Re: Killing me, wishlist grows
Reply With QuoteAl,Originally Posted by brewmaster15
Steve does bring up a good point about the lens requirements. But theres alot more to consider as well when looking at the increase in sensors in these 50megapixel and up range.
Interesting article here..https://photographylife.com/are-you-...-50-mp-cameras
Other considerations are post processing time,file processing and storage, computer processor speeds and needs, viewing etc all are affected. You may need to upgrade much besides the camera! It also sounds like your picture taking technique itself may need to be modified..ex hand held may become more challenging.
I do have to wonder though at what point is it overkill ? Unless you are selling your work,doing it as a living or want to be able to use a single pic to wallpaper your house...how many hobbyists will ever benefit from a 50 mp camera? From what I have seen the majority of hobbyist ,even semi pros post most of their work on line...which means its what its being viewed on that is the limiting factor...not the camera sensor itself...
Its actually kind of funny and ironic.In the early days of digital.Film captured far more detail but digital advocates would say that did not matter as most people had begun viewing the images digitally and so the limiting factors were monitor resolution, scanner resolution and printer resolution..Films ability exceeded all these in native form...but not when digitized. Now as digital starts to exceed film...the industry seems to forget...those same constraints exist..sure monitors and printers have gotten better as have computers...but how many people have the high end version of these?
My take home message here for forum members reading this is know your goals,your target audience and your budget.It can be a very costly hobby if you try and keep up with the latest and greatest gear...the results can be very worthwhile but only if you take the time to learn the basics,practice much and are independently wealthy!
Al
Very well said! For 95% of my photography, my lowly 12 megapixel D3s is more than sufficient. The only limitation of those nice big 12 MP pixels is the inability to make very large prints. I will only prints landscapes larger than what the D3s can offer so I bought a 36 MP D800. I've seen prints from the D800 enlarged to 40" by 72". The print was a forrest landscape with fine details. The print was stunning even when viewing from 18 inches away. Frankly, i could never imagine printing anything larger. So for me, there will never be a need to go bigger than 36MP. Having said that, I want my landscape lenses to resolve enough detail to take advantage of the D800's 36MP. Currently, most Nikon lenses do not resolve that level of detail. That is why they are releasing newer versions of their lenses, some of which were only introduced 5-7 years ago. As an owner of a number of those lenses, it sucks because the value of those lenses will drop significantly when the new versions come out.
You are right about the need for new shooting techniques with these new high MP cameras. Hand held shooting is not possible if you want to take advantage of the full resolution. Mirror lock-up with a delay or remote shutter is highly preferable. Live view, highly magnified, manual focus is needed to wring the full resolution out. Basically we are talking about slow, studio type techniques. These high MP cameras are effectively medium format like sensors and requires medium format type techniques. The use of very stable (expensive Carbon fiber) tripods is a given as well. So in summary, these cameras are definitely not for everybody because 99% of photographers will not reap benefits from these cameras. But for those willing to spend the $$$ for the body, lenses, tripods, ball heads and willing to follow very strict shooting protocol, the benefits can be rewarding but only with very large print sizes.
My belief is that 99% of photographers should stick with a max of 24MP and not bother with anything higher. 24 MP sensors will perform better in low light, have better high ISO performance and capable of very nice large prints. A big plus is that most very good lenses will resolve just fine at the 24MP level.
