D80 - a 10MP camera?

[Val]

Here are two images i took from my D80. All settings are the same. Second image was shot in Medium size (6MP), then enlarged to 10MP and sharpened a little.

The only way i can distinguish between the two is due to printing pattern on the paper which has more detail in the first pic. What if i enlarged it from RAW not JPG?

This doesnt look like a difference between 6 and 10 MP to you guys?

 

[Alex_B]

is this the whole image or a magnification?

(100% view?)

 

[Val]

Its a crop from the image. Size is unchanged for the first image - 100%.

 

[Val]

Alright, here are two more... 50mm AF [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]f/8 @ 2" using tripod.[/FONT]

JPG L cropped original size no modifications

JPG M enlarged sharpened cropped

dvvd

 

[cameramike]

take the picture print it full size then take up it to 10mp and print that at full size and look at the two, you will see the difference. at a resolution of 480x640 no you will not see a difference. which is why some of these cameras are so ridiculous. you don't really need a 10mp camera a 6 or 7 or 8 will do but its called bragging rights. I would love to be walking around with a 21mp camera just because i could haha.

 

[Sideburns]

Your second photos are better.
In both cases, they are exposed better, and you used sharpening.
You could shoot all your pics at 6MP and get away with it...
But if you want larger prints...or you crop a lot...then you need the resolution of 10MP.

 

[Alex_B]

i too think the sharpening does it, if you also sharpened the 10 MP image, things would looke better there.

but it is quite natural not to see an extreme difference, since often the lens and the focusing makes the resolution, and also 6 and 10 MP are not as much difference as you might think. pixel resolution refers to pixels per distance, whereas MP tell you something about the pixels per area. So you get a square root if you want to compare. doubling the pixel resolution requires 4 times the MPs.

 

[Garbz]

You fail to realise what you could do is enlarge the 10mpx image to 16mpx. Try do that with your 6mpx image.

Soundcard in the second image?

 

[Syndac]

i too think the sharpening does it, if you also sharpened the 10 MP image, things would looke better there.

That's what I was thinking as well.

I think that even after the sharpening, the first picture in both cases still appears to be sharper. Apply the same sharpening to that image as well and the difference should be even more noticable.

 

[Coldow91]

You fail to realise what you could do is enlarge the 10mpx image to 16mpx. Try do that with your 6mpx image.

thats what I was thinking

 

[Val]

So basically D80 is a 10MP camera, right?

 

[D-50]

I think you need to read up on megapixels. Megapixels are simply a thing marketing execs chose when they started to sell digital cameras to the masses. more megapixels does not necessarily translate into a higher quality photo. A shot from a 10 mp camera printed at 4x6 is going to look nearly identical to a shot from a 5 mp camera at 4x6 assuming sensor size is constant. I think they chose megapixels because megabytes were already a commonly understood term and then mp numbers were so high 5million pixels 8 million pixels, advertising a 35mm sensor to a non photographer would not turn a head but advertising a 10million pixel camera to a non photographer will.

 

[Joves]

So basically D80 is a 10MP camera, right?

Yep pretty much. THe extra MPs are for printing. If you dont print then I see it as a waste myself but, hey people can spend money on things they never use fully. I met a guy who bought a D200 to take pictures of trains and, that was pretty much it. I kind of thought to myself what a waste of a camera. But hey it was his money to waste.

 

[Garbz]

For printing large images anyway. I have a lovely A3 sized print of a Ford V8 supercar in the middle of a gearchange flaming exhaust and all taken on a 3.2mpx camera. If you take your 10mpx image to a cheap printing shop you'll get the same quality.

But you size that 10mpx image correctly yourself and take it to a professional and you'll get magic!