for professional quality...

if you are visiting this forum (or reading my post in particular), you are probably either a rookie or professional photographer, or rather just a photoshop enthusiast looking to marvel yourself with the magic it contains. in any case, however, the quality of the photo you are working on must be of exceptional quality; we all dread heavy pixelization. but to actually harness photoshops true potential, having the highest quality of material is a must.

i work countless hours in photoshop with the photos i take with a kodak 5.0 megapixel camera that i was given last Christmas and i must say, 'it gets the job done'. 5.0 megapixels = 2557 x 1557 resolution and that's not bad. but canon offers slr's that will give you 18 megapixels.

so my question... for professional quality only, what is the min. for megapixels? remember, professional quality.

This is kinda a weird question. The answer really comes down to what you need it for?

Buying an 18 megapixel camera would be a massive waste if you were only printing 4x5 postcards. You'd lose so many pixels down sizing that it'd be pointless, or if you kept the pixels your PPI would be through the roof! Now if you were doing a matte for film, 18 megapixels might be a good investment.

As to a min, I have no idea since im not a photographer. A couple years ago 6 or 8 megapixels was considered proffessional, but thats pretty much the standard for consumer cameras now.

On the market, the camera with the highest megapixels is the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II with 16.6 megapixels.

Like Rodder said, it would be pretty insane and pointless to buy a + $8,000 camera if you won't use those images in large scale.

It always depends on what you want to do with it and how much you can pay for it. Several professionnal photographers start up with either the Cannon Rebel XT or the Nikon D70s. But you should really read more on that to get yourself a better idea. You can always check out http://www.dpreview.com/ to see some reviews

Yeah, it's impossible to answer this question.
What do you find a professional photos? What are you going to use it for?
I'm pretty sure when you ask this question, you don't need a 18 megapixel camera. If you just want to print out A4 size photos or postcards the canon rebel XT will get the job done. Or the nikon d70, d50 or d70s.

On the market, the camera with the highest megapixels is the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II with 16.6 megapixels.

If you really want the highest quality and just robbed a bank or something... look at hasselblad. :p 39 megapixel.

http://www.hasselblad.se/

the Nikon D70 is the "standard" pro camera if that helps, it's a 6.1 megapixel.

you really only need about 4 megapixels for most images, but generally speaking the bigger the better so you can crop images down, print bigger if needed, etc.

like just said,..id say 4ish

I'd also say around 4-6 would be sufficient for Pro level... I suppose it all depends what the end product will be.

What the hell NL!!!

I knew phase 1 did make a 39 megapixel camera or adaptator, but jesus, another one! Do you know how much this costs?

I know the phase one 39 megapixels is around 35,000$ (canadian dollars I think).


On the main subject, I myself would not go below 6 megapizel if you're looking for good quality print (8'' x 10''). But really, megapixels is only one feature among all the other... you cannot base your judgement only on that.

Indeed... just think of sensor size, extra lenses and all that...
What exactly do you photograph most?
Landscapes? Sports? Portraits?

You aren't there by buying the most megapixels.
If you can afford a 6mp camera and a few better lenses, or an 8 megapixel camera with less quality lenses... I'd go for the first option.


@OnCleSAm:

Not sure what this one costs. Probably around $40,000 or something?
I read somewhere that another hasselblad camera that came out a while back was $50,000.

Crazy people and their dreamy cameras...

Yeah, it probably costs $40,000 or even more.
The thing is, maybe one day, it'll become affordable. *cross fingers*