9 Megapixels?

[Spinning]

Is this something important? I currently have a 5 MP and find I can enlarge and crop as needed. My current camera and the one I am looking at to replace it have a 10x optical zoom. So in the past I really haven't cropped to much did it all with the lens.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

as I understand it the extra megapixels will really only be noticed if want to do enlarged prints of larger than say 8x10.

 

[Scottl]

I'm not sure exactly what your asking but 5 megapixels are just fine unless you are going to print bigger than 8x10 as Disney MAINEiac pointed out or unless you are going to crop the heck out of picture. I.e., crop to blow up a person standing in front of the castle when the person is only a small part of the picture.

 

[Spinning]

I guess I am asking to help narrow my choices down with cameras. I jsut looked at my current camera and it is only a 4.2 MP and I can't say I ever cropped so much that the picture became distorted.
Right now I am looking at the Fuji S5200 (5.2 MP)or the Fuji S9000 (9 MP).

Each seems to have something I like. My current camera is the S5100.
If the battery part on my current camera didn't break I wouldn't be looking.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Ignore megapixels. It's gotten to be like dot pitch on monitors. I bet that you can't find a new camera that is really good except that it doesn't have enough megapixels. If it's a decent camera, it will have enough. More than enough won't help you.

 

[allyn]

my rule of thumb is that 4 megapixels is "enough" for almost everyone. there are downsides to additional megapixels like increased noise.

 

[Groucho]

You're talking about a PnS camera - which means that you're talking about a pretty small sensor. Nine is too much, you'll see a lot of image noise, certainly more so than with your 5mp camera.

Megapixels are definitely past the point of diminishing returns on PnS cameras nowadays.

Fuji does pretty good with their SuperCCDs but you're still talking about a huge amount of data being recorded on a tiny little square.

Best thing to do if look for a review with full-size samples and look at each at 100% - especially darker photos, not bright sunny-day outdoor photos - and see which you prefer.

 

[YEKCIM]

Right now I am looking at the Fuji S5200 (5.2 MP)or the Fuji S9000 (9 MP).

Not to beat a dead horse, but have you considered the Fuji S6000fd? A buddy of mine just bought one for his son, and he says it is a terrific camera. Says the Face Detection feature works really well, too (not sure if it works on mouses, ducks, goofy-looking dogs, etc, however...)

~YEKCIM

 

[boBQuincy]

Megapixels is marketing.
It provides a number that allows easy marketing of the product to confused consumers (that's most of us), and a quick tool with which to promote one product over another.
Unfortunately, megapixels has little to do with image quality.

What we really need is *better* pixels (less noise, more dynamic range). All things being equal (which they rarely are) less megapixels equals less noise, so if you find two similar cameras that differ only in pixels, the one with less pixels may well deliver a better image.

9 megapixels is a lot for a P&S.

 

[Spinning]

YEKCIM
I am actually looking at that one also. I just found a camera shop that has it in stock so I am hoping to go next week and look at it. I believe it is a 6 MP.

 

[puddleduck]

More megapixels means you will have an easier time cropping pictures because you can zoom in on a desirable area and crop out undesirable areas for a better picture.

How you view your pictures can really influence what camera you need to get. If you primarily view your pictures on a computer then a lower mp will work fine. If you print 4x6 or 5x7 pictures a lower mp will work as long as you you don't do any major cropping. Digital zooming enlarges the image in the camera and decreases your ability to crop pictures.

Larger mp counts allow better prints with more detail. It is also possible to enlarge pictures to 8x10, 11x17 and even larger. 12 mp cameras can safely enlarge pictures up to just under poster size. This might sound pointless but think you cool a poster of your kids at disney would be.

DSLR cameras cost more but give you the ability to get just the right lens, great color reproduction, light metering and a lot of other bonuses for better pictures. You wouldn't believe how much a lens can effect the quality of a picture.

 

[Groucho]

Larger mp counts allow better prints with more detail. It is also possible to enlarge pictures to 8x10, 11x17 and even larger. 12 mp cameras can safely enlarge pictures up to just under poster size. This might sound pointless but think you cool a poster of your kids at disney would be.

Well......... this is only really true if you have a larger or a much-improved sensor. Most PnS sensors are pretty tiny, even the "larger" ones, and are the same size that you would have on a 2mp camera.

Now, take a 5mp and a 9mp camera with the same sensor, and you generally won't see a significant change in detail, even though the 9mp will be a much larger resolution. The 9mp will generally be softer and noisier - hopefully, when shrunk down to 5mp size, you'll have a picture as good as the lower mp camera, but maybe even not.

My old 5mp PnS, when resized to 1600x1200, often looked worse than photos from my 2mp PnS (1600x1200 native), because of all the extra noise in the image.

 

[ukcatfan]

I have to second Groucho on this. It really is not possible to create a decent looking poster print from a p&s. You have to go up to a DSLR to be able to get a sensor large enough to do that. A DSLR sensor is extremely larger than a p&s sensor. Just for a relative comparison, almost all 6MP DSLR images will blow away a 10MP p&s image. If that is what you really want to do, then there is no sense in buying a p&s when the prices of DSLRs have come down so much. I am not saying everyone should go out and buy a DSLR. For most people, a p&s 6MP image is all that you need.

Kevin

 

[MarkBarbieri]

The other big problem with ultra-high resolution P&S cameras is that the resolving power of the sensor outstrips the resolution of the optics. You may get a 10mp sensor, but I don't know that there is a P&S with optics that can really resolve 10mp worth of detail.

 

[puddleduck]

Your right about the PnS vs DSLR. I have never been satisfied with any PnS camera I have used. The pictures are always soft and you have little room to manipulate them in photoshop because of pixel size. I readily admit that where I want to take my photography rules out a PnS. IMHO you can get a DSLR and add lenses as your skills and tastes change for about the same price as a good PnS that leaves you stuck with a one size fits all approach. Let me throw in though that some of these lenses can cost waaayyyy more than the camera body itself but a good lens allows you to take pictures that simply are not possible with a PnS.

 

[seashoreCM]

A couple of years ago I considered 3 megapixels enough for casual snapshooting and 4x6 pictures but never got around to buying a digital camera.

Then my zoom film camera broke and I needed to go out and buy something new. Currently I think 5 or 6 megapixels and 3x zoom is enough for casual snapshooting.

I got a 4x zoom 6 megapixel model this past summer. So I don't expect to have to do too much cropping. Most models are still in the 3x zoom category.

Some camera hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm

 

[Groucho]

I actually have a couple pretty good prints made from my old 5mp PnS camera - the one that I was generally not very happy with. One is a shot of my wife and son sitting on Main St with the castle in the background, and is printed straight from the camera, the other is a shot of my son in his rally car driver outfit perched on the back of my rally car-inspired street car holding on to the spoiler - that was was actually printed from a 1280x1024 jpg and looks surprisingly good.

These are largish prints, 17" on the short side IIRC, printed as promos on a $100k+ Canon printer.

Do they have the clarity and sharpness of prints from a DSLR? No, of course not. But I was pretty impressed at how well they did turn out - certainly plenty good for casual viewing despite the larger size. I'm sure it didn't hurt that they were both bright, outdoor photos - but you can get fairly nice larger prints from a PnS, as long as you keep your expectations realistic.