Effective megapixels.

The actual number of pixels which make up the viewable image captured by a digital camera.

Image sensors used by digital cameras frequently have a number of pixels on the edge which are masked off and which do not form part of the image. These masked-off pixels are typically used as establish baseline (ie: totally dark) pixels for the camera to calculate light levels from.

The term “effective megapixels” is thus more honest. If a camera has 6.5 megapixels with 6.1 effective megapixels you can safely ignore the 6.5 part. 6.1 megapixels is what you’ll actually see in a photograph.

cf. digital camera, megapixel, pixel.

Entry last updated 2002-04-03. Term 403 of 1487.

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