DSLR Intro

I know most of you are using your phones to take pictures right now. I still want you to know the basics of how a DSLR works, which is the same principles that your phone uses. The difference is that the sensor on a phone is usually smaller and the cell phone uses an electronic shutter instead of a physical mechanical one. (Please do not take your cell phone apart to see how it all works, don't want to get into trouble.)

THE MEGAPIXEL

(Not to be confused with Megaman)

The importance of megapixels as they relate to images. The total number of pixels that will be captured to make up the image is called a megapixel (MP). Each MP is actually 1024 pixels, so

1 MP = 1024 pixels. The higher the megapixel count on a camera sensor, the greater amount of detail that can be captured in a picture. So the T6i cameras we use at school have a 24.2-megapixel sensor which means they capture a more detailed image than the older T5i cameras which have a 18-megapixel MP sensor.

So what does that all really mean?

It only comes to play if you are wanting to print out large format images. If your images will only be seen on a computer monitor, TV screen or smartphone, noone will see the difference. However the impact on a large printed image will be more obvious. See chart below for acceptable printed size taken directly from the photo on your device. What size of sensor is on your phone?