Megapixels

How to use up, let say: 8 megapixels digital camera in one picture?
So far, all I could get were: 3-4 megapixels JPEG pictures out of an 8 megapixels camera?
Any trick to shoot an 8 MP pictures?
Thanks
Ngan VU

Welcome to the Forum. What recording setting is your camera set at? If you set your camera on the highest setting, you will get 8 megapixel images. Open the photos in your image editing software and look at the pixel dimentions. Multiply the length by the width and that will tell you how many pixels you have.

I'm guessing that the 3-4 "megapixels" you are seeing, is megabits, not megapixels.

If you're using JPG file format (the usual setting in most cameras) then the file size will not be the same as the number of pixels.

Many cameras you can change the quality of the file (use the highest) and sometimes change the image size (use the largest).

The important thing here is that the JPG file format uses compression to make the file smaller while keeping the pixels. Sort of. It is a lossy compression, so some of the details of the picture are thrown away to make the files smaller.
That results in blocky patches in the image where the colour is nearly the same (like in the sky or fields) or loss of tiny details.

Even if you use highest quality, and largest image size, you will not get all the information that the camera sees - unless you can use a RAW file format instead of JPG.

Since you have a dslr, you might want to try shooting in raw. A bit more work in editing but you'll always have all your info in a lossless format and can go back to it.
If you continue shooting jpeg, as was mentioned above, there should be a place in your menu to select size and also quality. Pick the largest size and jpeg fine.

Thank you, all,
I will try to shoot in Raw, and see what will come out.
Ngan

With your suggesiton: I multiplied the length & width = I got exactly the megapixels I wanted.
Thank you Mike.