Why more megapixels isnt more better

I could fit of these sensors in on my thumb nail. Alas, such logic does not apply here. The issue is the size of the individual pixels themselves. That equates to 35 times more light being caught, all else being equal. The most common analogy used is buckets in the rain the droplets being photons of light.

For a given period of time a paddling pool which has 35 times the area of a bucket would collect 35 times as much water or light. This is all about image quality; specifically, the reduction of noise.

The signal from our cameras is amplified before it reaches the cameras CPU. The level of this amplification for each camera is determined by the ISO setting—the higher the ISO the more the signal will be amplified.

It most often crops up as unwanted white speckles in photographs. Compact cameras with their smaller sensors need to amplify the light more because they were not able to capture very much in the first place. This additional amplification coupled with the fact that the budget end cameras will not have such advanced algorithms and noise-reducing processing capabilities means that noise can creep into images even at relatively low ISO settings.

For any new-comer to the digital camera market this concept is critical to help you differentiate cameras by more than just the number of megapixels. Most importantly, what are you taking pictures for? To upload on Facebook? To print out and hang on the wall? For commercial sale? Most people reading this will probably be just looking to take some decent photographs—something better than your typical blown-out holiday snap.

Parked against the inner city kerb. I suspect that people who buy a Lamborghini do't buy it to drive it at high speed. I suspect that parking it outside their house has more to do with it. Great post. For the first half I kept hoping you'd elaborate on the specific technical knowledge you'd picked up that helped you apply it to lower MP cameras. Care to elaborate? Perhaps in a future post?

Doesn't author state obvious? There times you need high MP camera and there times you don't. And at times I like to take pictures with 24MP A and small lens for portability. I hate taking pictures with cell phone , so I have Hasselblad true zoom attachment to my Moto Z4 cell phone that converts it to 12MP zoom camera. Any resolution has it's place. Great a article and great points about print size and cropping. One thing I would say is resolution requirement also comes down to content and viewing distance.

A simple portrait can be upscaled significantly as hair and fabric can be sharpened in the process, how landscapes don't fair so well. I would also say higher resolutions are easier to retouch. Dynamic range is also key, newer sensors give much better colour across the tonal range and can be pulled around more with less noise. There is a great point about the shooting process and how the camera effects this.

I shoot on Canon and Phase one, they require very different approaches and knowing their limitations is key.

Good points. Especially about post work as the process can be very different depending on resolutions and is something people should take into account. I really can't gin up a need for more than the 24 mp I have now. I've sold 5 foot prints of some of those images.

Sure the POD might be rendering them at dpi, but none have been returned, and I'm pretty sure they look fine at normal viewing distances. I once licensed a 24 mp APS-C! She was happy. I do like to photograph birds and for that purpose, I could see having more resolution, but not at the expense of any image quality.

Yes, there are some "if and unless" aspects there. More megapixels might show up faults, in technique, in focus,in DoF, in stabilization And it should look great because ppi is optimum for die sublimation or inkjet printers. Anything greater than that doesn't look any better even form short distance.

Printing press or laserjet would require PPI to look good. But yes, for other projects 16x20 prints for instance most human eyes will miss any subtle difference, it it can be reproduced at all. And to me anyway, that extra crispness has an impact worth the extra file size overhead, for anything mounted near eye level. What I have learned is it is all about what creates the files for me, it is having Great Glass with a great sensor!

I do not think the pixel size more than 50 megapixel in a 35mm x 24mm frame will give you the edge. For me I Stitch up to 50 raw images with these cameras using 24 35 45 55 prime lenses giving me prints with incredible detail and the A7RII with Loxia glass is probably the best at this! If I could afford the GFX ? I am not sure that I would be able to get any better images but if you would like to loan it to me ill give it a try Thank you yet again sir.

When I was shooting for agencies some years ago, 10MP was and still is there baseline for digital photos. Now, as far as J am concerned, 16MP is more than enough for most needs. Although I do have a 24MP camera. Seems to me that people are just wanting needing,according to their rational more and more MP and other non-essential accessories to 'keep-up-with-the-Joneses'.

Sorry, just can't help it. My camera acquisitions have always been driven by requirements and not simply to upgrade. I had been shooting for two national clients for years with megapixel cameras. It was only because one art director required at least megapixel images that I bought the Nikon D The director was famous for deeply cropping into images despite his wanting me to shoot wide in the studio and on location. With most of my images winding up on the Internet rather than on billboards, there was no reason to go higher than megapixels.

Also, regardless of computer power, smaller image files always process faster than larger ones. It's math. When deadlines are critical, clients don't want to hear excuses or technical explanations. I can't imagine my same clients working with shooters manipulation files megapixels and beyond in size. Also, I've yet to hear a client give anyone a reason why a magazine photo or Web page needs images that large. Home Topics Business. Posted In:.

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Log in or register to post comments. Super spooky, eerie vibe. I really love that camera. Tony Tumminello Deleted Account - February 26, I got mine used and I've never checked the shutter count on it or really, any of my cameras because I've always figured that when it dies it dies.

Deleted Account Tony Tumminello - February 26, I think a new shutter idk if you can find mk1 5d shutters anymore only cost a couple hundred bucks to replace. Timothy Linn - February 26, This is a nicely thought out post. I'll be sure to address this in a future post.

In conclusion, do not choose a camera or smartphone just for its Megapixel resolution. Choose for the sensor quality, the lenses quality, the ability to take photos under lower light conditions, etc.

And if it also has more Megapixels, even better. At this point, it will be a little clerarer that more Megapixels does not mean more quality. But, having the same photo quality, does having more Megapixels offer any additional advantage? One of the practical advantages is that sometimes you will want to use only a part of an image. In this situation, even if you crop the picture and you only take a smaller part of it, you will continue having enough number of pixels to print with a large size.

But remember, as we told you above, that more megapixels does not mean more quality. The crisper the original photo good light, properly focused, etc. If you want to understand better concepts like pixel resolution, dpi resolution and print sizes, we recommend our article How big can I print my photos?

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