One mega–pixel is equal to a million points of light (or pixels), the higher the mega–pixels, the higher the resolution of the digital image. This directly affects the size that an image can be enlarged, for example a 3.2 mp image can be enlarged up to 8x10 without losing quality, while an 8 mp image can exceed 16x20 and still be clear. Resolutions commonly range from 3.2 to 12 mega–pixels.