Do megapixels matter?

According to David Pogue, they don't. He did an experiment for a television series where he took a photo with 5, 8, and 13 megapixel cameras, then blew them up to 16x24 by downing the resolution twice.

He posted the poster in Times Square and only one of many passersby were able to tell the difference, and he thought she was just lucky.

Will this change your philosophy or purchasing decisions?

What do you think? Do megapixels matter?

Panasonic Lumix gets poor, yet humorous, review

Because this site is not intended to be a review site, I will merely link to a review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC L1K without comment, other than to comment on the review itself -- it's hilarious!

The subtitle of the review is:

"Point and shoot me"

Alternative to using the flash

When taking photographs, especially of people, and especially indoors, it is quite natural to use the built-in flash on your camera.

Don't do it.

The flash generally leaves a "shine" to your subject that makes it look like an amateur took the photo, which most likely is the case. But you can make your photos look great without using the flash and creating that "snapshotty shine."

Bump up the ISO. Most new cameras have a manual adjustment for the ISO setting. The ISO setting in a digital camera mimics the ISO of film in a film camera. Rather than having to change film, however, the digital solution is much cheaper and easier.

Generally speaking, you should always shoot at the lowest ISO setting possible that renders the best image. Usually, this is ISO 100. Shooting at an ISO of 100, versus at 800, for example, introduces comparatively less noise. But today's digital cameras are very good at the higher ISO settings. My Canon Digital Rebel XT shoots very good pictures at its highest ISO setting, 1600.

Here are two pictures. One was shot at ISO 100 with the camera's built-in flash, the other at ISO 1600 with no flash. See how the picture with the non-flash, higher-ISO setting looks more natural? By the way, there has been no manipulation of either image; the output of the camera was not altered in any way.

ISO 100, built-in flash

ISO 1600, no flash