Although when buying a digital camera you shouldn't get completely caught up in megapixels, digital camera with 5+ or more megapixels do offer advantages over smaller-megapixel cameras, including the ability to crop out information.

Not every digital photo will come out perfect. Someone will get in the way, or a sign will be placed right next to a monument or landmark. There will be times that no matter how well you compose your photo, elements need to be removed before printing.

If you have a 5+ megapixel camera, with the right image editing software, you will be able to remove small elements from the picture. Assuming you don't have to crop out too much, you can still print out 8x10 prints without seeing a degradation of quality. 3 megapixel cameras barely have enough information for 8x10 prints; if you crop photos taken by such cameras and try to blow them up to 8x10 size, you most likely will see some pixilation in the final printout.

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