Megapixel & Resolution Reality

Today, I ran into a fellow photographer who ALSO paid a ton of money for a digital camera a number of years ago. He has the SONY DSC-F707 (5 megapixel camera) and was looking for advice on whether to keep it or get one of the 'new' cameras. The Carl Zeiss lens on his camera made me tell him no! No, keep it - it's the sharpest optical glass on the planet - and any 8,10 or 12 megapixel camera produced today wouldn't compete with the sharpness and resolution of that lens. The glass itself on the camera is about 1 inch in diameter - and it's in the lens that the image is first created.

He laughed at my answer - and told me that he had made a 15 x 30 (foot) image for the side of a truck with that camera - with that lens!

Him trading in or giving up on this camera for the luxury of saying "I have one of the new ones" isn't even close to being worth it. He'll get many more years of professional use out of this camera. The design is unique - it's the best optical glass made, and the lens ISN'T only about 4mm in diameter, like on the 'new' technology cameras.

He paid $1400 for it when it came out, but the quality of the images has been worth it!

Digital vs. 35mm film

Many photographers wonder how much of a difference there is between the 'old' 24x36mm film format and the 'new' digital formats. I did some research and here's what I found:

An Eastman Kodak film scientist was quoted to say that, in a scientific magazine, the upper limits of 35mm film in use today by consumers is about ~25.8MP. Thus, consumer digicams have a far ways to go before even matching the resolution and detail in film in prints.

It seems that whatever the general public perceives becomes reality.
As long as they're happy with the final 4x6 inch print of their Johnny swinging a bat at a ball -- that's all that matters.

In fact, color, focus, saturation, contrast and lighting can go to hell, as long as Johnny's face is 'sorta clear in the pitcher'...

The craft, science and art of photography have been stepped on by all the wonderful technology involving auto focus, program mode, face recognition, and auto ISO.

I wonder if anyone can still pick up a Pentax K1000 with a roll of Tri-X loaded and manage to shoot a roll of good pictures...