Can someone explain the megapixel mystery to me?

railman44

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Before I bought my Nikon D70 I purchased a fairly thick paperback book that supposedly went into further detail of what was possible with this model. I read it cover to cover many times and, ultimately bought a D70. When this book was discussing megapixels (MP) it said the MP in the D70 were measured differently than the MP in the Nikon Coolpix cameras. I don’t know how they’re measured or maybe have a different sensor. Anyway, it got me to thinking. How can Nikon remain competitive with its most popular DSLR at 6.1 MP against Canon’s Rebel XT advertising 8 MP? Or, Canon’s EOS 20D rated at 8.2? How can Nikon continue to sell its expensive D2Hs rated at 4.1 MP?
 
Mega pixels are mostly words that salesmen use to sell camera's to people who don't know any better.

Image quality has many other factors besides the number of pixels recorded. The in-camera soft ware than converts the image into info...for one.

The D70 (& other DSLRs) have a much bigger sensor than the coolpix or other digi-cam. This makes a huge difference in image quality.
 
Big Mike said:
Mega pixels are mostly words that salesmen use to sell camera's to people who don't know any better.

Whilst that is somewhat very true - I also need to add. SalesPEOPLE (hehe) sell cameras to people based on MP and optical zoom (in my case), because they come to a very busy department store and expect an hour-long lesson on what the best camera is. Many of these people have the internet - but they insist on standing there and going "uhhh... ummm.... hmmm.... ummm... yeah... whats... umm... the.... ah.... best... ah... camera... uh... that... ah... you... uh... have?" "whats a megapictel?" "and what does this button do? and what about this one? oh yeah - and this one? what about this one? oh so its an automatic zoom - so it zooms in on its own? oh - well i dont want to do it - i want the camera to. Does it have flash? What does it mean it does movies? oh yeah. and what does that button do? can i delete the photo? does it have a screen? how big is the screen? how many photos does it take? "

Grrr. People who don't do any research and expect a free photography course when buying a camera piss me off. Especially old people who can't even use computers. I dont see why they buy a digital camera? And no one reads the manuals. They expect the store to tell them what every button does. When I get a new camera - I go home and read the manual cover to cover.

Grr

/rant
 
fadingaway1986 said:
SalesPEOPLE (hehe) sell cameras to people based on MP and optical zoom (in my case), because they come to a very busy department store and expect an hour-long lesson on what the best camera is. Many of these people have the internet - but they insist on standing there and going "uhhh... ummm.... hmmm.... ummm... yeah... whats... umm... the.... ah.... best... ah... camera... uh... that... ah... you... uh... have?" "whats a megapictel?" "and what does this button do? and what about this one? oh yeah - and this one? what about this one? oh so its an automatic zoom - so it zooms in on its own? oh - well i dont want to do it - i want the camera to. Does it have flash? What does it mean it does movies? oh yeah. and what does that button do? can i delete the photo? does it have a screen? how big is the screen? how many photos does it take? "

Grrr. People who don't do any research and expect a free photography course when buying a camera piss me off. Especially old people who can't even use computers. I dont see why they buy a digital camera? And no one reads the manuals. They expect the store to tell them what every button does. When I get a new camera - I go home and read the manual cover to cover.

Don't blame the consumers. Blame the manufacturers' advertising departments. Most people want cameras that turn on and take pictures. It's the companies that get folks riled up about the numbers and features they'll never use.

The best way to sell digital cameras is to have nice 8"x12" prints from the cameras to show people.

Salesperson: "Here, this camera took this picture."

Consumer: "Wow, that looks great. I'll take the camera."

Salesperson: "Wonderful, now let me show you all the accessories you've gotta have...." ;)
 
I always find that image quality is better on SLR style cameras because you can change things like lenses, and more expensive lenses, means better optics, better optics means better quality.

Plus SLR's rock, and just are all round better made than a simple compact, this may be another reason why they produce better quality images to an equivelant compact...
 
Megapixels determine print size, that's it. The more pixels you pack into the sensor, the bigger you can print out the image at high resolution (300 ppi), and maintain quality.

As said, a bigger sensor and more elaborate image processor will give you a much higher quality, noise free image, than a small point and shoot with the same or higher megapixel count.

Having said that, I'm sure Nikon will be introducing an 8mp + camera soon. In fact, they will probably trump Canon and offer something with 10 or 11 mp, and raise the resolution bar again.
 
The more megapixels, the larger print you can make, the more detail that can be recorded, the more you'll be able to crop a part of your image and have it still print beautifully.

Some cameras use "interpolated" megapixels meaning they call it a 8MP camera but actually has a 5MP sensor - degrading the image quality -- very similar to Digital Zoom (which should have never been put into cameras).

Nikon sells their old 6MP cameras because there are dedicated Nikon customers that want to keep using their Nikkor lenses and it's all the Nikon has out. Canon is kicking Nikon's ass in the dSLR market. Canon might put out a replacement to the 20D before Nikon puts out a REAL replacement to the D70/100!
 

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