does the megapixels rellay matter?

[zabulondesigns]

I'm a little confused I was having a discussion with a friend who shoots with a 18mp camera and he swears that the image looks "better". I was comparing his prints to my prints from a 8.2mp camera and I honestly can't see the differnece. The reason I ask is because I have been looking at different cameras and the ones I can afford are between 10.2-14MP.

 

[Mike S.]

From what I understand it matters for larger print sizes. I believe 8 X 10 and up. I'm sure the more knowledgeable members will chime in.

 

[expo]

What are the two cameras you are comparing? What size are the prints? Are you both shooting in raw format? Which ISO for each shot? Which lenses are you comparing? What editing methods do you each use? The difference or 'betterness' could be due to any number of factors.

 

[zabulondesigns]

What are the two cameras you are comparing? What size are the prints? Are you both shooting in raw format? Which ISO for each shot? Which lenses are you comparing? What editing methods do you each use? The difference or 'betterness' could be due to any number of factors.

I have a old nikon 8700 he has a canon t2i. The prints are 8X10. I use gimp, he uses light room.

 

[expo]

Not really enough info apart from you have a small sensor camera with tiny photosites which shoots jpeg. The other guy has a camera with a larger sensor, better pixel pitch and ..well that's all we know. You use GIMP he uses LR. How you use it is also a mystery.

 

[Aye-non Oh-non Imus]

Unless your are consistently printing larger than 16"x20" for clients, I wouldn't worry about the MP race/war/marketing-ploy-to-make-you-spend-money on camera bodies. Even hanging them on your own walls, you'll be standing further back to view them, so the difference will be neglible at best. But Expo does brings up some good points.

 

[iolair]

The glass you put in front of the sensor makes more difference to image quality than the resolution of the sensor. Higher megapixel are important if you want to make large prints, or if you like to do very heavy cropping.

Having a quick look at a couple of online printers, they don't actually demand a very high resolution at all for most larger prints ... your 8 megapixels (the same as on the 20D I use) should be fine.
http://support.snapfish.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/169/~/recommended-resolution-for-prints-and-merchandise
Resolution Guide For Quality Digital Photo Prints - PhotoBox

 

[expo]

All being equal, if you set your camera on auto and so did he, I'd guess his photos look better but how they are 'readied for print' is unknown.

 

[expo]

I wanted to give you a simple answer but i can see too many factors to do it. I don't even know if your camera is old or new (i could google it). I assume it's an older compact or bridge camera?

The T2i is new (up to date). It has good signal processing, good dynamic range throughout the medium to medium-high ISO range, raw capability (which is 12bit compared to a compact's 8 bit jpeg). That gives better color and tonal levels.

A DSLR will probably have better lens performance (sharpness, correction for distortions) than a compact at many focal lengths.

8x10 is doable with 8mp.

ISO affects dynamic range. High ISO has reduced dynamic range. A compact shooting at 400 ISO won't have the dynamic range of a DSLR used at 400 ISO.

An image expertly edited (subtle adjustments, skilled sharpening, the best resizing methods) in GIMP will look better than unskilled editing in LR. I seen 2mp shots carefully edited and upsized 200% to about 8mp and printed great.

choice of aperture (knowing how a lens performs), camera shake, metering choices...
and so on and so on.

What are the two cameras you are comparing? What size are the prints? Are you both shooting in raw format? Which ISO for each shot? Which lenses are you comparing? What editing methods do you each use? The difference or 'betterness' could be due to any number of factors.

 

[zabulondesigns]

thanks this was very helpful

 

[KmH]

MP doesn't matter as much as the pixel pitch matters. Essentially pixel pitch is the size of the pixels. Big pixels are more desirable than little pixels.

The smaller pixels get, the less signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) a pixel can have. A high SNR is desirable.

Look at the following comparison. Look at the pixel pitch in the Overview, but be sure and click on the ISO Sensitivity, Dynamic Range, and SNR 18% tabs too:
DxOMark - Compare sensors

So yes, how many MP is in a larger context than just how many MP. More MP does not always mean better image sensor performance.