Are the MP Wars Over Yet?

[sully]

I'm hoping manufacturers stop adding mps to the sensors and start focusing on size and quality of the sensors themselves.

Anyone else see this as a possible trend?

I'm holding off buying a camera (ultra zoom) because I hope they do just this. I'm sure the issue is balancing the line between uz and dslr.

Your thoughts?

[DonSchap]

I'd be happy if they put a 16.3 MP Full-Frame sensor with an 10.2 MP APS-C sensor switch on the body to allow EF-S lenses to be mounted and eliminate vignetting. Admittedly, because the EF-S lens penetrates a 3/8" deeper into the camera body, the mirror slaps against the back of the lens and gets jammed... so that is a problem. I figure if someone developed a SPLIT mirror, which would open like two flaps, one up and one down, then you could do it. Let's face it, the mirror is only there so you can see what you are shooting... so having a slight horizontal line across the image as you are viewing it would be no big thing. In fact, you could probably go 80/20 with the split of the mirror, and move the line even lower than the middle of the image.

Original SLR operation
16063

50/50 Split-mirror SLR proposal
16066

Note that the EF-S lens is closer to the mirror in figure 2

[forno]

I'm hoping manufacturers stop adding mps to the sensors and start focusing on size and quality of the sensors themselves.

Anyone else see this as a possible trend?

I'm holding off buying a camera (ultra zoom) because I hope they do just this. I'm sure the issue is balancing the line between uz and dslr.

Your thoughts?

Keep waiting, they will never stop adding megapixels for 2 reasons
1. People still think this is the defining factor in image quality
2. Why would people upgrade if the manufacturers stopped upping the megapixel count

[Pave]

I agree with forno. If the manufacturer writes that his new camera has 10 mps, everyone (no matter how little he knows about cameras) knows what it means and for the majority of buyers is the amount of pixels what counts.
Now imagine there is a poster saying, that new camera has exactly the same features as its predecessor, the only change being enlarged sensor and of course it cosequently costs more. Ussual buyer will check the features like megapixels, zooming range, maybe how large the display is and come to conclusion that some larger sensor (whatever it is for him) is not at all worth the extra bucks. The people who understand the importance of sensor size are usually DSLR owners or plan to buy it....
So in the end it's all about marketing... :mad:

[Riley]

while i agree with the notion that Mp is a marketing factor
and not a fabulous one at that

back in 35mm days
new models always derived interest
and guess what, they were 35mm just like the camera before

Riley

[Rhys]

Why have a mirror that goes up and down? If the mirror is to be changed we could either go back to the pelicle mirror of the EOS RT or slide the mirror to the left or right as required like a sliding door.

[DonSchap]

see that, Rhys.

Although, light is lost with a pelicle mirror, as you know, up to as much a half an f-stop. Some people using expensive f/2.8 lenses might not find that too amusing. Also, pelicles caused a slight yellow shift to the image.

If you square away those issues, you might just have something, there. :D

[Paul79UF]

All I know is that I'm sick of buying external hard drives to store all these pictures with huge file sizes. I've already got three 250gb externals. :(

[Prospero]

All I know is that I'm sick of buying external hard drives to store all these pictures with huge file sizes. I've already got three 250gb externals. :(

Well, you can always resize your pictures. With Photoshop (and I guess many other applications) you can even use a batch action which will resize all the pictures you have selected in very little time.

That said, I also don't see the point of having so many megapixels on a P&S (except for the marketing reasons mentioned here before), especially when it's only raising the noise levels.


I'm holding off buying a camera (ultra zoom) because I hope they do just this. I'm sure the issue is balancing the line between uz and dslr.

I guess there's no point in waiting until the megapixel madness is over; you may have to wait for a couple of years for that to happen. Despite these sensor-issues, you can most definitly take beautiful pictures with the current generation of ultrazooms. Just look around on the forum, there are lots of great examples to be found in the photogallery or the factory specific forums. And if it really bothers you that much I would seriously consider going dSLR...

[Rhys]

see that, Rhys.

Although, light is lost with a pelicle mirror, as you know, up to as much a half an f-stop. Some people using expensive f/2.8 lenses might not find that too amusing. Also, pelicles caused a slight yellow shift to the image.

If you square away those issues, you might just have something, there. :D

I am aware of the issues. I was never greatly taken by the EOS RT on the basis that dirt on the mirror would transfer to the image, there was about 2/3rds of a stop lost and because the mirror was very fragile in comparison with standard mirrors.

[Paul79UF]

Well, you can always resize your pictures. With Photoshop (and I guess many other applications) you can even use a batch action which will resize all the pictures you have selected in very little time.

Thanks for the hint,.... :p ....but I do batch resize the pictures for my various commercial websites, but I also have to keep the full sized originals for creating poster sized prints or for the occasional vinyl car wrap.

I've also got a lot of raw mini-dv camcorder footage on my external hard drives, so it's not just the fault of high megapixel cameras for my plight.