Megapixels

[sxesweets]

How do you explain to someone that the number of megapixels is not the be all, end all of how good a camera is???

 

[Jaszek]

you just tell them and start throwing out fancy (for them) names like aperture, shutter speed, High ISO performance and they'll tell you to stop and believe you. Always works for me lol

 

[SpeedTrap]

One way I use to do it is to show them a sharp 6mp image printed at 20"X30"

After that they did not question it so much, but at the same time I do not own a 6mp camera anymore, I needed to upgrade, mostly for ISO, not MP

 

[tsaraleksi]

What context are you talking about?

 

[Mgw189]

I would start by telling them to visit here and do a search of the Megapixel threads for starters. I would also tell them that all the megapixels in the world wont make a difference if the person using it doesnt take advantage of the tools of a photographer. Utilizing aperture, shutter speed, ISO and all of the other settings is more important than how many megapixels the image is recorded on.

 

[sxesweets]

My dad just keeps buying a new camera each time he has an "issue" with his current one. So he just went out and bought one with more megapixels so that he can make "better" 4x6 prints. He was trying to enlarge photos that were noisy as 4x6's to 8x10 and was dissapointed (surprise surprise) when the quality didn't get better. The cameras are all on par with each other (same specs as far as I can see) but he thinks that the more megapixels means that his photos won't have noise or be blurry.

And the newest issue was that he doesn't undersand how they meter the light so faces in back lit photos were dark and he is expecting the new camera to not have this problem. He shoots in auto all the time and all he has done with the new purchase is to go up a couple megapixels and he is expecting it to be better. I tried explaining how the metering works and he just says that he knows but he clearly doesn't as he can't understand why his pictures keep coming out all the same no matter what he is shooting with

 

[Mgw189]

His issue is more than likely related to DPI when printing. Images should have around 300 DPI for great print quality. You may want to buy him a copy of [ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0817463003/bookstorenow57-20"]Amazon.com: Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition): Bryan Peterson: Books[/ame]
and tell him it will help him solve his megapixel addiction. Also remember he is a guy and "Bigger is Better" as far as most of us are concerned.

 

[AlexColeman]

I just lie, and make up a ridiculous number for my camera, solves the problem if they are foolish.

 

[sultan]

I just lie, and make up a ridiculous number for my camera, solves the problem if they are foolish.

I do the same actually I claim that my K100D is 25 megapixels or something like that.

 

[AlexColeman]

Yeah, gets P&Sers (immature begginers, not that P&S is bad.) out of your hair. And leaves them slack-jawed.

 

[rufus5150]

Just tell them that the camera you have is so high quality that it's rated in mebibytes rather than megabytes.

 

[AlexColeman]

Or in terabytes.

 

[tsaraleksi]

Shoot with a 20+ megapixel camera and you'll start thinking in terrabytes.

 

[sxesweets]

Thanks for the imput. I actually have that book maybe I should just "leave" it out for him one afternoon. I started off by telling him that I do have a couple of good articles for him to read regarding some of the backlight issues so if I can get him to read those I will go ahead and try to head into the megapixel and DPI territory.

Wish me luck... stubborn daddy...

 

[dhilberg]

You could show him these links:

The Megapixel Myth
The Truth About Digital Cameras
Breaking the Myth of Megapixels
Megapixels Chart

Or you could just forget about it and let him stimulate the economy.