hookedupin2005 Loc: Northwestern New Mexico

I was watching a YouTube video of the Nikon D3300, when the host(Tony Northrup) stated the although it is a 24 mp camera,
the 18-55mm 'kit lens' only allows a 9mm image...
Is this true of all APS-C cameras?
And/or, do I assume that the more money I put into higher end lenses, the more MPs I will get out of them?
Please explain

IDguy Loc: Idaho

You must have misunderstood Tony. Listen again.

MPs depend on the sensor in the camera, not on the lens. All D3300 images are 24MP.

More advanced cameras allow images using only a portion of the sensor. Again, not dependent on the lens at all.

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

The Mp size could vary depending on the output selected. A jpeg will be smaller but a full size Raw file should be 24 Mp no matter what lens is used.

Walt

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Tony is talking about "Perceptual Megapixels" which is DXO's metric for sharpness and is not the sensor's total or cropped pixels.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

You are confusing file size (Megabytes) with pixel (Megapixels).

The D3400 can record RAW images at 14 bit depth.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

That DXO measure involves both the camera sensor and the lens. If you look at the same lens tested on different cameras you will see a significant difference. All 24MP cameras will be about the same with a given lens.

hookedupin2005 Loc: Northwestern New Mexico

I will have to find and watch the video again... still confused, but thanks for the comments...

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

I’m not confusing anything. The Op’s question implies that he understood from the video that a lens would have an effect on the number of megapixels in the output. It doesn’t - a camera capable of a 24 megapixels will put out a 24 megapixel image in raw regardless of the lens used. An exception to this would be a full frame camera with a crop camera lens on it.

Walt

IDguy Loc: Idaho

That statement is correct.

It isn’t what you said before. Your previous statement confused file type (and size) with image MP.

Joe Blow

Almost. The number of megapixels refers to the number of pixels on the sensor. The camera will record 24 mp regardless of whether it is in JPG or in RAW. The file size is relevant to the processing into either the JPG or RAW and the degree of compression allowed.

A FF using an APS-C lens will still record a 24 mp image. Any vignetting, whether a cropped lens on a FF or a too large hood, will still record those pixels not receiving any light.

Bill_de Loc: US

What Tony actually said was that the kit lens will only give you 8 or 9 megapixels of detail from the 24 megapixel sensor.

46:11 on the video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmWBW8aZSS0

--

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Thanks for the link. It is unusual for Tony to be so imprecise...especially in a video for beginners. He should have said something like, “The sharpness of this lens does not take full advantage of the capabilities of this camera’s 24 MP. It causes images only as sharp as you could het with a 10 MP sensor.”

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

He completely misunderstands the concept of Perceptual Megapixels. In this topic, I took his statements about Perceptual Megapixels directly to DXO and they completely shredded his representations:

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-377405-4.html

In short, DXO uses Pmp to describe the performance of a particular lens and camera combination as it would compare to a "theoretically perfect" lens. It is the entire reason why nearly all high quality full frame lenses score poorly on crop sensor bodies. TN's interpretation is that a full frame lens is less sharp on a crop than on a full frame camera and makes the erroneous argument that crop lenses are better on crop cameras, just because the crop lenses have higher Pmp scores.

It is not a metric for sharpness at all. But it is a metric that helps people save money. A very sharp full frame lens will not perform poorly on a crop sensor, but you are certainly not getting the full potential of that lens on a crop sensor. The Pmp metric simply states that a crop lens will be better utilized than a full frame lens on a crop sensor, which translates to money saved by not buying a full frame lens, since it likely will exceed the resolution capability of a crop camera.

Pmp is not and was never intended as a means of comparing actual quantitative resolution and contrast measurements.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

If either, or both, of the Northrups told me what time it is, I'd pray I had an accurate watch with me to verify what I was told.
--Bob

Boris Ekner Loc: From Sweden, living in Guatemala

As you, I too watched Tony’s “FF-lens-on-DX-body” video yesterday. And he almost had me convinced he’s right.

But then... a 24MP sensor will record light using all its pixels no matter the lens in front of it.
- So how the heck can a superior FF lens produce less quality than an inferior DX lens on a DX camera? It doesn’t make sense!