There seems to be no end in sight to the pointless progression of ever-higher resolutions for compact camera sensors, in fact just last month Sharp announced the development of a 12-megapixel 1/1.7in CCD that is sure to find its way into a production camera within a few months. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the fastest-moving sector of the digital camera market is still 6-megapixel, 3x zoom pocket compacts.
In my opinion, and I’m not alone in this, 6-megapixels is pretty much the perfect resolution for a compact camera. It gives roughly the same level of detail as 200 ISO 35mm colour negative film, good quality prints at A4 size and photo quality at 10 x 8in, and 6-megapixels sensors generally have better dynamic range and lower image noise than 10-megapixels sensors of the same physical size. Also, perhaps because the camera companies seem to regard them as obsolete, many very good 6-megapixel cameras are available for bargain prices. Read the full review here