Short Description
Camera with the highest megapixel rating
The
Nikon D800 has the highest claimed resolution of any camera we've seen at 36.2 MP.
Resolution is a rating of the total number of pixels used by the camera image sensor to capture the photograph.
For example if the camera utilizes a 4000x3000 pixel image sensor the total number of pixels is 12,000,000 or 12
million pixels. Resolution rates the number of pixels in megapixels (1 megapixel = 1 million pixels), so a camera
with a native resolution sensor of 4000x3000 would be a 12MP camera. Resolution is theoretical maximum that any
camera can achieve, unfortunately most cameras, especially digicams, cannot meet this and consequently
true resolution is metric to use when understanding what a camera is capable
of.
What is Resolution Good For?
The more megapixels used to capture the image then theoretically the more detail you have in the photo. With
more detail you can crop the photo and still maintain resolution, you can print bigger and you can zoom in and see
your fine wrinkles. Resolution provides flexibility, but typically that flexibility isn't needed by most people -
how often do you plan on printing posters of your photos - not just an 8x10 but a 12x18 or 24x36. If all you do is
view photos on a computer, Full HD tv, etc then you will never need more than 2 clean megapixels of resolution. If
you print photos than even a 3MP camera will print fabulous 8X10 prints. If want 12x18 than an 8MP camera is more
than enough. Now there is a big caveat to this and that is the fact that you need clean megapixels.
Clean Megapixels
Birdhouse Photo
There would be no
way to tell if this photo was shot at 14MP or 1/2 MP because the image is being displayed .13 Megapixels. Photo by
Alex - Snapsort cofounder.
When we say clean megapixels we're referring to the quality of the pixels, are they actually capturing detail or
are you just using a bunch of pixels to capture a lack of detail (motion blur, out of focus, Airy disk limitations,
lack of dynamic range, poor color depth, image noise, jpeg and noise reduction artifacts). Many years ago
photographers with 5MP high end pro DSLRs were printing giant prints that looked amazing. The reason is every pixel
was used perfectly, in focus, great dynamic range, beautiful color, low noise, no blur. Most people think
megapixels are important, believing it will actually provide a better photo. The real story is they're not
important at all because the rating of megapixels does not indicate the resolution of the resulting photos, most of
the time a 6MP image and a 14MP image shot on the same digicam are indistinguishable and to make things worse those
6MP digicam photos have image detail that is not nearly as high quality as an old pro DSLR with a giant but lower
resolution sensor that can capture more contrast detail using better lenses with lower noise.
Cameras with Giant Megapixels
A great indicator of how clean a camera's mega pixels will be is its
pixel size rating, the larger the pixel, the more likely they will free from noise and
blur and be able to produce higher dynamic and color range and avoid built-in detail damaging sharpening and noise
reduction algorithms. A primary reason for this is the larger the pixel the more light it receives and the more
likely it will be able to accurately determine what the true RGB value should be. Here are the cameras with the
largest pixels for less than $1500.
2 Megapixels - All You Ever Need?
The birdhouse image displayed is .13 megapixels and it looks great, it probably takes up about 3.5" x 5" on a
standard monitor - so right of the bat you can see that a .13MP image can look great when shown at a reasonable
size - pretty close to a 4"x3" print. If you took the same photo with a clean 2MP you would have 15X or 1500% more
pixels. That would be the same as a 20" x 13.5" print with only 2MP! Now think of what distance you'd view such a
large print, probably a few feet back - look at how crisp the birdhouse is from a few feet back! This helps you
understand how pros can create incredible poster size prints with "only" 5MP. Today's digicams come with outrageous
megapixel ratings of 14MP plus and yet they can't compete with a quality 4MP pro DSLR. Don't be fooled by
megapixels - they're not as important as you think. If you want to understand some of the science behind why
digicams megapixels aren't as clean as a SLR - check out the
true resolution property. Don't get us wrong - more good clean megapixels are
always welcome, especially if you're a pro. What we're saying is the resolution rating put out by manufacturers
doesn't correlate with real world detail capturing performance and most people are served fine by just a handful of
megapixels. As you can see 2MP, as long as they're nice and clean, could very well be all most people need.
Close up of 2MP vs .13MP Pixels
Birdhouse @ .13 Megapixels
Here is a zoomed crop of the birdhouse photo at .13MP showing the detail of the lower right part of
the birdhouse.
Birdhouse @ 2 Megapixels
Here is a zoomed crop of the birdhouse photo at 2MP showing the detail of the lower right part of
the birdhouse.
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Thanks, ELHP