This was taken at:




Way more than needed, and with a small sensor, it's mostljust fun to zoom in on people at this size.

As for sensors:


Digital Camera Sensor Sizes & Types



In actuality, the size of your digital camera’s sensor is probably the most important component determining image quality in your camera. Unfortunately, it can be almost impossible to figure it out just by looking at the box in Best Buy, and it’s hard enough even inspecting a manufacturer’s web site.

Your digital camera’s sensor is the chip inside of it, covered with light-sensitive pixels, that takes in light through the lens and converts it to a digital image. But larger pixels are more sensitive than smaller pixels, which means that the larger your sensor, the more clear and accurate your picture will be. A larger sensor will also take better pictures in low-light environments.

This is why digicams boasting larger megapixel counts counter-intuitively capture images at a decreased quality. Digicams have smaller sensors, and so the pixels must be smaller and more densely packed. All other things being equal, the larger your sensor, the better your images will be, with less noise and increased dynamic range.

Like we said, it can be virtually impossible to tell sensor size on a digital camera, just from looking at the box. So here are some useful tips: the more expensive the camera with the lower the megapixel count, the larger the included sensor is likely to be. You can also extrapolate sensor size from the digital camera’s ISO range (check out our section on ISO for more about this): in theory, the higher ISO a digital camera supports, the larger the sensor. The problem is that camera manufacturers will technically support higher ISOs, but the results are pretty terrible… the hallmark of a higher ISO being shoehorned into a small sensor not designed to support it.

Ultimately, if you’re going to be shooting in a lot of low-light environments without a flash, or care about maximum image fidelity, buy a DSLR: the sensors in DSLRs are by definition larger, and offer a four times greater signal to noise ratio than digicams. Otherwise, spend as much as you can afford on the least megapixels.

One final note: there’s two types of sensors, CMOS and CCD. Don’t let these effect your decision: CMOS sensors use a little less power, but are a little less sensitive. The effect is marginal.