Be wary of what Rockwell says. If you don't need the extra megapixels
for cropping or large prints, that's one thing. But to deny they make
any difference at all is foolish (and Rockwell knows that, as I'll
explain).

This is the same person who says at the beginning of the above article
in question that you don't need anything more than 3mp for a 12x18
print, but at the very end contradicts himself and says you need 7.2mp
to make an 8x10 print.

Top:
"...3 MP camera pretty much looks the same as a 6 MP camera, even when
blown up to 12 x18!""

Bottom:
"...Ideally you'd like to print at 300 DPI to look sharp..."
"...8x10 you need...2,400 x 3,000 pixels, or 7,200,000 pixels, or 7.2
megapixels."

Which of his claims is right?

We all know that megapixels don't mean much when making 4x6 prints
just like Rockwell and everyone else suggests. And when making tiny
crops to post on websites it also won't matter very much. And I agree.

But where it does matter is large prints or when cropping and
printing.

Let's take his own cropped example right from the same page
(3MPcropped5x.jpg) which is 288x216 pixels and 54.7KB filesize. At
about a 2x3 inch print or a small image on a monitor, it looks good
because it's at its native resolution (it's a 288x216 chunk from the
3mp image). But of course if you print it at 4x6 it starts to show a
fairly noticeable drop in quality because there are not enough pixels.
At 8x10 or full size on a 17" monitor it looks horrible, but you can
try to tell yourself it looks good.

Granted, that's an extreme print example, but it's what Rockwell
claims looks good and uses as proof that megapixels doesn't matter (by
the way he uses 10mp cameras). So where are the 6, 8, and 10mp images
of the same shot with similar crops to compare?

Now for many casual shooters, they may not need more than a few
megapixels to capture the dog chasing its tail, or the kids running
around the yard, or those 4x6 prints of the vacation to Disneyworld,
and they may never make enlargements. That's why small P&S cameras are
so popular and Rockwell is right about that kind of usage.

But if you buy a DSLR like the subject line says, chances are good you
intend to do more than just take snapshots of the family pet. And
that's where good lenses, good technique, and enough megapixels will
make a difference for crops or large prints.

Having said that, I'm content with 6-8mp cameras and have no strong
desire to move up to 10mp. It's the other benefits of the D80 that
would interest me like the better viewfinder, larger LCD, faster
response, and the extra custom functions and features.