How many megapixels are enough?

Yesterday I mentioned megapixels. I shot this picture with the Panasonic G85. The G85 is a 16-megapixel camera.

But that's not the whole story. This is the end result from a bit of cropping. I wanted to print this 16x12 to fit my frame and mat combo so it had to get chopped down to size a bit.The end result winds up being just over 11 megapixels.

This is a problem, right?

Well, not really.

The end result shows absolutely no pixelation at all. I tried taking a picture of the print of the picture but I wound up with more artifacts from the second picture taking than was actually visible even on close inspection of the print.

And that's not even taking into account that a 16x12" print isn't generally meant to be inspected at 2 inches away. It's a print you're supposed to look at from a foot or two -- at the closest.

Megapixels. You don't need as many as you probably think you do.

A further point though -- if all you are doing is chasing megapixels then only posting on sites like Facebook and Instagram then you're doing it wrong. You could post a two-megapixel shot and be quite good with it. You don't need a 50-megapixel from a 5DSR or a medium-format Hasselblad or anything to post pictures online.

Random third point - the color on the print matches the first picture. If you're printing it pays to have a calibrated monitor and a good printer/paper profile as well.