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View Full Version : Why so many MP?


MrWho
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 13:36
Posted here since it's about everyone and every digital camera ever produced.

With are the companies pushing more and more MPs into newer cameras? There are plenty of comments about lenses not benefiting or flaws in the lenses being pointed out by higher MP counts. Everyone's doing it, even the companies that have been more cautious about adding MP are starting to make huge jumps in MP counts. At which point do we hit the "too many" MP count for current lenses on the market.

Looking back at pictures from my 6MP P&S, they came out quite nicely and there was a fair amount of detail in them. Same with lower end film cameras (not disposables). They produced nice 4x6 or 5x7 prints for hanging pictures up on the wall. 12MP was enough for many people, 15MP brings out more detail and I was easily able to print an 8x10 with little noise and good detail. So if 15 produces plenty and MF is out there for people who need to make billboards or full page magazine ads, of how much benefit is pushing 18MP, 20MP, and possibly in the near future, a 23MP APS-C camera? At what MP count do we stop seeing noticeable differences in image quality at 8x10 or a similar size?

Not taking aim at anything or anyone, the question applies to every camera company out there so it's more of a practicality question.

mike_d
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 13:50
95% of people who buy cameras are not photographers and have no interest in learning anything about photography. They just want a camera that "takes nice pictures". A big MP count is an easy way for the manufacturer and sales person to say "This one takes better pictures because it has more MP".

I would dispute that 15MP is enough for a billboard. I believe that kind of work is done one medium or large format cameras. A high MP count does come in handy if you need to crop in while still retaining enough detail. That is, of course, as long as the glass and sensor quality are up to the task.

DStanic
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 14:07
95% of people who buy cameras are not photographers and have no interest in learning anything about photography. They just want a camera that "takes nice pictures". A big MP count is an easy way for the manufacturer and sales person to say "This one takes better pictures because it has more MP".



..or they are suckers like me that like to view on a large monitor and zoom in on the details. I speak of high resolution DSLRs of course, like the D3x... the sample pics on the Nikon site blow me away! If you could capture an image with so much detail, why not?

As far as P&S go, I think the G11 is a real winner, and glad that Canon put it back to 10mp where P&S belong. I hope they put a CMOS sensor in the G12 with some sort of "L" glass (like the Powershot Pro) that would be niiiiiiiiiiice!

MrWho
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 14:46
I agree with the FF resolution, they've got the noise under control very well so they can add MP and keep images extremely clean with lots of detail. But is the MP race in the APS-C market just marketing, i.e. no IQ benefit if you compose to negate the need for cropping?

themadman
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 14:55
Medium format cameras... enough said =P

MrWho
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 17:32
Medium format cameras... enough said =P

No complaints about them. ever. :)

Karl Johnston
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 17:55
There are some photographs that like the DSLR format and want to print massive images :D more mpx helps them but north of 21 mpx I don't think you're going to notice a difference.

I do notice something though. At 18 mpxs an image I had done at 30x40" showed a lot more detail that was in the original file than a 17x22" print could. It also looked more realistic to see it so large.

toxic
24th of December 2009 (Thu), 23:10
The understated utility of smaller pixels (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=747749)

MrWho
25th of December 2009 (Fri), 00:27
The understated utility of smaller pixels (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=747749)

Thanks for the link, plenty of good reading and that was extremely informative :cool: