IT happens to all of us: the moment when one finds out that more megapixels and better photographs aren’t always the same thing. To be disabused of the Megapixel Myth  this decade’s analog of the Megahertz Myth  can lead to an existential buyer’s crisis in miniature.

Disbelief, at first, gives way to a sort of embarrassing self-questioning: You mean, 15 megapixels isn’t three times better than 5 megapixels? This year’s model isn’t better than last year’s? I spent all that money upgrading  for nothing?

The panicky consumer is then faced with the choice of dumping digital electronics and becoming a Luddite, or learning about camera technology and taking control of purchasing decisions.

Upon pursuing this latter path, one soon realizes that all is not lost. Newer generations of digital cameras and camcorders, which almost always have more megapixels or higher resolutions, still tend to produce great output.