The Megapixel Myth: Why Size Matters

Several of y'all have been skeptical or puzzled at this space's insistence that more megapixels are not always a blessing in a digital camera, at least if they're being squeezed onto the same size image sensor chip.

Jack Schofield, gadget weenie for London's venerable The Guardian, does perhaps a better job of explaining than we have as he recounts his decision-making process in choosing an older mode of SLR over the latest thing, reasoning the lower-megapixel model would offer better image clarity:

This should not be a surprise. Nobody expected a Box Brownie to produce the same image quality as a Hasselblad simply because they used the same film. In fact, a camera's megapixel rating can be misleading because it stops people from thinking about sensor size.

It pays to think big with digital camera sensors [The Guardian]