Surprise, Nobody Cares About MegaPixels Anymore, We Want Better Low Light Performance
Aug 6, 2013
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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Actually, this is not very surprising. The megapixel race have gone to sleep until Nikon’s D800 and the rumored 75MP new Canon woke it up again.
Last week we did a quick poll to see what should camera makers focus on. Here are the results. I know that DIYP is not statistically a valid group, but I do think that with 1.000 votes it represents the general direction in which the wind is blowing.
With a clear 60.37% of the votes photographers want Better Low Light Performance
Coming in second with 22.05% is Improved Focusing
More Megapixels came in last with only 1.42% of the votes.
We have had 5.69% wanting better video and 10% wanted other stuff, check out the comments on the original post.
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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7 responses to “Surprise, Nobody Cares About MegaPixels Anymore, We Want Better Low Light Performance”
I think the megapixel “race” was worse in the point’n’shoot market where camera buyers are less likely to understand why more megapixels isn’t always a good thing.
The readership of this blog is more likely to be into the DSLRs and higher-end cameras, and probably has a better understanding of the megapixel myth than the point’n’shoot market, and I think that has resulted in the relatively low score of “more megapixels”.
The best images I’ve ever gotten from a P&S came from a Kodak DC3200 (circa 2002). Absolutely gorgeous color rendition. But that’s probably fairly easy to get when you only spread 1MP across a fairly substantial sensor. (I believe it was 1/1.7″)
Yes, the megapixel race was a loss for everyone. Just imagine where we’d be if they had stayed focused on quality and not quantity.
I think even low light performance is reaching a “good enough” point. I’ve bought a Canon 6D and it makes amazing pictures in very little light. I’ve made hand-held pictures of candlelit subjects and they came out well. Better performance is always an improvement, but unless you’re shooting telephoto in complete darkness, you don’t really need a better camera than what’s available now.
Or if you’re shooting rapidly moving people under mediocre theatrical lighting.
Too much megapixels are pointless if your photos are full of ISO noise.
Good to know that people care less about the amount of megapixels we have in our cameras. Though this could be because the amount of Mpx on most digital cameras nowadays are way more than enough for the everyday photographer.
http://preciouss2photo.blogspot.com
we want better low light performance
better image colors and dynamic range
less shutter lag
better viewfinder