The Mega Pixel myth

Its about time I changed my camera. So says my wife.
Well its been on debate for a long time (and the debate is between me and myself)
Yes one part of me says “go in for a new one” and the reason being that my present camera packs off at the most unpredictable times and I miss many good opportunities. The packing off is due to my battery cover which refuses to close fully resulting in improper signal to the telescopic lens. So when the priest says “you may kiss the bride now” and I raise my camera for that special shot, my lens just retracts (like the turtle head) and just refuses to come out. By the time I switch it off and then on and have it all ready, the bride and the groom are happily sliding out of the church !!
The reason why I want to cling on to the existing Nikon Coolpix 4300 is that its an excellent camera with minimum hassles giving excellent results. I remember going for a shoot meet and one stalwart saw me clicking and said “Joe you brought this? You did not get your other one?” I said “what other one? I have only one camera” He took the camera from me (which easily fits in his palm) turned it upside down, had a closer look and said “you mean all those pictures of the war cemetery and the pictures you upload on Flickr are from this camera ?” He just could not believe it.

When people see a good photograph they assume that it must have been taken with a costly sophisticated camera.
Have you seen the road side cobbler at the corner? Have a closer look at his tools. All primitive isn’t it. But see the results he produces with those tools. All produced by his skill and ingenuity.
I believe how you use your camera makes all the difference. And you can have excellent results with a simple camera. I remember some of the initial pictures that I took with our first camera Agfa Click III.

One of them is of my parents who were ready to go to church in their Sunday best. I thought that it was the right time to click as the early morning light was perfect. Considering the fact that this was clicked almost 40 years ago with no advance technology, I think this is pretty good without a flash (and no photoshop).

Then came my Isoly-II which was slightly better than Click-III (more on that later)
Coming back to the present situation I am yet to decide what to buy. And that is another hurdle. So many to choose from. Did a lot of reading on the net and one thing I gathered is about the myth. “The higher the mega pixels the better your camera” Its not so. So when the salesman says “sir why don’t you upgrade your camera. What you have is only 4 mega pixels. Why don’t you go in for this 10 mega pixels” Don’t fall for it.
I read on and this is what I got:
Sharpness depends more on your photographic skill than the number of megapixels, because most people's sloppy technique or subject motion, blurs the image more than the width of a microscopic pixel. Sharpness has very little to do with image quality, and resolution has little to do with sharpness. Resolution (pixel count) has nothing to do with picture quality. Color and tone are far more important technically.
Confused? Good. So am I.
So my search is on, and hope to get the right camera at the right time.
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A camera catches your imagination. No imagination, no photo - just crap.