How Many MegaPixels??

[Larry J. Kosch]

I'm wondering how many storm chasers know what the megapixel size of their digital cameras are??

Hope nobody got a camera of this size:

http://www.petapixel.com/2010/01/18/monstrous-570-megapixel-digital-camera/

Think what would that look like mounted on top of your storm chaser truck!!

 

[David Mikulec]

So, any guesses how large a RAW 570Megapixel image file would be?

 

[brandongreen]

my pentax dslr is 6mp

 

[Greg Campbell]

How can any good little camera consumer NOT know their Magic-Megapixel-Mojo-Measurement?

MP has been THE selling point for Camera manufacturers for the last 10 years. Nevermind that the cheap plastic box they sell you for $1000 has an unusable viewfinder, chicklets sized control keys, arcane menus, and fragile electronics that will crap out with little or no provocation. Nevermind that your 'latest must-have wondercam' will depreciate faster than a fully fueled Pinto stalled on the railroad tracks.
"Nevermind any of that, Mr. consumer! All you really need are MORE MEGAPIXELS!! "

The viewfinder issue really bugs me. Megapixels are nice, fancy exposure modes occasionally useful, but a proper viewfinder is ESSENTIAL! How the heck is someone supposed to compose a halfway decent photograph while peering uncertainly at a dimly lit postage-stamp-sized snipped of frosted glass? Compare a typical low~medium end DSLR to any 80's~90's film camera and you'll see what I mean. My old A-1's viewfinder is nearly 3x the size of the peep-hole found on my 350D. You want to use manual focus, or evaluate the subtle textures on that tree trunk? Good luck! I appreciate that Canon, Nikon, etc. need to design each model to meet a specific market-driven price point, but to neuter the most important feature of the camera in the name of saving $10 on a smaller prism is lunacy!

<End rant!>

 

[Adam Adkins]

I have 21.1 megapixels on my 5D Mark ii.

 

[Jason Foster]

Only 8 on the older Canon Rebel XT.

Now...the next question is......how how do we need to go before enough is enough....20, 30, 100? I'm sure at some point it just becomes pointless for normal stuff that 99% of us (and the rest of the world) are shooting.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Just recently upgraded from 5 (Sony pocket point and shoot) to 15 (Canon DSLR).

 

[Jeff Duda]

Now...the next question is......how how do we need to go before enough is enough....20, 30, 100? I'm sure at some point it just becomes pointless for normal stuff that 99% of us (and the rest of the world) are shooting.

I doubt there will ever be "enough". Technology will just continue to grow on the spectrum. Things are relative now, and they'll be relative later. For example, the first computer my family ever had had I think a 2 GB hard drive. The first computer I ever owned myself had 40 GB. My current desktop has 80, and my current laptop has 250. I have 1.4 TB of space on the computing cluster at school for my grad school work. We say 2 GB is nothing compared to now. Someday, 1.4 TB will be a thing of the past...

Oh, and for the record, my Kodak EasyShare C633 has 6.1 MP at it's highest setting. I've had it since 2006 and dropped it off a mountain in 2007, but it still works!

 

[David Mikulec]

First hard drive = 20megs
Current megapixels = 5.1 (Fuji S5200)