36+ Mp EOS dSLR (rumored): How do existing EF lenses cope?

[wellfedCanuck]

Thanks for reassuring.

GPWS G/S inhibit as an avatar?  What airplane is that from? 

[jrista]

Thanks for reassuring.
@pdirestajr: very sharp pics.

Many dub 36-40Mp for "studio" use, what is overlooked in my opinion is the cropping ability. Shooting outdoors with an all-purpose 70-200/2.8 I find it necessary to crop to get the subject right particularly in freeze-frame action shots like airshows, flying birds, etc. (daylight, no more than 100-200ASA). Such I enjoy in 5D2. Starting to crop a 36Mp image (say 50%) I don't know if it would be a strain. For still shots indoors, or candid, guess it would be just fine.

Btw, Canon Lens Work III (the book, ed.2006) says for the EF line-up, particularly L-series, all have "ultra-high resolution", no precise limit. It does have the example of softness on p.135 with an enlarged part of a yacht mast.

Couldn't agree more about "cropping power". I have the same issue with bird and wildlife photography...using "affordable" lenses that cost up to $3000, you have good, but not great, reach. Additional resolution so you can crop is essential to getting "frame" filling photographs when you can't afford the likes of the 600mm or 800mm lenses and an f/8 AF capable body.

[jrista]

Thinking about it a bit, there is probably one area where lenses could use improvement: Image Stabilization.

Higher resolution sensors are great in that they capture more detail, and having optics that can resolve enough detail to make that additional detail valuable is also great. However the greater the pixel density, the more likely camera shake is going to affect the results...mitigating or eliminating any detail gains you might have otherwise had.

I think improved IS on telephoto lenses, pushing the envelope beyond the current 4-stop improvement to 5- or 6-stops, would probably be useful. I think it might also be valuable to see 2- to 3-stop IS on wide to normal zooms, like the 24-70, 24-105, maybe even the 16-35, etc. For those who need cropping power more than native resolution, and do things like wildlife, bird, airplane and other forms of photography that involve hand-held or gymbal-mounted operation, better IS might be essential to actually utilizing that additional sensor resolution.

[funkboy]

How many of us can play our favourite DOS game on a Windows 7 computer? (sorry, pre 1995 computer era for the children reading in  )

I use Vogons to run a bunch of old-school games like Ultima VI on my MacBook Pro (albeit in a tiny window, though there are some interpolation techniques that help make it not look horrible in full-screen HD :-).  See also the remake of WC Privateer on top of the Vega Strike engine. 

[Maui5150]

How many of us can play our favourite DOS game on a Windows 7 computer? (sorry, pre 1995 computer era for the children reading in  )

I use Vogons to run a bunch of old-school games like Ultima VI on my MacBook Pro (albeit in a tiny window, though there are some interpolation techniques that help make it not look horrible in full-screen HD :-).  See also the remake of WC Privateer on top of the Vega Strike engine.

I still have a functioning 8088 based computer running dos 3.0 and has a 10mb hd

[Jim K]

I still have a functioning 8088 based computer running dos 3.0 and has a 10mb hd

Is that a full height 5 1/4 inch drive or one of the new half height ones.

[Daniel Flather]

How many of us can play our favourite DOS game on a Windows 7 computer? (sorry, pre 1995 computer era for the children reading in  )

Those children you mention are now in their early 20s. 

[GND]

@ wellfedCanuck
>  What airplane is that from?
  Boeing 757. GND coincides my name initials, George N.D.


There, it is. New rumor for a forthcoming 45Mp 5DX and a refined 5D3 at 22Mp (maybe similar to the 1DX gapless sensor). Have existing lens gear, go for the 45Mp or better stick to the 22Mp? Tricky.

Might be prudent to avoid ordering without first demo-ing each camera at the shop with the older lens, see the difference.

[psolberg]

36mp FF is just 16mp apsc. Your are fine as Nikon guys are. stop freaking out.

[weixing]

Hi,
    I just wonder whether anyone notice that a 36MP DSLR (eg. Nikon D800) might face a very practical usability issue... the size of a 36MP RAW file and the time for a 75MB RAW file to write to the memory card. Even at the current highest write speed card of 100MB/s (assume the DSLR is able to write at maximum speed and a RAW file is 75MB), it'll took Nikon D800 3s to write 4 RAW files to the card and current price of high capacity, high speed CF card is not cheap.

   Have a nice day.

[torger]

Hi,
    I just wonder whether anyone notice that a 36MP DSLR (eg. Nikon D800) might face a very practical usability issue... the size of a 36MP RAW file and the time for a 75MB RAW file to write to the memory card. Even at the current highest write speed card of 100MB/s (assume the DSLR is able to write at maximum speed and a RAW file is 75MB), it'll took Nikon D800 3s to write 4 RAW files to the card and current price of high capacity, high speed CF card is not cheap.

I think 75MB was the uncompressed format which noone uses, normal size is about half. Still I think it is a mistake by Nikon not to have sRAW and mRAW formats like Canon has. They still seem to think that people shoot only JPEG and design their cameras for that. They do have reduced size JPEG formats, but not RAW.

Reduced size RAW formats makes a high res camera more versatile and all-around. If I do hand-held high ISO action-packed high volume shooting I always use reduced size RAWs. Speeds up workflow and reduces disk space, without any impact on quality, since the shooting conditions won't allow getting max resolution anyway.

I imagine that D700 users that think 12 megapixels is more than enough for their shooting style are put off by D800 huge files. This would have been simply fixed by providing reduced size RAW formats. I'm sure D800 scaled down to 12 megapixels provides better image quality than D700.

[wellfedCanuck]

@ wellfedCanuck
>  What airplane is that from?
  Boeing 757. GND coincides my name initials, George N.D.

Looked familiar, but I've been Airbus for the past 10 years. 

[te4o]

Outresolving a lens... I asked this 3 months ago and was reassured that this is never gonna happen under 40 MP. Well, if we follow the pace of Canon EF updates and improved optics then there is for sure another advice:
1. There will be a 40+MP EOS soon
2. The current EF line will look awkward on it
1+2= 3 : 40+MP users will need deep pockets for lens upgrades - as usual Canon sells only lenses matching best the current bodies. The next generation of bodies needs a lens upgrade to get the maximum sharpness.

I think that the centre of the lens will be difficult to out-resolve up to 60MP (amateur opinion = uneducated guess) but the corners are gone fishin' already on the 5D2. You can't say "a 7D at 18 MP croper has no issues - this sensor does not see the corners of the non-EF-S lenses at all.
But as we all know - "sharpness is a mere bourgeois prejudice". Who cares about the FF-corners  except lunatic landscape-ists.

[GND]

Exactly. I think checking lens MTF charts shall be a good hint. The lower the curves off-centre the likely to fail at the edges at very high Mps (FF sensor). There is a built-in correction for light fall-off in the EOS line but resolution is a different animal. I trust the forum's reassurance though.

[Macman]

So when i plan of getting a 100mm 2.8 is macro from canon it might happen that high mp bodies would need a redesign of a macro 100mm?

Or is this lens still up to date?
I couldn't figure out when it was released...