How many megapixels do you need to print at...?

It's a confusing question for new camera buyers. You think you want to print at 8 x 10 inches but just what do you need to do this? Well, as a rough rule of thumb, to print at 300 ppi you need 10 x 300 pixels in one direction and 8 x 300 in the other.

Ok, so you need an image around 3,000 x 2,400 but what is that in megapixels? Frankly this is about where my mind fogs over. It's time to go search the web for someone who can do the math for me so I can go back to doing much more fun stuff like Photoshop layer masks :)

The site to go visit is the Megapixel Calculator here you simply type in the measurements you're interested in and it will tell you how many megapixels you need (7.2 in case you were curious).

The site also has heaps of other information about a camera which shoots at that resolution including how many pictures you'd fit on various size cards, compressed file size values etc.. But don't just take it from me, head over there and check out how useful it is.