Mega Pixels, How To Confirm!

[Santa Clarita Len]

Hi Guys, I am new to this forum and I would like to make a determination. I have a pocket size camera, the brand is SVP Model DC-12X (I have never heard of this brand either) and it is supposedly 12 mega pixels. I have never seen another camera with this many mega pixels, is there any way to confirm the exact number of mega pixels or can the manufacturer claim any number they want? It takes excellent pictures and I suppose I should just be happy with the camera and not worry about the details.

[retroactiv]

A megapixel is 1 million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays. For example, a camera with an array of 2048×1536 sensor elements is commonly said to have "3.1 megapixels" (2048 × 1536 = 3,145,728). The neologism sensel is sometimes used to describe the elements of a digital camera's sensor, since these are picture-detecting rather than picture-producing elements. (taken from wikipedia)

So multiply the height x width, 1 million = 1 megapixal....

[Santa Clarita Len]

A megapixel is 1 million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays. For example, a camera with an array of 2048×1536 sensor elements is commonly said to have "3.1 megapixels" (2048 × 1536 = 3,145,728). The neologism sensel is sometimes used to describe the elements of a digital camera's sensor, since these are picture-detecting rather than picture-producing elements. (taken from wikipedia)

So multiply the height x width, 1 million = 1 megapixal....

Thanks for your quick response, but I am really dense about pixels so what do I actually measure? The height and width of what?

[deckcadet]

The image files it produces. That's what has pixel dimensions. So if you take a photo and download it to your computer, you will be able to find out the dimensions of the image (e.g. 1920x1200 or 4288x2848, then you multiply the numbers.

However this isn't the whole story. Some no-name cheapo camera manufacturers blatantly lie to their customers. This is one such case. The sensor in your camera is actually only 3MP. Rather than sell it as such, they try and give you an impression that you're getting a better deal by selling it as a 12mp camera. In processing, the camera will interpolate (meaning it takes a smaller number of pixels and works with them to create data) up to 12mp, since that is a doubling of each pixel horizontally and vertically. Essentially, you can consider it as 3/4 of the pixels in each image being a fabrication based on the original pixels around it. Interpolation is far from perfect and will result in poorer quality. The good news is that you most likely don't need 12mp (even 3mp prints fine if you know what you're doing) so if you downsize your images some, it won't be too bad.