High megapixle doesnt always = quality???

[iCapture]

so i am the proud owner of a Rebel XT and love it. but i was checking out some Nikon's and i saw the D2Hs which retails for $3,000 (body only) and its only 4.1 megapixles.

my question(s):

- ive heard that having alot of megapixles doesnt always mean its the best quality. is that true?

- what are you spending 3k on when you buy the D2Hs?

- what do you look for when buying a SLR camera?

[rstuntz]

Megapixles are one of the last things I think about in a camera. If you use megapixles, then the 20D and the 1d Mark IIN are about the same camera :rolleyes:

I doubt many people would agree with that. You are paying for the pro build, the auto focus, the custom functions etc etc etc........

I don't own a 1 series camera but after holding one in my hand, my 20D seems like a toy.

[liza]

Megapixels aren't as meaningful on a DSLR as other features, such as build quality, fast autofocus capability, superior performance at high ISO's, etc. The sensors in a DSLR are constructed differently than those in a point and shoot or compact camera.

[J Rabin]

Well, the Mars Rovers have 1 megapixel imagers on them and send back stunning images from unheard of distances rolling over the surface of a planet. I imagine each 1MP Rover cost many tens of millions of $$. And they probably had to throw out a lot of imaging chips to get the two they used (low production yield).

Pixels are like buckets holding water. The bigger the pixel bucket, the more water (photons - photographic information) it can hold before overflowing, spilling sloppy purple fringing and color errors to the adjacent pixel. Big pixels give dynamic range and shadow detail freeer from luminance noise and color errors.

Now, you need a computing bus in the camera to measure the water in the buckets, interpret it, send the information to the memory card, dump the water, and take the next shot, filling it up again. And do this 5-8 times per second.

Oh, and it has to keep working if you drop it, get it wet, put it in heat or cold. And you're wondering why professional PJ or sport shooter cameras with lower pixels cost a lot of money?

So, ideally we'd like to have a fast camera with lots of big pixels, at a price less than a Mars Rover.

I guess I'll keep my Canon 1-DMkII. It's the ideal compromise of the above. For now.

Jack

[liza]

That's probably the best explanation I've ever seen on this forum.

[Robert_Lay]

The number of megapixels is important in regard to image resolution. Everything else being equal (that's a big condition), the more pixels there are, the finer is the detail in the image (which also means that you can print porportionally larger size prints with a given image quality).