Sunday 11 April 2010

Megapixel Race Continues As Sensors "Get Better"?

I should have known that the megapixel race is not finished nor slowing down anytime soon! Canon's latest 550D has 18 megapixels but I briefly read that that one managed to churn out some good high ISO photos so it is acceptable. It is a DSLR, d'oh! However, according to this article, Panasonic (and I am sure all the other camera manufacturers, too) is going to be producing some 1/2.3"-sized sensors with 16, 18 and all the way to 20 megapixels by 2012!

1/2.3"-sized sensors are really, really small sensors that you normally find in compact cameras and right this very moment at 12 megapixels and above, picture quality is plagued by noise, ugly, ugly noise. Unless there is some really cool advancement in technology, I suppose digital compact cameras can only take low ISO photos in the future in bright daylight cause they will blardy suck big time in low light!

Hmmm... and what's this mention about Panasonic's high sensitivity 1/1.8" sensors? Real stuff or just another marketing gimmick? Sony's current backlit CMOS sensors do not seem to be much better, IMHO.

via 1001 Noisy Cameras.

Some previous scary megapixel race articles: 1, 2

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