The "side effect" of 21MP...

alright,

with the release of the new 5DmkII, i see tons of people really excited about having 21MP. the most common reasons i see for this are:

1) now i can print really big
2) i like to crop a lot.

the one thing that i don't see mentioned a lot are the side effects of such resolution. i am not talking about diffraction and such but i am talking about the computing power and storage that is required for 21mp.

the reason why i am bringing this up is because i just finished doing a little studio shoot with the 1DsmkIII and the files are really taking an a toll on the speed of my computer. transfering the files is a slow experience and when you try to open the file in CS3, you can feel the slowness.

so..... i started to wonder if people actually think about these things before they go around screaming "yay, more MP!!!!". my own personal conclusion is that i have no real need for 21MP for most of what i do and that the hit is just too big so i am going back to using my lowly 1DmkIII with its "pathetic" 10MP.

btw, my computer is not super state of the art but it is no slouch either:

Intel Duel Core over clocked to 3.2GHZ
4gig of 1066 ram
SATA HD

I held out as long as I could after getting my 30D, but the jump from 4MP JPEGs to 8.2MP Raw files was just to much for my old PC.
My parents have the same problem, my father lost their compact, and I'm in the process of building them a new PC so my mother can work with the photos taken on the new one.

Eh.. but can't you just take photos in sRAW? You don't always need to utilize the full 21mp. And depending on the type of shoot you're doing, for some, it's nice to have the full 21, while others, take smaller resolution images.

As long as the IQ isn't compromised and noise levels are handled properly, more pixels isn't a bad thing.

That said, I put myself on a 4 year camera cycle and since I just got the 40D, I guess I will await the latest/greatest in 2012.

um, if your having trouble handling files like that then there is something wrong. With those specs on your computer you should have no problem. Unless yo have no idea how to manage a computer and keep it in top running shape. LIke if its used my your whole family and you never manage it. I handle files much larger than those from that camera (Not pictures but other files larger as well as pics) and I have no problem.

Is your HDD a 7200 RPM at least?

TheShotLessTaken wrote in post #6343616
um, if your having trouble handling files like that then there is something wrong. With those specs on your computer you should have no problem. Unless yo have no idea how to manage a computer and keep it in top running shape. LIke if its used my your whole family and you never manage it. I handle files much larger than those from that camera (Not pictures but other files larger as well as pics) and I have no problem.

Is your HDD a 7200 RPM at least?

try opening a 21mp in CS3 and let me know how that worked for you. now, try to do that 200 times and see how quickly it gets old

You can't have the latest camera without the PC to match... I think the specs sound OK but it needs to be set-up correctly. In reality, anyone doing serious PS work and not wanting lags needs to have multiple hard drives with the photoshop scratch separate from the OS scratch. Nothing should be crashing your PC even at 21mp.

Good point though, many people will feel the pain if they don't upgrade their PC and RAM as well as their camera.

Fellow overclocker here (3.15GHz squeezed out of an original 1.8GHz Core 2 chip)

Intel's i7 chip is coming out at the end of this year to start replacing Core 2 duo. I hear it is faster clock for clock compared to a Core 2. That, and you can pretty easily plop in a E0 stepping E8400 Core 2 duo for about $160 that can clock up to 4 GHz easily (depends on your motherboard). Quad core Q6600 is also selling for about $170 and should provide more horsepower under the hood. Hard drives are getting much cheaper too. Shoot sRAW1 or 2 for when you don't need the resolution (75% the size and 50% the size of original RAW, respectively).

No one is calling your mark III pathetic.

i don't know how big of a problem it will be for people who shoot at full res with the new 5dmk2, but i'll admit that editing is somewhat sluggish on my computer sometimes with my 3888x2592 pixel files. i'm currently running:

intel core2duo 2.0ghz
nvidia geforce 7800gs
2gb 667mhz ram
7200rpm sata hdd

i mention all this with a grain of salt though, being that i'm used to really snappy response times, and i only see lag when photoshop cs2 is applying my filters and layers. (2-3 second wait.. doesn't sound like much, but when you're editing a hundred pictures, it's miserable.)

If you haven't maxxed out the RAM on your motherboard, do that first.. 2G > 4G... then add a second HD, hopefully internal, but even if it is external (as long as it is external SATA or Firewire).

guys, the point of this thread is not to evaluate my computer (i already have new parts on order). the point is that i have a feeling that a lot of people are going to quickly discover that with 21mp comes great responsibility

btw, i can't wait for my 8gig of ram, 10k scratch HD and the Intel Extreme to get here

Old news. I've already 'whined' about this.

I would love an AF system as good as the 40D in the new 5D2, plus IR flash control.

Canon delivered 21 megapixels. Now selling my 5D to updgrade to the 5D2 get's me the exact same AF and slow blackout I have today, plus the need for a new computer. I just am not feeling the need to change bodies right now.

TheHoff wrote in post #6343642
You can't have the latest camera without the PC to match... I think the specs sound OK but it needs to be set-up correctly. In reality, anyone doing serious PS work and not wanting lags needs to have multiple hard drives with the photoshop scratch separate from the OS scratch. Nothing should be crashing your PC even at 21mp.

Good point though, many people will feel the pain if they don't upgrade their PC and RAM as well as their camera.

I think this may be the probem. A fast dedicated scratch disk is a must for image files that large in PS.

I personally would never want to mess with 21mp files though. I hope that the sRAW shots handle noise as well as the regular ones.

I'm sure people already encountered this problem with the 1Ds mk3.

My friend edited 39 megapixel Hassy files with a 2.8ghz Core 2.

People spending $3k on a body will have no problem getting a nice comptuer to match, I'd imagine.

Plus, if you were patient enough to wait for the 5D replacement, I'm sure you're patient enough to wait a little longer to PP (joke)

8 core, 10 gig mac pro will do the job

Sfordphoto wrote in post #6343686
Plus, if you were patient enough to wait for the 5D replacement, I'm sure you're patient enough to wait a little longer to PP

Good one and there are more jokes just waiting....


... If you're patient enough to wait for the 5D2 to lock focus, you're patient enough to open the files