braduardo wrote in post #2116790
What I don't understand is how someone can say that BIGGER pixels will help... What I think would give you more RESOLUTION is the absolute smallest pixels you can get, and pack as many as you can possibly fit into an area. I keep seeing 'big pixel' this and 'big pixel' that in here, but when it comes to resolution, you want to have as many individual points in a given area that you can. Sort of like why you want a printer that does 4800x2400 dpi over one that does 1200x600 dpi... The former has a higer resolution.
Bigger pixels gather more light, and in dark (or shadow) conditions when light is scarce, a bigger sample means more signal and less noise.
A bigger sample also integrates more color information into the pixel, and the pixel is more accurate.
Finally, a biger pixel is less likely to be smaller than the lens's circle of confusion, and less likely to be dwarfed by the blur caused by lens faults.
I want as many pixels as you, but I want big pixels, too. The solution is the camera I'm saving up for: the Pentax 645 Digital with a 36x43mm 18-MP sensor. I guarantee you that such a sensor will create better images than an 18-MP sensor with similar generation of technology stuffed into a 15x23mm format.
If I can already see lens faults with my 10D sensor, and if lens faults already control the size enlargement I make, then having more pixels doesn't get me anything except more processing requirements.
The most effective combination is a sensor with just small enough pixels to allow great lenses to show their stuff, which means enough sensor resolution so that the lens will always control the size of the enlargement. We already know how good lenses can get--the very best lenses have not improved in absolute terms in decades. By that I mean that there is no 50mm lens of current technology that noticeably out-resolves, say, a 50mm Summicron. Lens advances have been more directed at making zooms and extreme lenses far better--nearly as good as those prime lenses that have been good for a long time.
When lenses control the quality, adding pixels requires adding sensor size and going to larger formats. Great lenses and sensors make smaller formats workable (just as great lenses and film made small film formats workable), but those lens and sensor technologies can then be scaled back up to the larger formats where they can achieve more, just as with film.
Rick "format is king" Denney
Of course, after you get those, then you'd want even further telescopic power... and that's when you'll turn to the 4064mm f/8 20" Meade RCX400 telescope! Imagine the details you'd get on wild life with that bad boy (assuming you have the skills to target em)! 
