TechCorner - How many Megapixels do you need and how many is too many?

In a world of marketing with the mentality of bigger is better, numbers seem to dominate camera headlines. As cameras head into crazy high megapixel counts, you need to stop and ask, "How many megapixels do you really need?".

As it turns out, not that many.

[ScrewInTheTuna_]

This is one of the best explained and informative videos I have ever come across. Not just for photography but in general

[marcswanson]

Thanks. I think you just saved me from wasting a good chunk of money on needless megapixels.

[copisetic]

As a landscape photographer I’ll take all the pixels I can get. I don’t print anything less than 36x24 and larger. A D850 with a couple of Otis lenses work quite nice. I disagree with some of the comments, bill boards are not the same as gallery prints, people stand closer and can see the detail in a large print.

[okaro]

Low megapixel cameras are not better in low light. This is a misconception brought by viewing images in 1:1 size.

[GillesQuennevilleGQ]

What is important is the dynamic range and the level bit colours your camera can produce.

[WhatTruthIs]

I made my first 4 megapixel photo of my 6 year old son 20 years ago. It printed great!
I now own a 20 megapixel Canon R6, and make many beautiful photos effortlessly.

[mne]

Excellent explanation! I always wondered why Canon and Nikon flagships have only a modest megapixel count.

[Frenchylikeshikes]

Very well explained for amateur dudes like me who don't understand all the professionnal giberish. Thank you !

[MarkMetternichPhotographyLLC]

Love it!

One thing people always forget to describe is how many megapixels a lens can give a sensor! The highest rated lenses in the world range in the 42 to 47 megapixel range almost always (full frame). There are just a few 35mm camera lenses that rate above this and they are rarely ever used at the sharpest f-stop and lowest ISO. This is the only way you can go above 47 megapixels. This means 99.9% of all the photos taken from 35 mm full frame cameras are in the -30 something range to 40 something range for megapixels.

A Sony A7R4 for example is a colossal waste! 60 megapixels. There’s only one lens (The Sony 90 mm macro) maybe two in the world that can give it anything near that resolution! What this means is that megapixels above about 42 to maybe 47 actually produces LOWER quality images for 99% of the photos that people take.

Fuji GFX 100 is another example of a colossal waste. They have no lens that you can put on that camera that can supply that sensor 100
Not even close.

For the largest sensors like Hasselblad or Phase 80 is probably the high end.

Many people who push professional enlargements for world-class galleries know this today. And so many have sold off their overly high megapixel systems for a little bit lower. This is what I do for a living full-time and I have never seen an impressive file from an overly high megapixel camera.

At about 5:20 hours I do think you might have missed something. People are printing world class resolution at the largest sizes in history right now.

For those folks, we are printing 600 PPI and even 1200 PPI images (not to confused with dpi) at 10 foot regularly. 80 inches, 72 inches, 60 inches, 50 inches, 45 inches, 36 inches… this is where matching your sensor resolution with your lens resolution becomes very critical!

And for 35mm cameras the sweet spot is between 42 and 47 megapixels. Unless you’re shooting with one of the aforementioned lenses which almost nobody does.

This is where coupling the right resolution of lens with the right resolution of sensor is critical. And it makes a huge difference. And the only way these images can turn out world class is by shooting them at the lowest ISO and the sharpest f-stop and exposing them substantially to the right for maximum quality data. Also avoiding many things that people regularly do in postprocessing like using the Sharpening Slider in Lightroom, or clarity in Lightroom, or texture in Lightroom and some other things.

As far as smart phones going to 40 mega pixels etc. that’s just utterly insanity. The amount of megapixels that the lenses can actually feed that sensor are probably down in the 10 to 20 range at the very, very highest. So I love your video.

[ikirizki]

Thanks for the video! Very helpful! People must know that the quality of the photo it depends on the sensor size, while resolution only matter when you want to print it. Thanks so much!

[anta]

I appreciate small, fine details. The range 24 - 36 MP for me is right. Whenever possible I shoot RAW to have greater postprocessing capability. It also easily translates to medium sized prints. Whenever tempted to purchase a medium format kit, I always remind myself "how often I print big?"

[shizenjapan]

I upgraded from a Nikon D5300 24mp to a D7500 20 MP camera.The photos from the D7500 are way better in everyway. I can also crop far more with the 20mp files and still have them crystal clear. Also I can shoot in much lower light with higher ISO and still get better photos then the D5300 in brighter light.So more megapixels does not always mean better photos.
It depends on the camera, lens as much as anything.

[edc]

The is one of the best camera videos online! You have just supported my use of my 12mp Nikon D700 and 16mp Nikon D4!

[jamesgray]

I honestly don't know how you don't have more subscribers. Your videos are simply amazing.

[henryIRL]

This video is great. Thank you for providing it for us! I shoot at 24MP on a APS-C camera and I find myself zooming in and cropping images a lot and sometimes lose some focus and dynamic range. Would a full frame 30MP camera help me with keeping some of that focus and dynamic range?

[masymd]

Great video!! Simple, straightforward, easy to understand.

[pierrecosta]

All I can say is Thank for a clear explanation on the subject of megapixels, I shoot with a Nikon d750 and was considering upgrading to the d850 for printing larger prints and clearly don’t see any point at this stage.

[jasonbourne]

I really enjoyed this very informative video. No hype, just facts, clearly explained. Thank you!

[Dazdigo]

8K is 33.2MP. That should be the new minimum size for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

[cerij]

I always go back to using my old Nikon D50 camera only 6mp and always gives me brilliant results, I have higher resolution cameras and two Canon 5Ds mk1 and 2 but unless cropping I'm not worried about the mega pixel count.