It wasn’t long ago that 3.2 megapixles on a camera seemed impressive. Now it’s a minimum for even a phone. But will the seemingly relentless quest for more megapixels ever end? It seems as if Olympus are calling it at 12 megapixels. Akira Watanabe, manager of Olympus Imaging's SLR planning department, said in an interview at the Photo Marketing Association that 12 megapixles was enough to meet most applications and needs of customers. Cameras for commercial photographers will go up to around 20 megapixels, but mainstream cameras wont go beyond 12. The quest for more megapixels does come at a price. Smaller pixels can mean more noisy speckles at the pixel level and also reduce the dynamic range: brighter areas wash out and darker areas can become pure black.