History

• The shift from film photography to digital photography began in the early 2000s, with digital cameras quickly replacing prints in newspapers. By replacing film, which had to be developed and had costs associated with it, digital was instant and can easily be edited, cutting out time and money.
  
  

Technical Differences

• Traditional photography is captured on film. The quality of film depended on the light conditions the photographer was needing. For example, 400 speed film reflected an outside environment with bright light. This then had to be developed with chemicals. With digital photography, the image is processed by the camera itself and stored as a file on a memory card.
  
  

Megapixels

• A "pixel" is a unit of measurement for digital images. A "megapixel" is one million pixels. This is traditionally represented as "MP" on packaging. The higher the number, the better the quality of the image. A 10MP camera would take much better photos than a 6MP, for example.
  
  

Resolution

• The amount of megapixels determines how large the photo will be. An image of 1600x1200 resolution of 2 megapixels will print a 5 inch x 4 inch photo without a loss in quality. An 8 megapixel camera can print a 16 inch by 20 inch photo without a loss of quality. For a chart comparing megapixels and print sizes, see References.
  
  

Print purposes

• The amount of megapixels you need depends on your purpose. If you are taking photos designed for printed materials, you want a camera with more megapixels (8 megapixels and up) at 300 dots per inch per photo. If you are using the photos for a website or online photo gallery, 6 megapixels will be sufficient.