Which would produce higher quality prints?

[JackB]

Hi

I want to take pictures of animals in the wild. Should I use an ultra zoom like the FZ20 or a camera with 6-8 mp (like the G6) then crop with PSP software?

Thanks for your help

Jack

[John_Reed]

Hi

I want to take pictures of animals in the wild. Should I use an ultra zoom like the FZ20 or a camera with 6-8 mp (like the G6) then crop with PSP software?

Thanks for your help

JackLook at it this way, Jack. Suppose you took a full-zoom image with the FZ20. That image would cover a span of 2560X1920 pixels on the FZ20's image sensor. The question is, how many pixels would that cover on the Canon G6's image sensor? Take the full-size dimension on the FZ20 (2560), multiply it by the ratio of maximum equivalent focal lengths (140/432), and then by the ratio of sensor array sizes (3072/2560), = 995.5X746.6 pixels, when computed in both directions. So the crop that you'd get from a full-zoomed G6 image to capture what the FZ20 captured at full zoom would consist of only that many pixels, ~743 kilopixels. That tells you that you're much better off, quality-wise, with the longer optical zoom of the FZ20. Not to mention the image stabilizer of the FZ20 will give you a sharper shot in the first place!