A megapixel (MP or Mpx) is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays. For example, a camera with an array of 2048 × 1536 sensor elements is commonly said to have "3.1 megapixels" (2048 × 1536 = 3,145,728).
Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, consisting of a large number of single sensor elements, each of which records a measured intensity level. These sensor elements are often called "pixels", even though they only record 1 channel (only red, or green, or blue) of the final color image.
Citing megapixels (MP) is a popular shorthand way to express the resolution of a digital camera in terms of how many millions of individual pixels (picture elements) are present in the image at time of capture.
Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, consisting of a large number of single sensor elements, each of which records a measured intensity level. These sensor elements are often called "pixels", even though they only record 1 channel (only red, or green, or blue) of the final color image.
Citing megapixels (MP) is a popular shorthand way to express the resolution of a digital camera in terms of how many millions of individual pixels (picture elements) are present in the image at time of capture.
