What's your megapixel w/ pic

[reefrunner69]

All photos were taken of the same subject, at the same focal distance in super macro with the same exposure. The only thing that has been done to these images was I ran a PS action on them to increase exposure (the action was run on all the photos to the exact same intensity), resized and saved for the web at the exact same compression ratio.

 

[reefrunner69]

2 MegaPixels

 

[reefrunner69]

3 MegaPixels

 

[reefrunner69]

6 MegaPixels

 

[reefrunner69]

12 MegaPixels

 

[sumphead]

Point proven! BTW are those RED zoos just off to the left and back!?!

 

[reefrunner69]

Ya, red zoos. Which point was proven?

 

[brendan]

All these photos look great. One thing I don't seem to understand is why the pictures don't have the flashback from using the flash. Is there something that I'm doing wrong or is this a feature of the more expensive cameras?

TIA

 

[reefrunner69]

Well I didn't use the flash, but that is pretty easy when taking pics of unmoving corals, I also used a tripod and the self timer.

 

[Brad]

So you agree..?

That was a pretty contolled test, 'runner. I think the conclusion that most would draw is that the 2MP looks exactly the same as the 12MP when viewed on this site.

Had you made actual prints at a photo lab from these images you would start to see differences on any print larger than 4x6. (smaller than 4x6 and all would look identical)

Had you cropped the images...say down to only a portion of the clam, you would also have seen the differences because cropping is just removing large numbers of pixels. If take an 1/10 area from a 12MP, you're left with 1.2MP....take an area 1/10 crop from a 2MP image and you're left with .2MP. You would probably see the difference between 1.2 and .2 when viewed on this site.

So....again...what you see on this site is the result of great photography...great photographic techniques...but you can't base a megapixel decision upon what you see.

 

[reefrunner69]

Agreed it's all about what you want to do with it. If your simply going to be posting pics on the web, you may or may not want a high MP camera, with crops, the more MP the larger you'll be able to show the pic. One thing to keep in mind, the higher MP cameras are usually newer cameras, and while the ccd is also larger it may be of higher quality or it may not.

Bottom line..decide what you want to do with the cam, and find the largest MP tempered with the best quality and the features you desire most in a cam that fits into your budget.

 

[William]

3.2MegaPixel Cannon A300

 

[Guppyman]

MP

Hi Kevin,

All of the photos in my gallery, except for the macros were shot with a 5 year old 1.3 Mp Olympus E100RS. Honestly - so far I'm happier with these pics than what I am now getting from my new Olympus C8080Z, an 8Mp unit. Possibly as I get more familiar with the new unit that feeling may change, but then again, with the old camera there was NO learning curve. It is truly a point and shoot. Check out the picture of the owl in my gallery. No one believes it was taken with a 1.3 Mp camera. Would I lie?