Digital camera... Canon Ixus 40 Vs Canon Ixus 50

[fairy!]

Ixus 40 is 4 mega pixels... Ixus 50 is 5 mega pixels... is it worth spending more money for this extra mega pixel?? What will I actually gain??

Thanks!

[Buenchico]

Have you got an A2 or A3 sized printer? Do you intend taking professional photographs for inclusion in big calendars or coffee table books? If the answer to both questions is 'No' then you don't need more than 3Mpixels at the very most. You won't be able to see the difference on any print up to A4 size. For the casual user, a decent optical zoom is far more important than unnecessary pixels.

Chris

[fo3nix]

I'd agree with Buenchico. For the average user just wanting to take regular pictures like they did with their 35mm film camera, 4MP is plenty.

Take note of cameras with good lenses. Sony generally user Carl Zeiss (good), Panasonic use Leica (also very good). Canon produce their own lenses, and are of great quality too.

This is why you see these very cheap cameras that claim 4-5MP and thus great images, when in fact you won't get great images as the optics won't be great.