46mp sensor useless for landscape?

[mb66energy]

I am shure, that a GOOD 46MP sensor will be very useful for landscape (and cityscapes).
Good means, that it has high dynamic range and low noise levels at least at lower ISOs.

Why? If you have subjects which reflect/emit light in the red, blue or green region they will excite just one type of subpixels (red, green or blue) substantially. In these cases a 46MP sensor will act as a ~12MP sensor for red and blue or a 24MP sensor for green.

All my cameras exhibit strange patterns around (nearly) monochromatic ("single colored") light sources like tail lights of cars (hopefully the right term?) which are often made of LEDs which emit in a narrow band around 650 nm. The same for blue or green LEDs. (EOS 20D, 40D and DPP for Raw development)

Another reason I would like to see higher resolutions is the fact that edges are rendered smoother with a higher number of pixels - some kind of antialiasing. I think, that is what Policar meant with the comparison of 6x7(cm) MF and 6x10(inch) large format.

But: Only if the noise levels/DR of the individual photosites in such a sensor are as good as the noise levels/DR of a full frame 12 MP camera! I think there is not much difference between 40D and 600D if it comes to "texture fidelity" (= how real look the complex textures of objects) The higher noise of smaller photosites cancels the higher resolution potential.

[scrappydog]

I've been screwing around with doing  HDR focus stacking landscapes mostly as an experiment...Is anyone actually doing that stuff?  If so, have you got anything good with it?

I don't do HDR stacking.  I have composited with masks in Photoshop to combine photos of the same subject from different apertures (e.g., use an f/32 exposure for one portion and an f/8 portion for another to avoid diffraction in detailed sections).  I have only done this a few times because processing shots takes too much of my time already.

[ankorwatt]

Hi
I've Googled the rumors  of a new Canon 46Mp and I have read this thread.

I have the Canon 7d, 5dmk2 and dont understand the logic if an upcoming camera with 46 MP would be useless as a landscape camera when the new 46Mp has the exactley  the same pixel size  as 7d, and how good 7d are is well known.

[TonyY]

I am not sure how good is the 7D sensor :

Canon 7D (in blue) vs. others in dynamic range:




full test can be found at: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/canon-eos-7d-642994/review/page:6#articleContent

[neuroanatomist]

Maybe it's time to switch to Nikon or Sony...

No maybe about it. Canon sucks.  As we all know, the sensor is of paramount importance - the other aspects of camera performance, not to mention the lenses, are irrelevant.  TonyY, sell your piece-o-crap 5DII and your eight L lenses and switch.  Please.  Your repeated posts about Canon's exceptional inferiority will be sorely missed, but we'll all manage to get through, somehow. 

[TonyY]

Maybe it's time to switch to Nikon or Sony...

No maybe about it. Canon sucks.  As we all know, the sensor is of paramount importance - the other aspects of camera performance, not to mention the lenses, are irrelevant.  TonyY, sell your piece-o-crap 5DII and your eight L lenses and switch.  Please.  Your repeated posts about Canon's exceptional inferiority will be sorely missed, but we'll all manage to get through, somehow. 

Too late for me to switch as a hobbyist, but ppl has not heavily invested in Canon needs to know some of the facts. You don't know how it felt when my friend's Sony Nex 5N + 30yr old Carl Zeiss outperformed my 5DII + TSE24II.

[jrista]

Maybe it's time to switch to Nikon or Sony...

No maybe about it. Canon sucks.  As we all know, the sensor is of paramount importance - the other aspects of camera performance, not to mention the lenses, are irrelevant.  TonyY, sell your piece-o-crap 5DII and your eight L lenses and switch.  Please.  Your repeated posts about Canon's exceptional inferiority will be sorely missed, but we'll all manage to get through, somehow. 

Too late for me to switch as a hobbyist, but ppl has not heavily invested in Canon needs to know some of the facts. You don't know how it felt when my friend's Sony Nex 5N + 30yr old Carl Zeiss outperformed my 5DII + TSE24II.

I'd like to see the methodology and numbers for that test! The TS-E 24mm L II is one of the sharpest lenses on earth, and even pitted against a Carl Zeiss lens, I'd expect it to outperform. No more anecdotes when you make a claim like that. You need to produce some actual results, and the methodology used to achieve those results.

Subjective "Well he liked the results more with the Nex/Zeiss combo." a scientific analysis makes not. ;P

[neuroanatomist]

Subjective "Well he liked the results more with the Nex/Zeiss combo." a scientific analysis makes not. ;P

My Nikon Koolpixx delivers better IQ than Canon's best sensor and lens.  Everyone should know that fact.  Trust me.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Maybe it's time to switch to Nikon or Sony...

No maybe about it. Canon sucks.  As we all know, the sensor is of paramount importance - the other aspects of camera performance, not to mention the lenses, are irrelevant.  TonyY, sell your piece-o-crap 5DII and your eight L lenses and switch.  Please.  Your repeated posts about Canon's exceptional inferiority will be sorely missed, but we'll all manage to get through, somehow. 

Too late for me to switch as a hobbyist, but ppl has not heavily invested in Canon needs to know some of the facts. You don't know how it felt when my friend's Sony Nex 5N + 30yr old Carl Zeiss outperformed my 5DII + TSE24II.

What does that tell you about the skills of the operator, when a inferior camera outperforms a better one whih a much better lens?

[PackLight]

Subjective "Well he liked the results more with the Nex/Zeiss combo." a scientific analysis makes not. ;P

My Nikon Koolpixx delivers better IQ than Canon's best sensor and lens.  Everyone should know that fact.  Trust me.

I read CR because I get factual information to base my equipment purchasing decisions on. Which model of the Nikon Koolpix will give me 46mp for landscapes? Also will they have a problem with the color red also?

[neuroanatomist]

I read CR because I get factual information to base my equipment purchasing decisions on. Which model of the Nikon Koolpix will give me 46mp for landscapes?

Doesn't matter, any of them will do.  SoNykon's sensors are so awesome that you can upsize an image from any of them (except the ones they sell to Canon for the PowerShots) to 46 MP and retain amazing IQ.  Canon's senors, on the other hand, suck so bad that even if you downsample them in a futile attempt to increase their abysmal DR, it doesn't help.

Also will they have a problem with the color red also?

Sadly yes, because Nikon's logo is yellow.

[Razor2012]

Subjective "Well he liked the results more with the Nex/Zeiss combo." a scientific analysis makes not. ;P

My Nikon Koolpixx delivers better IQ than Canon's best sensor and lens.  Everyone should know that fact.  Trust me.

I read CR because I get factual information to base my equipment purchasing decisions on. Which model of the Nikon Koolpix will give me 46mp for landscapes? Also will they have a problem with the color red also?

Lol, Pack, you need to read CR a little bit more.

[heptagon]

Since you went and invoked Nyquist, I will ask - what is the physical phenomenon that we are sampling, and what property(ies) of that phenomenon provide the limits from which we determine the minimal frequency to adequately capture all information present, and the optimal oversampling frequency?

Now you got me thinking and crunching some quick numerics. The sinc function is bipolar while the optical intensity is only unipolar which is a basic difference. Usually functions are not bandwidth limited unlike ideal low pass functions like the sinc. Therefore if you want to caputre ALL information you need infinitely fine sampling.

However if we fourier transform the 1D-function of an airy disc and compare the energy content per frequency to the sinc-function with a same resolution (according to the Raileigh criterion) we need about double the sampling frequency to catch almost all energy. Therefore if we sample twice as fine as the resolution according to the Rayleigh criterion, we should be fine. This sampling rate is about 15% finer than for MTF50%. (At least for a series of points, i don't know if it also holds for lines.)

So using the MTF50% megapixel values as a measure sounds good. A problem, however, is that the pixels have area and are not ideal sampling points. Therefore we must compensate for that by making the pixel areas much smaller than the resolution. In order to not throw away so much light we will have to increase the resolution to a multiple the MTF50% values in order to get close to 90% of the signal energy available in the optical resolution.

[TonyY]

Maybe it's time to switch to Nikon or Sony...

No maybe about it. Canon sucks.  As we all know, the sensor is of paramount importance - the other aspects of camera performance, not to mention the lenses, are irrelevant.  TonyY, sell your piece-o-crap 5DII and your eight L lenses and switch.  Please.  Your repeated posts about Canon's exceptional inferiority will be sorely missed, but we'll all manage to get through, somehow. 

Too late for me to switch as a hobbyist, but ppl has not heavily invested in Canon needs to know some of the facts. You don't know how it felt when my friend's Sony Nex 5N + 30yr old Carl Zeiss outperformed my 5DII + TSE24II.

I'd like to see the methodology and numbers for that test! The TS-E 24mm L II is one of the sharpest lenses on earth, and even pitted against a Carl Zeiss lens, I'd expect it to outperform. No more anecdotes when you make a claim like that. You need to produce some actual results, and the methodology used to achieve those results.

Subjective "Well he liked the results more with the Nex/Zeiss combo." a scientific analysis makes not. ;P

So here it is: 5DII + TSE 24II (IMG_6396.jpg) vs. Sony Nex 5N + Contax 28/2.8 + adapter (DSC06395.jpg) -- see attached images I took mins ago.

Not a scientific test, it is not a fair test due to the sensor format, focal length (I have to walk half way closer to include the same scene/view)... So, just take look at the center resolution of the image. Don't get me wrong, TSE 24II is a terrific lens, just the 5DII sensor can't handle it.

Setup: tripod, not filter, f/5.6, iso 100, picture style "standard", manual focus using live view and in camera jpg (don't want to involve desktop software, but need to reduce the attachment size under 2 mb)

[Razor2012]

All I can say is I hope your're not saying the 1st pic is better than the 2nd.