on the Good camera with a proper Optimization technique and the size of the sensor. So, next time when you are purchasing a Smartphone with a high number of megapixels, make sure that the size of the sensor should be fit to take a better photo.

How Many Megapixels do I need?

Now you understand the importance of megapixels and how a good photo does capture. Now the next question should be about your need of megapixels when you are buying a mobile phone by its camera quality.

Why do you want to buy more megapixel camera? If you only want to use to share photos on social media like YouTube, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook, then the number of megapixels does not matter because these platforms do support low-quality images. It is good to go with a less megapixel mobile camera because it will upload the photo fast.

If you want to print a photo, show on a digital TV or print for the billboard, then you probably need a high megapixel camera. But again, if you are displaying a 5 MP image on a Large TV screen, the quality of the image will not be improved but get worse because the image will be automatically scaled to fit with the size of the TV screen.

So, the number of megapixels does not matter until and unless you don’t know its purpose. The formula for picking the right phone by megapixels of the camera is simple. If you want to print the image, go with a high number of MP cameras. If you only want to view the photos and share on the digital media, then low MP would be fine and preferable as compared to the high MP phone camera.

How to choose a good camera phone to capture a good photo?

If you have world best mobile camera in your hand, but you have zero skill of photo capturing, you cannot end up taking a good photo. So other than just the number of megapixels, optimization techniques, sensor, and other technology, you must be know some details to capture a good photo.

When we talk about technology, then you must give equal importance to the sensor of the camera as it plays one of the main jobs to make the photo good. The sensor does not only capture the light from the lens but also turns into e-signals. This includes fixing the resolution, the light sensitivity has been capacitated, and colors have been reproduced and ISO, etc.

So, if your camera has a good image sensor and software, the amount of noise or bad information from the photo will be automatically reduced. Google pixel 2 and 3 are two of the popular mobile phones with a good sensor far in the market. Their sensors are even good when it’s come to take a photo in the low light.

Selva Ganesh

Selva Ganesh is the Chief Editor of this Blog. He is a Computer Science Engineer, An experienced Android Developer, Professional Blogger with 8+ years in the field. He completed courses about Google News Initiative. He runs Android Infotech which offers Problem Solving Articles around the globe.