does megapixel count or lens sharpness matter more?

SMALLRIG LIGHTING REFERENCED IN VIDEO:

Other lighting gear mentioned:

[bridgetshawphotography]

That print you bought from me was taken on a 22mp canon with an L lens so point proven ❤

[sjrosaa]

Ugh love these vloggies so much. Very useful info. Also you’re the cutest 💘

[comeraczy]

Thanks a lot for this one. You are absolutely right, matching camera resolution with lens sharpness is essential.
There is one important element that you didn't discuss: anti-aliasing filters. most cameras with less than 30MP have an AA filter while most cameras with more than 40MP don't. When I switched from the Canon 5d iv to the Sony a7 iv, using the exact same lens with an adapter, i was very surprised by the difference in sharpness.

[ChrisThe]

I think when pairing older lenses with higher resolution sensors you're not just missing out, but making the image worse. I know a lot of people say that's bs, but it my experience I get noticeably worse microcontrast from the higher resolution sensors; which isn't the case when pairing better lenses with those high-res sensors or pairing the older lenses with a lower res sensor

[jmtphotographymedia]

Good lenses plus 16-24mp is good enough for me. Although a GFX 50R does interest me. Might pull the trigger in a year.

[brandishwar]

Let's throw some numbers at this. Since 24MP is kind of the "sweet spot" and has been for a while now, let's start with that for comparison: 24 MP = 6000 x 4000.

4K video = 3840 x 2160 = 8 MP
1080p video = 1920 x 1080 = 2 MP

4" x 6" print at 300dpi = 1200 x 1800 = a little over 2 MP
8" x 10" print at 300dpi = 2400 x 3000 = about 7 MP

Letter (similar to A4) - 8.5" x 11" at 300dpi = 2550 x 3300 = about 8.5 MP
Tabloid (similar to A3) - 11"x17" at 300dpi = 3300 x 5100 - shy of 17 MP

[cron]

L glass on my Canon 5D classic shooting at iso 1600 resolves so well, the digital noise has a great “film-like grain structure”. Going back and forth if I should upgrade to a 6D to shoot in low light, but I’m enjoying the 5D classic so much I lowkey rather put the money towards more glass 😂

[dris]

A couple years ago I was going to get either the R6 or the R5. I compared raw images from both using the same lenses - portrait and landscape. I realized that just upscaling R6 files with the built in (Adobe Camera Raw) Supersize feature, the R6 files looked better, even when zoomed to 100% on a 5k monitor. I also did the same comparing the R6 to the A7IV. Same. And yeah, the lens and AF accuracy made a bigger difference than the resolution, even without upsampling. I found for example the R6 with the RF 35 1.8 looked sharper than the A7IV with it's equivalent lens (the Canon is a sharper lens) . So I got the R6 II when it came out... 24 MP is fantastic.

Alex Barera has a comparison of the R6 and A7IV with nice entry level lenses (35, 50 and 85) and the 20 MP Canon was sharper than the 33 MP Sony at 35 and 85 because the lenses were sharper than the Sony equivalent. The 50 was slightly sharper on the Sony though.

With that said, I've printed large wall prints and even had billboards and bus adverts made from my old 8MP and 10MP 1D cameras and they looked amazing. And Chris Hau has a great video comparing the 12MP A7SIII and a 100MP medium format camera. On screens, and even in LARGE poster sizes, photographers he asked were unable to tell which was which. In fact they generally thought the 12MP image was the 100MP image.

[Dkouki]

I definitely agree with you and also working at a camera store, budget can be a concern for a customer . I always suggest getting the lower resolution sensor and investing in the better lenses .

[ChrisThe]

are the contax yashica lenses good enough to resolve just the 50mp gfx or also the 100?

[valebliz]

My daily shooter is a Nex 6, so 16mp, paired with the same ZEISS and G/GM lenses I use on my a7c ii and it takes perfectly fine pictures. MP is hype for 99% of people.

[devincutter_]

I kind of don't like how the XT5 images look compared to the XH1using the same XF lenses on both. I think its the resolution and the megapickles.

[owensoft]

this argument happens all the time but here is the thing; film pictures from the 1940 are high mega pixel. How many pixels you actually need is debatable but you definately need those mega pixels. I would say 35 is the sweet spot but 24 is good enough.

[Joh]

For me as hobby photographer my 24 megapixel from my Sony APS-c are more than enough and meanwhile I have sharp lenses from Sony and Sigma which are sharp enough for the Fuji 40 megapixel cameras, too. The Sigma 56 1.4 is a very sharp lens, nearly too sharp for portraits and my Sony 70-350 G lens is a very sharp tele lens besides my other ones. To get those sharp lenses step for step was a big plus for better quality for me, but there is no need for me to get more megapixel. And it´s a hobby therfore the budget ist not unlimted.

[mynameisnotcory]

I love a bit of softness in my pictures, on film, it really looks good, now if i’m trying to film a friends band recording or something, yeah i want to see every fleck of dust on his guitar

[ofthenearfuture]

Yeah one of my favourite cameras was my OG 10MP Nikon D200, and looking back at those images now they still hold up. Especially if you are just posting on social media or shooting for personal enjoyment, any camera from the last like 15 years will be good enough. Though caveated as always, unless you are doing a niche style of photography that requires extremely high MP's, the best AF, burst rates, etc., etc. So per usual, it always comes back to the glass. I now shoot the 26MP Fuji X-S10 which any of their first party lenses can resolve, though the only native lens I have is the 16-80 f4, which isn't their sharpest but as a primarily landscape photographer it's still perfect for me. Otherwise I've got 3 TTArtisan primes (10, 27, 56) which I love and also perform well, and then some vintage glass, a Canon FD 80-200 f4 L and Contax Zeiss 85mm f1.4. I'm also obviously balling on a budget lol

One interesting thing though, is because of the higher photosite density of a crop sensor, it's resolution is also much higher than typical full frame sensors, i.e. my 26MP crop sensor is akin to a ~58MP FF sensor. And let's not even talk about Fuji's 40MP! So even though I'm only using a portion of a FF lens, it really needs to be of a high quality to fully resolve a crop sensor, and vintage 35mm film lenses just didn't need to be designed to that standard. So ultimately, it's best to use aps-c lenses designed for those sensors if you're looking for the best possible sharpness, etc. Which for me as a hobbyist and with what I like to shoot, really doesn't matter, I'll always take lens character or functionality over ultimate image quality.

[Pixelpeeps-]

I have to make my wedding photos of the bride softer because who wants to see every pore on the face 😊

[matt]

Sharper lenses - DUH. 😁 Glass is the investment now and forever. Then again it is awfully nice to have the extra pixels when my shot of the day needs to be straightened or cropped somewhat hard to be made usable, and I can't seem to shoot straight a high percentage of the time. BTW I have nothing against getting more and more megapixels - the main issue is that it creates a storage problem. Contrary to what I hear sometimes, storage, especially FAST storage, is not that cheap, especially when it needs to be redundant, and you DON'T want the internet holding, sniffing, learning, and profiting from your hard work while you rent their hard drive space. That is by far the biggest reason I don't necessarily want to jump up to 40+ mega pickles. But with the best glass, my 26 mega sizzles has very easily rivaled if not beaten older FF setups etc. in terms of those sweet SHARP SHARP results.

[daveboyle]

The Glass always, not only for IQ but it high quality glass will always hold it's value better than any body after a few years.

[dct]

Neither matter more than the other.
What matters is what's in your MIND.

If you can't develop vision, equipment from top to bottom is the least of your worries.

Megapixels
Megapixels matter for a few reasons. What size SCREEN you plan to display your vision on to. What size PRINT you plan to develop. What type of editing you require. You could develop a photoshoot or a movie shot completely on a 1mp Gameboy camera or PS Vita camera if it fits your vision. VISION & story supercedes equipment and technology.

For example, there's Stick Death animated movies more interesting and provoking than full budget movies shot on an Arri Alexa.

Lens
Lens sharpness and softness is nothing more than a stylistic/artistic choice. The only issue with a very sharp lens, vs a softer lens. A softer lens can be both soft and sharp. A sharp lens will struggle to be soft. Both have overlap in post. But it's always easier to add sharpness than removing it.

Vision (idea/story).
Plan or shots board).
Execution (problem solving/time/space).