Megapixels (MP) are a unit of measurement used to describe the resolution of digital images and videos. One megapixel is equivalent to one million pixels, which are small squares that make up an image. The more megapixels an image has, the more detail and resolution it can capture. However, simply having more megapixels does not necessarily mean better image quality, as other factors such as the cameras lens, sensor, zoom capability, and processing circuitry also play a role. Megapixels are important when zooming in or cropping a photo, as having more megapixels allows for more detail to be retained. It is also important to note that cameras have both actual (or total) megapixels and effective megapixels, with the latter being the number of megapixels that will be in the full-size image.