Nearly all digital cameras use CCD's as the sensing element. This is what takes the place of film. The resolution is the number of pixels in the captured image. Computer images are divided into little dots called pixels. The more pixels, the more detailed the image can be. Here is a guide to choosing resolution, estimating the size print you can make from each:

1.3 Megapixel = 1280x960: Great 4x6's, acceptable 5x7's.
2 Megapixel = 1600x1200: Pretty good 8x10's.
3 Megapixel = 2048x1536: Great 8x10's, good 11x14's.
4 Megapixel = 2272 x 1704: Great 11x14's, and acceptable 16x20's.
5 Megapixel = 2560x1920: Pretty good 16x20's.

Casual photographers are satisfied with bigger prints from each size, while those who like to look at 8x10's from a distance of three inches think I am being too generous in the above evaluations.

More to Understanding Resolution

A digital image, just like the image you see on your computer monitor or television, is made up tiny dots called pixels. The term "Resolution", when used to describe a digital camera refers to the size of the digital image the camera produces, and is usually expressed in terms of "megapixels" or how many million pixels it can record in a single image. The number of pixels a camera captures is called the camera's resolution.

For example, a camera that captures 1600 x 1200 pixels produces an image with a resolution of 1.92 million pixels and would be referred to as a 2.0 megapixel camera. You get to 1.92 million pixels by multiplying the vertical and horizontal dimensions. That number is then rounded off to 2 for marketing purposes.

The image below shows the relative image sizes of today's most common digital cameras. At their actual size even the smallest of them would likely be larger than your entire computer screen. Notice the tremendous difference between 2.1 megapixels and 3.3 megapixels. This is why you'll get better prints from a 3 megapixel camera when compared to a 2 megapixel camera. More resolution means better quality - up to a point. Both optics and the quality of the image capture chip play a role too.

The Advantage of Higher Resolutions

The advantage of having a camera with a higher resolution is you have more pixels to work with. That's important when getting prints made. In general more resolution means better print quality. It also gives you an advantage if you need to crop the image. Cropping is when you only use part of the image for the final print. It also gives you an advantage when creating larger 5x7, 8x10, or bigger prints. The more you have to blow an image up the more any defects will start to jump out. Starting with a higher resolution image means there's less magnification necessary to get to a given print size.

An example of this is shown in the images here. The picture in back represents a 5 megapixel image with dimensions of 2560x1920 pixels. The picture in front of it represents a 4 megapixel image with dimensions of 2272x1704 pixels, the next image represents a 3 megapixel image with resolution of 2048x1536, the one in front of it a 2 megapixel image with resolution of 1600x1200, and the top picture a 1 megapixel image with dimensions of 1280x960 pixels. As you can see, the 4 and 5 megapixel photos are much larger than the 1 and 2 megapixel photos allowing for much greater detail in your prints and giving you the ability to crop, or "cut off", parts of the photo while still retaining enough pixels for a good print.

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