MEGAPIXEL: MORE
ISN’T MERRIER
You just got an 18-megapixel camera? Sweet! And when are you printing a billboard-sized image from your island vacation? Probably never. In which case, you may as well have taken along on your trip a plain old 8-MP camera and not one that cost you your entire bonus.
Think about it. What do you do most with photographs from holidays, parties, anniversaries and such nowadays? Click, share on Facebook and refresh the browser every 30 seconds to see who has “liked” the photos. And even if you are the kind to actually go to a photo lab to order prints for your grandma, you will probably do okay with a 7-MP camera.
Ken Rockwell, a well-known online photography advisor, says on his blog: “Camera makers use the number of megapixels a camera has to hoodwink you into thinking it has something to do with camera quality. This gimmick is used by sales people and manufacturers to make you feel as if your current camera is inadequate and needs to be replaced even if the new cameras each year are only slightly better.” And he creatively calls the people who relentlessly pursue the unending pixel race, “equipment measurebators”, people who are interested solely in equipment for its own sake.
In reality, to make the pixel increase effective, camera manufacturers would have to simultaneously increase the camera sensor size. Instead, most camera makers tend to stuff more pixels on the same sensor, which ends in reduction in image detail or a less sharp image. Experts agree that for an average user, a camera with a 7 MP resolution should work just fine for print or processing quality and even less for email or web-only photos.
“When such high megapixels were not available I shot a full-fledged campaign for a big company with a 6-MP camera. It was published in all newspapers all over India. It was good enough even for a print campaign. It all comes down to the ‘Meri gaadi tumharey gaadi se badee kaisey? (how is your car bigger than mine)’ mindset? One should look for a big sensor on cameras. Even a 10-MP is good enough for commercial work if you really, really need it,” says Sanjiv Kapoor, who has been shooting professionally in Delhi for 18 years.
Other more critical things to look for in a camera would include optical zoom, shutter lag, start-up time, frames per second, manual setting options, lens quality and features that you will practically use. Most uninitiated buyers, in fact, fall for the second biggest hype of cameras: digital zoom. This is nothing but zooming into a photo, as you would do to a photo on your computer, which means that any photo would zoom infinitely. What you really want to look for is optical zoom, which is what the lens does.
HOW TO BEAT IT |
You just got an 18-megapixel camera? Sweet! And when are you printing a billboard-sized image from your island vacation? Probably never. In which case, you may as well have taken along on your trip a plain old 8-MP camera and not one that cost you your entire bonus.
Think about it. What do you do most with photographs from holidays, parties, anniversaries and such nowadays? Click, share on Facebook and refresh the browser every 30 seconds to see who has “liked” the photos. And even if you are the kind to actually go to a photo lab to order prints for your grandma, you will probably do okay with a 7-MP camera.
Ken Rockwell, a well-known online photography advisor, says on his blog: “Camera makers use the number of megapixels a camera has to hoodwink you into thinking it has something to do with camera quality. This gimmick is used by sales people and manufacturers to make you feel as if your current camera is inadequate and needs to be replaced even if the new cameras each year are only slightly better.” And he creatively calls the people who relentlessly pursue the unending pixel race, “equipment measurebators”, people who are interested solely in equipment for its own sake.
In reality, to make the pixel increase effective, camera manufacturers would have to simultaneously increase the camera sensor size. Instead, most camera makers tend to stuff more pixels on the same sensor, which ends in reduction in image detail or a less sharp image. Experts agree that for an average user, a camera with a 7 MP resolution should work just fine for print or processing quality and even less for email or web-only photos.
“When such high megapixels were not available I shot a full-fledged campaign for a big company with a 6-MP camera. It was published in all newspapers all over India. It was good enough even for a print campaign. It all comes down to the ‘Meri gaadi tumharey gaadi se badee kaisey? (how is your car bigger than mine)’ mindset? One should look for a big sensor on cameras. Even a 10-MP is good enough for commercial work if you really, really need it,” says Sanjiv Kapoor, who has been shooting professionally in Delhi for 18 years.
Other more critical things to look for in a camera would include optical zoom, shutter lag, start-up time, frames per second, manual setting options, lens quality and features that you will practically use. Most uninitiated buyers, in fact, fall for the second biggest hype of cameras: digital zoom. This is nothing but zooming into a photo, as you would do to a photo on your computer, which means that any photo would zoom infinitely. What you really want to look for is optical zoom, which is what the lens does.
HOW TO BEAT IT |
More megapixels isn’t inherently a bad thing. But it
can be. And don’t just focus on equipment. Most amateurs ignore the most
critical aspect of good photos — lighting.
—PADMAPARNA GHOSH TOICREST120428
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