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Feb 19, 2010

What Really Makes a Good Cell Phone Camera?

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The great megapixel race may finally be slowing down in digital cameras, but it's picking up steam in cell phones.

If this sounds a little crazy, that's because it is, experts say. Few people need 12 megapixels, especially in a cell phone camera. The megapixel race has grown out of the megapixel myth, the false notion that a camera with higher resolution is always better. Manufacturers and retailers, eager to convince consumers that they need the latest camera and phone models, have pushed this faulty idea hard.

"By itself, the number of megapixels doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the image produced," said Steve Berardi, founder of PhotoNaturalist.net. "Sure, it will tell you how big the image is, but bigger doesn't always mean better quality."

For the average shutterbug, five or six megapixels is probably plenty of resolution. Beyond this level, various other camera characteristics, such as the size of the image sensor and optics quality, are more important than raw megapixels.

As with the early days of digital cameras, the quality of cell phone photos is improving. But higher megapixel counts are likely not the main reason why, Berardi told TechNewsDaily.

"It's probably because they're using better [image] sensors, or just larger ones."

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