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Dorian Gray
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2006-07-06, 21:59

Hmm… 6.0 MP from a 1/2.5" Canon CCD. Think I'll pass!

The best image quality in this kind of price range comes from the Fuji Finepix F10 and F11 cameras (which have their fair share of annoying niggles, but probably no more so than any other compact digicam). All these cameras have sensors that resolve much more detail than their low-quality lenses can project. It is only consumer ignorance that continues to drive the MP count upwards. The difference between 5 MP and 10 MP is not noticeable if the same compact zoom lens is used (which it nearly always is: designing and manufacturing lenses is still expensive, after all). On the other hand, if the technology used in today's high MP sensors was directed at a 4.0 MP sensor of the same area, the quality would dramatically improve (the biggest problems with digicam images are poor dynamic range (i.e. blown highlights) and huge amounts of image noise, and those problems are both exacerbated by high pixel count).

Another annoying thing about consumer digicams is zoom lenses with no true wide-angle. I guess people want high zoom ratios (10x, etc.) and it's very difficult to design and manufacture a high-ratio zoom lens that starts in true wide-angle territory. So we get lenses with 35 mm equivalent focal lengths like 35-350 mm. Imagine how much more useful a 24-180 mm lens would be, but that's 7.5x instead of 10x so people would go for the higher ratio model. It seems that camera buying has turned into an exercise in numbers: the bigger the better. Surely it's time for one of the manufacturers to cater to the enthusiast?
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