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Megapixel difference.... What do 8, 16, 20.7 megapixels actually mean?
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clonmult
10-12-2014
Originally Posted by d'@ve:
“No, there is no comparison except at computer screen sizes, and even then a DSLR clearly wins. A Spanish site did a comparison between two 40MP cameras: the Nokia 808 and the Pentax 645D DSLR, released in early 2010.

Google Translated comparison

Here are two photos of the same scene, different in coverage only because the lens focal lengths were not quite the same but when viewing them at full size, the differences are dramatic.

808 photo 40MP

645D photo 40 MP

I copied both photos into my photo editor and reduced them to 6 MP. The differences are still dramatic. Then, I equalized their sizes so they covered exactly the same angle of view and reduced them to 1.5 MP (less than HD video resolution) and there is still a (smaller) difference between them, with the Pentax again winning.

Chalk and cheese - but obviously, for full frame snapshots on computer screens (no cropping) it may not matter too much. My old 6MP DSLR definitely took clearer sharper and more contrasty photos than the 808 does and that ignores the benefits of having things like fisheye, other extreme wideangle, long telephoto lenses, depth of field control and low light shots. But to be fair, you couldn't stick it in your shirt pocket, send text messages, make phone calls or go on the internet with it... phone cams definitely have their place! ”

That Pentax is an unfair comparison - it isn't really a DSLR in the way that most would expect - its a medium format camera, and a well respected one at that.

And you can't post-process to equalise the field of view.

Have you compared your DSLR against an 808? It doesn't sound like you have .... I have, and when comparing like with like (ie. my 28-300 lens at 28mm) the two are surprisingly close. Yes, the DSLR is better, but not by a lot. It does give greater flexibility, thats a given.
d'@ve
10-12-2014
Originally Posted by clonmult:
“That Pentax is an unfair comparison - it isn't really a DSLR in the way that most would expect - its a medium format camera, and a well respected one at that.

And you can't post-process to equalise the field of view.

Have you compared your DSLR against an 808? It doesn't sound like you have .... I have, and when comparing like with like (ie. my 28-300 lens at 28mm) the two are surprisingly close. Yes, the DSLR is better, but not by a lot. It does give greater flexibility, thats a given.”

The thread is about megapixels and sensors so what better way is there to illustrate that there is far more to photographic technical quality than a camera sensor or its megapixels? If you can find another DSLR with 40MP, we can compare that too. You'd also need to use a DSLR lens with the same zoom range as the 808, a prime if necessary and I can say without question that my 16MP DSLR with a prime lens produces a far better technical quality than the blurry 808 at 40 MP. Reduce them to a 2MP screen size, and the differences obviously shrink, as well as the blurryness and lack of contrast. Phonecams definitely have their place though, and the 808 may for all I know be the best there is among them, I am not denying that.

As others have said, there is little to be gained in compact point-and-shoot cameras or phone-cams once you get beyond 5 or 6 MP sensors, because the sensors are too small and the optics too small and limiting. As with TVs, it's become primarily a marketing numbers game designed to sound impressive.
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