One of the bigger questions my relatives ask me is ‘how many megapixels do I need?” And really, the best answer these days is that if you don’t know then it doesn’t matter. It’s a popular opinion online that most digital compacts (like Canon PowerShot digital cameras and Nikon Coolpix cameras) were good enough for everyday pictures up to 8x10s at 6 megapixels, and the current market is full of cameras which all have many more megapixels than that. So, if you don’t know how many megapixels you need, don’t worry about it. Focus instead on finding other features that you want, like optical image stabilization, 3x or greater optical zooms, face detection, HD movie modes, smile detection, active child modes, and more. All cameras will do you well with megapixels, but not all cameras will have all the other features you want, so focus on those and finding the perfect camera for you will be quick and easy.