I just read the FAQ section in this form and it said that "4X6 pics and e-mail a 2 megapixel camera is fine". I have all my pictures developed 5X7 is that enough difference to warrant a higher megapixel??

With the prices on digital cameras coming down, why not spend a couple extra $$'s and get a little more megapixel, you never know when you are going to get a picture that you want to see larger than 5x7.

Partly depends on what you intend to use it for.. A consideration is the camera is likely to get rough treatment while snowmobiling. I'd rather take a smaller less expensive cam, and save the bigger one for other uses. But if you only plan on having one then a 3MP would be a good compromise. Also, for what it's worth, I've made 20"x30" blowups from the 2MP and they don't look that bad.

i would go for a 3 or more mega pix

I have a 2 meg Kodak. 5X7 pictures look good. However - if you think you will be using the digital zoom and then enlarge to 5X7 you will notice a lack of sharpness.

that's what I'd go for

This picture is with my canon digital video camera. It is only 1.3 megapixel (1280x960 for stills) and it prints on a 8 x 11 just fine. I suppose higher is better but it will take up a lot more disk space.

I forgot to mention, it has a 16x optical zoom which makes shots like this possible. If you save it to your hard drive and look at the advanced properties of the picture (xp or better) you will see all the info about how the picture was taken.

It took me awhile to let that 561k image fill in, but it does make a good point. For the web, even 1.3MP is plenty.

Very nice pic, by the way. Which model Canon video cam is that? Excellent image, really nice!

It is a Canon Optura 20

Like I said, if you look in the properties of the picture it will even tell you the make of camera and more importantly to me, the time & date.

Here is a Sledding Video from the camera. It is 4 megs in size. It is downgraded so It could be a reasonable size to download.

heres a sized down(to make it fit on this site) pic with a 2.0 mp camera.

2 meg is fine for email you do not need anymore most computer screens/video cards will not show any difference above this resolution. Up to 5x7 should be OK as has been mentioned though you may want to jump to a 3 meg to be sure. this kind of depends on the quality of printer you have or plan to have, a top of the line printer will likely show the difference between 2 and 3 Meg but a middle of the road printer you would not see a difference. And don't be sold on the digital zoom all they really are is a selling feature - almost useless, if you want a zoom you need an optical zoom...if the camera comes with digital as well thats fine. All the digital zoom does is expand the pixels (lower resolution) so a 2 meg picture could end up at 200K resolution when zoomed.

Don't get got up in the mega pixel rat race... A crappy quality 5 mega pixel camera will give you crappy pictures.. In my opinion pushing mega pixels is the same as flaunting MHz (but that's way off topic)..

Anyways..

Here's a crop from a picutre I took yesterday afternoon w/ a Canon A60 2 megapixel cam.