Megapixel - definition
Megapixel is the unit of camera or graphic resolution. It is roughly equivalent to 1 million pixels or to be more precise (in binary calculation) 1,048,576 pixels.
Well, as mentioned earlier, it’s nothing but a unit of measurement. For example, we measure a table surface area using formula = (Wide x Length) in square foot or, square meter or, square inch or, square centimeter and so on. But we can't measure a digital image file with these physical units; obviously we can convert the unit into some other equivalent unit, but that wouldn't be a wise idea of doing it.
Now let’s go to megapixel. In digital image file, the size measuring unit is called Pixel, if we multiply this with (x1000) then it becomes kilo-Pixel, if we again multiply it with one more (x1000) then it becomes Mega-Pixel. So, what do we get? As a definition it can be said that, Megapixel is the unit of measuring the size of a digital image file. Now there are a lot of types of camera with numerous megapixel ratings can be seen in the market such as 2MP, 3.2MP, 5MP, 8 MP, 12MP, 16MP, 18MP, 24MP, 48MP, 64MP, 108MP and so on. Depending on the application we use different kind of resolution.
Let’s see a conversion:
A 12MP camera means it can create a picture with a physical size of 3000 (width) x 4000 (length) pixel with an aspect ratio of 1:1.33 [roughly].
i.e.: It can be said iPhone 13 has a 12MP or 12 Megapixel main camera sensor.
Well, as mentioned earlier, it’s nothing but a unit of measurement. For example, we measure a table surface area using formula = (Wide x Length) in square foot or, square meter or, square inch or, square centimeter and so on. But we can't measure a digital image file with these physical units; obviously we can convert the unit into some other equivalent unit, but that wouldn't be a wise idea of doing it.
Now let’s go to megapixel. In digital image file, the size measuring unit is called Pixel, if we multiply this with (x1000) then it becomes kilo-Pixel, if we again multiply it with one more (x1000) then it becomes Mega-Pixel. So, what do we get? As a definition it can be said that, Megapixel is the unit of measuring the size of a digital image file. Now there are a lot of types of camera with numerous megapixel ratings can be seen in the market such as 2MP, 3.2MP, 5MP, 8 MP, 12MP, 16MP, 18MP, 24MP, 48MP, 64MP, 108MP and so on. Depending on the application we use different kind of resolution.
Let’s see a conversion:
A 12MP camera means it can create a picture with a physical size of 3000 (width) x 4000 (length) pixel with an aspect ratio of 1:1.33 [roughly].
i.e.: It can be said iPhone 13 has a 12MP or 12 Megapixel main camera sensor.
