Apart from megapixels, what are some factors in digital cameras that affect image quality?
What affects the image quality of a digital camera? In spite of those who think that the image resolution is the most important factor, it is actually much less important than you may have been led to believe. The difference in image quality between a 4MP camera and a 5MP camera, all other factors being equal, is next to nothing. To see a substantial improvement, you must double the image resolution (e.g., 4MP to 8MP). What else affects the image quality? – Size of sensor and pixels (pixel area). – Sensor fill factor (percentage of pixel surface area that responds to light). – Amount of sensor noise at different ISO settings. – Optical quality of lens. – Quality of digital zoom algorithm. – Quality of image sharpening algorithm. – Accuracy of automatic white balance algorithm. – Size of the image (e.g., 640×480 is low quality). – Format in which the image is saved (e.g., compressed or uncompressed, amount of image compression when compressed). – Accuracy and speed of auto-focus system.
