Digital Cameras

[TEAK36]

Hi,

I am interested in a Digital Camera for sale on Ebay, the camera is listed as a 12 Mega Pixel camera, but when I look at the specifications it says the 12 Mega Pixel is interpolated.It then says 3 Mega Pixel, then 2 MP, then 1.3 MP, but these do not have the word interpolated next to them.

Please can someone explain what this interpolated means. Is it good/bad. Is this really a 12MP camera?

[vehelpfulguy]

Interpolated is where they use fancy technology to "improve" a picture by adding pixels where none exist.

The camera may really be say a 6Mp camera, but after the picture is taken the camera will "add" pixels to the picture by analysing the pixels and putting extra ones in that it thinks belong there.

So if you have say a blue sky, and all the pixels are blue, then the camera adds extra blue pixles.

I would not say it is a "bad" thing, but nothing beats having the "real" pixels.

This technology was used a couple of years ago but with the increase in pixels in cameras it is not really used much any more.

[vehelpfulguy]

If you can point us to the actual camera on e-bay we can see if it is any good.

The reason it says 3mp, then 2mp, then 1.3 may be that cameras can usually have settings which define how good the picture is and how many pixels the picture will use.

So a camera may have a setting of "top quality", "good quality", "average quality", "low quality" and so on. All this is doing is changing the number of pixels that will be used in the picture.

Obviously the lower the number of pixels the lower the quality of the picture.

To answer your last question, NO it is NOT a 12mp camera.

[TEAK36]

Thanks for your help vehelpfulguy.Below is a link to the Camera. It is only a cheap one. I just did not want to purchase what is advertised as a 12MP Camera, when in reality it might only be 3MP.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UX-Kyoto-2-3-TFT-12MP-Vi deo-Camcorder-Digital-Camera_W0QQitemZ18020509 9628QQihZ008QQcategoryZ31388QQssPageNameZWDVWQ QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[4candles]

The max resolution appears to be 640 x 480, which is 0.3 Mp

[vehelpfulguy]

>The max resolution appears to be 640 x 480, which is 0.3 Mp

I think that is for video.

I think it is a 3mp still camera, which is pretty poor

In fact the line that says:

"3.1 mega pixel CMOS sensor and reachs up to 12 mega pixel power"

is a load of bo11ox, there is no way a 3mp picture can be upgraded to a 12mp picture.

Personally I would steer well clear of this.

[TEAK36]

many thanks for all the advice, I will go with vehelpulguy's recommendation and steer well clear of this one.