gwilliams6

How Many Megapixels Do You Need? | Ask David Bergman from Adorama Camera.

A good explanation of megapixels, resulting image quality, print size requirements, optimum viewing distance and more .

Cheers

gwilliams6

How Many Megapixels Do You Need? | Ask David Bergman from Adorama Camera.

A good explanation of megapixels, resulting image quality, print size requirements, optimum viewing distance and more .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_gtjudp9dY

Do yourself a favor and actually watch the video before commenting.

Cheers and best to you all.

User ID

Need 10MP +/- remaining after cropping.

Knowing that means not having to suffer through a video.

Cheers and best to you all.

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The math of a beautiful image is easy: it has twice the megapixels of your current sensor.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

My first digital camera was 2MP. Not quite enough.
My second was 8MP. Was OK..
My current is 24MP and is more than enough for me.
I rarely print and never printed anything over 16x20.
99% of my photos are displayed on 1920x1080 monitors or TV's and only recently have I started saving my "TV" prints to 4k standards. 24MP is more than enough for me. I agree with everything this guy said, and I think the law of diminishing returns come in for most at around 24MP. I personally could live comfortably with 8MP and would like better glass than I have. He suggests that people in 2036 might laugh at that and he may be right, but for now, 24MP seems good.

neillaubenthal

Yep…10ish after cropping is really plenty most of the time…unless one is making really big prints, but even those are designed to not be looked at from a foot away. We collectively spend waaaaay too much time debating IQ at 2:1 in LR and the relative merits of various tech and lenses…and some people demand only the best…without considering nobody will look at the image at 2:1…they’ll look at the output on screen or print and the required downsampling for that simply physics away the differences one sees at 2:1 a lot. Better is the enemy of good enough.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

The question should be... " How many MP are needed for internet photos ". That's where 95% of clicks are seen NOT printed. WHO besides pros print very much ?

gwilliams6

As explained by Adorama's David Bergman in the video, the amount of cropping you need is certainly one of the factors governing how many megapixels is best for what you shoot and how you crop.

I know UHHers don't want to watch another video, LOL.

But it might be helpful to some to actually watch this video before commenting, as it might answer some questions, provide some inputs, and even show you common ground where you agree with what David is saying.

Thanks for your comments on your own experiences and observations about megapixels.

Cheers and best to you.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

A well-presented, rational explanation. It covers all of the main points.

But unless our eyes evolve to see higher resolutions, the future is not going to make our 20-50MP sensors seem inadequate.

gwilliams6

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

It's amazing what 30 megapixels cannot do for your photography.

radiojohn

Good one!

MJPerini

I do love this comment. It is one to really think about.
I watched all of David Bergman's video, and it was fair and accurate.

My question is why are we still debating this kind of thing HERE? We have long passed the number of pixels needed for sufficiency in the vast majority of situations.

As stated above, 10MP after cropping is another useful rule of thumb, for most pictures.
As is the fact that if it is a great PICTURE no one cares about pixels.

But none of that means that Cameras with far more pixels, and /or larger sensors do not have their place and uses.
There is a reason Automotive Photographers, Fashion & Cosmetics Photographers often use high resolution and larger sensors, and Detail is only a small part of it. Rendering SMOOTHNESS with perfect gradation is hard, and you can easily see the difference that increased resolution and higher bit Depths makes.

Those are of course somewhat special cases.
My point here is that we pretty much all know what we need to do the work we choose to do.
We are long past the point where debate about how many Pixels is in any way helpful to anyone except someone buying their first "Fancy Camera"
Besides buying what you want and can afford for ourselves, presuming to tell other people what they should buy (or should not buy) is just silly.
We should lay this one to rest......

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I'd never give back 1 pixel.
Not ONE.
N E V E R

That said, 24MP seems to be a wonderful sweet spot. A noticeable difference to 20MP and not the overkill of 45MP.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

There is a reason, alright. Somebody else is paying for the camera.