Megapixel Retreat

By Rick Walker | August 19, 2009 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0) | TrackBacks ( 0)

Canon's announcement of their new G11 point and shoot is an interesting departure from the megapixel wars of the last few years.  For those of you not familiar with it, here's a link to the Canon website: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&tabact=ModelTechSpecsTabAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=19209#ModelTechSpecsAct

The important changes relative to the previous G10 (which is a very nice camera) is a reduction in the number of pixels from 14.7MP to 10MP, and the introduction of a tilt/swivel LCD panel.  The change in megapixels may be puzzling to some, but it will have benefits in terms of noise, as well as dynamic range.  It also acknowledges something obvious to most people: you're not likely to make 24x36 prints from a point and shoot, and lower noise and better dynamic range are more important than theoretical resolution.

Personally, I think is an excellent choice on their part.  In many respects, it mirrors Nikon's strategy with the D3 and D700 to avoid larger numbers of megapixels and instead go for image quality.  As someone who owns those cameras, as well as the higher megapixel D3X, I can tell you that on a practical basis, there's a lot of virtue in the lower resolution, less noisy sensor.  High megapixels sound great, but take extra work to fully realize their advantages, and in the case of DSLRs, those megapixels are of no use unless you have outstanding lenses.  Not just good ones, but outstanding ones.

Kudos to Canon for what was probably a difficult decision.

Leave a comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)