Friends and family often ask me what kind of digital camera to purchase and how many mega pixels they need. First, there is no simple answer. The equipment you need depends on what kind of photography you do. In the age of film, the relative constant between cameras was the film. Films were, for the most part, similar in how they saw light and similar in the size of prints that you could make from a given negative (35mm, etc). Camera manufactures built cameras with differing levels of features and lenses that were designed to get the most from a given camera body. Glass (the lens) was arguably the most important aspect of a camera. Today, the digital sensor is the film. Now you need a combination of great glass (lenses) and a great sensor to help in getting great images. Today’s camera manufactures tie a camera’s mega pixel resolution directly into the marketing of the camera. The marketing implies that the more megapixles you have, the better the camera. THIS IS NOT CORRECT!!! My advice to most people is to get a camera that is around 6 megapixles. This resolution will handle 99% of what most people use the camera for. Why do I recommend 6 MP? The quick answer is that unless you are doing enormous enlargements (poster size +) or very aggressive cropping, then you really do not need anything more. Tens of thousands of people are purchasing cameras with 10+ megapixles and using them to take snapshots. When they get home they are left with enormous files that take many seconds to download, many seconds to call up on the screen, and files that bog down older computers. Unless you buy a faster computer, this will get frustrating and tiresome. FACT: The first digital-only photo spread for a National Geographic magazine article was shot with a 5.9 MP Nikon D1x. Good enough for National Geographic? Probably good enough for me and you! FACT: I printed a JPEG image from a 5.9 MP Nikon D1x at 11x14” and there was absolutely no visible evidence that the photograph was taken with a digital camera. Read that again. 11x14. That is a larger print than 99.9% most photographers ever make of the photos they take on vacation or around the home. Most people who shoot digital pictures don’t even print the photos anyway, so megapixel count becomes a mute point. A one megapixel photo will look great on a computer screen (and be easier to email!). In summary, don’t go shopping for a digital camera thinking that the camera with the most megapixles makes it better than the others. Much like the “horsepower race” among European and Japanese sport sedans, the camera manufactures are very happy that people are flocking to camera stores to buy the latest and greatest cameras with the most megapixles. Do you need 300+ horsepower to drive to and from work or down the road to Grandma’s house? 400? Absolutely not. Do you need 10+ megapixles to take great photographs or snapshots of friends and relatives? Absolutely not. My advice: Save your money and get a decent camera with a reasonable about of resolution (around 6 megapixels). The vast majority of the photos on my web site were taken with a 5.9 or 6 megapixel camera. I only recently started shooting the 10 megapixel D200 and, to be honest with you, I bought the camera because some of its features, not for its resolution. Had Nikon made a 6MP version of the D200 I would be shooting with it.