Why I want >576 Mega pixel, multi lens, 50 frame per second, point and shoot camera
Next time a person tells me that I don’t need a digital camera with more than 6-10 mega pixel resolution, I am going to hit him/her on the head with the sharp corner of my camera (my potential targets here, here and all over).
People who say that you don’t need more than 6 Mega pixel resolution in your camera are the same people who proclaimed “64K computer memory should be enough for anybody”.
These myopic folks miss the basic point of why one takes pictures. One does not take pictures to print out 3×4 prints from the local drug store; one takes pictures to preserve the memory, capture the moment for ever.
When people are running away from their burning house, what do they grab first? their old pictures! It is one of the most precious possession in people’s lives. Why would you want the most precious thing in your life to be of a mediocre quality?
When I click the shutter on my camera, I want to capture at least what my eyes can see. Apparently, if you converted the resolution of what an eye can perceive in to mega pixel, it turns out that an eye can see at 576 Mega pixel. So, I want my camera to be at least 576MP camera; is that too much to ask?
When I look out, I see in stereo; with full depth - is it too much to expect that my camera does the same?
I want to take pictures for the unknown technology that will be available to me in 20 years, not for the 3×4 print that can be printed now! Even today, there are methods that can take a regular print and create a 3D scene out of it. God know where this technology will be in 20 years. And when that technology is available, do I want a digital picture taken at resolution of 5MP or 500MP?
Even the displays are getting bolder and sharper. In 20 years, there may be life like displays, and on that display, would you like to use a picture taken with 5MP or 500MP resolution? When you recreate that precious moment in holographic 3D, which image do you think will show the details?
The main mistake these so called “experts” make, is that they believe that the only thing that can and will be done with a digital image, is to print it! A digital image is nothing but a piece of digital data; you can do a lot with it and when you are manipulating data, it is better to have as much original data as possible! It is not about being able to crop the image, it is about preserving most available data for future technology and processing advances.
If I can’t afford to buy 576MP camera or I can’t handle a multi lens camera, that is a different story; just don’t patronize me and tell me that I don’t need anything beyond 6MP camera.
Here is an example of a gigpixel image; see how much you can capture.
You can also visit the gogapxl image gallery.
<Rant complete> We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
The problem with most 10MP cameras is that a) their optics can’t keep up and b) they are very light insensitive, so in the end you could end up with a blurry, noisy 10MP picture containing less information than one takenly with an equally priced 6MP cam.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Speaking of the owner of a 10.2MP Nikon D200, I beg to differ that high resolution equates with poor quality. If anything, the opposite is generally true.
Poor quality images are almost always the fault of the photographer, not the camera they use, and any photographer would, all things being equal, prefer to shoot with a 10mp camera than with a 6mp.
Technology is progressing, with models such as Canon’s EOS 1Ds Mk 3 21 megapixel camera commanding premium prices of several thousand dollars. None of these cameras would have sold if they had not been seen to be capable of producing images far surpassing - in detail and resolution at least - images produced by less expensive cameras.
It is true that the higher the resolution, the more the viewable size of the image, the more likely it is that blurring will degrade the quality of the image - this can be demonstrated by looking through a handheld telescope half extended, and then looking through it fully extended and noting the difference in image shake. Again, accomplished photographers are capable of dealing with this issue to a high degree.