Mega Pixels!

I read an interesting thread last night regarding the "mega pixel race not being over on compact digicams" (RG site) and thought i'd pose a similar question here.

What is the point of 12+ megapixels on a point and shoot?

I really cant see why manufacturers are going in this direction. 12mp pushes the boundaries on all but exotic glass, let alone the "contact lens" most compacts are fitted with. Then there's the noise issue.
Then it got me thinking about the future of digital zoom, is this really what its about? or is it all marketing hype?

Sharp has to it's dubious credit, announced a tiny 12MP sensor for the compact cameras!

http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/061108-a.html for which all you need is the image as the rest is in Japanese,



3MP is enough for a compact didicam. We just need good pixels with high dynamic range and signal to noise ratio!

Imagine a state of the art 3MP CCD or CMOS chip!

Asher

If my eyes aren't deceiving me that's 10mm across. Assuming a 4x3 format, that makes each pixel ~0.0025mm or ~400 pixels per mm, thats 3x the pixel density of a 1dsMkII, soon to be in a mobile phone near you. Whatever next?

What's the point? Unless they have a way of dealing with the S/N ratio, this is plain daft! One may as well rub viagra on the camera to get it to take better picures!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

What's the point? Unless they have a way of dealing with the S/N ratio, this is plain daft! One may as well rub viagra on the camera to get it to take better picures!

Asher

Click to expand...

I never thought of that. Maybe doing that will make my tele-zoom longer ;-)

The point of more than 4 MPx [I won't budge for more] on a digicam: Marketing. Ever asked yourself - and I know we have at least one medical doctor among us - why the bulk of your e-mail wants you to get a bigger, wider penis? Same reason.

I could dig in and come up with all the detail behind the reasoning but the point stays, it is

a) easier to compare simple numbers
b) men [and women, I venture] want bigger, wider, larger, more.

Supersize Everything!

Dierk,

You are so right!

But we fall for it. Just 20 cents more and we'll supersize it and you get quadruple the amount of French Fries! Actually I really object to this. The restaurants supersize everything and people get fat, so fat!

School moms drive huge SUV guzzling 8 miles per gallon (and paying for who knows what missiles some where) when a smaller car would be cheaper and safer!

In photography, however, this is so stupid. The first thing people ask about my cameras is, yes, you know it, "How many mega-what's-it do they have".

I think I might make a 24MP sticker for my 1DII!

It will then, as expected do much better than there 10 MP pocket digicams!!

Asher

it's all marketing hype, aimed at people who don't know any better and think more Mp must be better. the average consumer doesn't have a clue how a digital camera really works, but they know that more Mp means more "resolution", even though most of them will never use that resolution for anything beyond perhaps a 5x7 print. the only real point to more pixels is that it allows you to either A) make much larger prints, or B) crop the bejeebers out of the original and still have enough left to make a decent normal size print.