• A "Pixel" means a "Picture Element," which consists of the point location, color information and possibly transparency and/or 3D depth information.  A simplistic definition is that a pixel is a small rectangle that stores one color.  The default monitor settings for most PC's is 1024 by 768 pixels (width by height) with 24 or 32 bits per pixel, although most of them can be changed to higher resolution.  My laptop has a wonderful UXGA monitor resolution of 1600 by 1200, aka 2 MP.
• Color is displayed on monitors as a combination of Red, Green, and Blue.  Each of these three colors can have 256 different shades stored in 8 bits.  The total number of different colors possible is 256x256x256 = 16.7 million.  Printers also use the RGB model for representing colors.
• Digital cameras store 24 bits per pixel (sometimes 32 bits per pixel), which allows for 16.7 million different colors for each pixel.
• History on Monitor Resolutions: The current default PC monitor is 1024 by 768 (XGA).   The default  in 2000 was 800 by 600; the default in 1990 was 640 by 480; and the default in 1984 was 320 by 200.  Good monitors today have 1600x1200 (UXGA) resolution.

Fig. 1:  Close-up view of the pixels from the image in Fig. 2

Fig. 2:  Bla bla bla

Most of the digital cameras have a resolution between 2 MP and 6 MP, although there are higher resolution ones on the market.  "MP" stands for "MegaPixels," or a "million" pixels.  The prices vary greatly, but $200 to $300 can get you a good 2 or 3 MP camera, while $400 to $600 will get you a good 5 MP camera.  There are higher quality cameras in the 5 and 6MP range that go for about $1000.  You can also spend several thousand dollars for some very high end cameras.  I suggest getting at least 3MP, and getting 4 or 5 MP if you can afford to.  There are several higher end 8 MP cameras soon to be placed on the market in 2004 in the $1000 range.  Sony, Nikon, Cannon, Olympus and Pentax make them.  If you are in the market for a high end camera, you might wait until these are out there.  In general, there will be advances every year, so sooner or later you need to jump in.
 

Examples of several images at different resolutions can be found in the following links.  On the first two pages, click on the small image to view a mid-sized image, and the click on the mid-sized image to see the full resolution image.  All of these images have compressed a medium amount, so there has been a little loss of detail.

• Examples of 1 MP images at the AZ@OZ page using GCC's old Sony in 1999.
• Examples of 2 MP images using a Nikon 950 purchased in 1999.
• Examples of 5 MP images using a Nikon 5700 purchased in 2003.