Low Res Goodness
After watching James' videos on the 6 megapixel club, as well as Mattias Burling's video saying that he was happy with anything over 5 megapixels, I wondered how limiting megapixel count actually would be for taking pictures. The other night, I was curled up in bed with some hot tea, scrolling through my camera menu, the way you do, when I noticed something I'd never really looked at before, which was the resolution options. It turns out that the lowest resolution that my camera can shoot in in-camera is 3mp. Oh and it's a square crop. Ugh. Needless to say I had to try it
The result is still . . . very usable. Especially for web sharing. Even in my normal editing flow, I honestly didn't really notice the lower resolution unless I was zooming in past 100%. The thing is, a lot of people seethe at Instagram for only letting images be 1080 pixels on the longest side. 1080 x 1080 is 1.17 megapixels. "High Definition" movies are typically defined as 1080 pixels on the short side, and the long side depends on the aspect ratio, but ends up being about 2 megapixels. Honestly speaking, when I look at either, the lack of resolution never really bothers me. Even 720p movies don't bother me. In theory, 3 megapixels should be plenty. Even this image, which was cropped down to 1.33 megapixels, looks usable to me:
Now when looking at cameras from yesteryear, there's probably a technical difference between using a much higher mp camera to take images at 3 megapixels vs using a camera which can only shoot at three megapixels. My camera still has the same light gathering ability, ISO performance, lens, etc that it has at full resolution. If someone goes out, especially today, and looks for a new low resolution digital camera, they're likely going to find cameras with dinky lenses and budget sensors. The way that my camera performs at low res is probably more comparable to more professional cameras from yesteryear with a low megapixel count, something like the Epson RD, Sigma DP2, or one of James' Pentax *ist DLs.
Would I ever use the 3mp setting on my camera ever again? Probably not. Storage is cheap as chips, and square crop is the oboe of aspect ratios. It is heavenly in the perfection of 6x6, but anything short of that is probably unbearable. But, there are a few things I learned for myself.
- Low megapixel pictures and cameras are rarely bad because they are low megapixel. If they're bad, they're probably bad for other reasons.
- Not having an uber high megapixel camera should not be a reason to purchase it if you want it, nor a reason to not shoot that camera.
- If the lens can handle it, don't be afraid to crop!
Would be interested to hear what other people's thoughts and experiences are on low-res performance from new or old equipment.
This is such a fun and interesting post @justintung. I hope more people will see it as this forum grows and share their thoughts.
I had a bit of a shake up when I really got to thinking about photography and the resolution wars manufacturers are in. That's why I made that 6mp club video. It took me buying an older camera to rediscover that.
I agree with your list of findings from your experiment. I have a video in my backlog, if I ever get around to finishing it, that explains the differences between old and new cameras and how that difference is least seen in the megapixels. Focusing on practical differences too, not random features I never use. Stuff like shake reduction, increased dynamic range and ISO performance, AF abilities. This I hope will help people understand what features they may actually care about when researching an older body to buy.
But I digress. I shoot anywhere from 6mp to 36mp images and they all go on my Instagram and YT videos, and no one complains. Honestly, people might not even be able to tell. That would be a funny test. Share a bunch of my favorite images and get people to guess the camera/mp count. Now you got my mind buzzin'
Great shots by the way!
Thanks man!
Yeah, I'm really hoping this forum picks up some more users too haha.
I also definitely wanted to try this as a reaction to the resolution craze. Modern mirrorless offerings are off the charts in terms of megapixels, but at some point there are just mathematical diminishing returns. The % increase in area from 1 mp to 2 mp is 100%, but the increase from 2 mp to 3 mp is 50%. 3 mp to 4 mp is 33.3%, and so on down the line. By the time you get into the 30's and 40's, which is where top of the line premium cameras are headed, the gains in image size are really marginal unless you're taking super massive leaps and bounds. I can get how ultra high resolution can be useful for some applications, but most of the time it just doesn't seem all that important once you get a threshold amount of megapickles, which the vast majority of cameras used by photographers have.
I was also fascinated by the 6 megapixel club which i went looking for after watching Snappy's video. I'm at an age (28) where i used digital much more than film. I was always pleased with the results from the compact digitals my family owned in the 00s. A few months ago i had a look through some of them and still enjoy the images. Older sensors had a particular way of capturing what they saw, something very honest and now nostalgic.
There is certainly a lot of explore over the last 20 years. I'm sure pixel count doesn't... count for much so long as your have a good quality lens in front of it!
Nice post 🙂
*Edit* Although i do love my K1, lovely brick **
Older sensors had a particular way of capturing what they saw, something very honest and now nostalgic.
Yes I agree! The lens makes a world of a difference. My sensor is definitely older, it’s an X-Trans II, which is nigh on obsolete according to most gear reviewers, but it feels modern enough to me.
I’m really interested in the fact that you characterize older digital cameras as “honest.” I feel like I know what you mean, but I think that’s a really interesting word. Something about the clinical results of tack sharp, super low dispersion lenses doesn’t feel as characteristic or describe the world the way that I see it. Would love to hear people’s thoughts!
