Re: Canon & Nikon Flagships in 2011
hsmeets said:
And frankly, if such canon (or nikon) materialises next year I actually will stop buying camera's for a long time.
Nikon is on record saying that they will strive in the future (after their last 10MP professional camera, which was out a while ago) for a 'better balance of ISO and resolution' (paraphrase).
Enjoy your vacation!
The extra MP does have its drawbacks (namely fewer pictures on your media, more hard drives to buy, and a bit more time processing images) but there are some good points too.
Right now I'm more interested in better metering, autofocus, ISO performance (which has been demonstrated to improve as sensor density increases, more than just a coincidence), and DR.
More megapixels can serve just to magnify problems. Take a blurry picture on an APS-C camera because of slow ISO sensitivity and a poor non-stabilized lens...move it to full frame and the blur isn't reduced at all (per pixel, assuming pixels are the same size), and add more pixels and you just can see "deeper" into the mess. Unfortunately I've found that's the most usual case.
But when things go right - you have a fast shutter speed or you have an adequate setup (IS lens, tripod), the extra pixels should help.
Of course, using old lenses from before 2000 probably isn't the best thing for sheer accuracy. But I'm limited in what I can say from personally having used two primes and a super-cheap film zoom. I remain as interested as ever in newer designs though.
It is interesting to look at high ISOs though. Higher ISO sensitivity comes at no weight cost, unlike faster lenses, and the ISO improvements are ramping up faster than maximum apertures (which of course aren't getting faster because manufacturers assume they aren't as important with digital cameras). But I feel that especially for consumer cameras and lenses, the combination of sensitivity and available "consumer-priced" lenses currently is a bit too slow for really sharp images. But it's improving quickly. I'd love to get my hands on a 60D but I'm afraid that only full frame cameras have the ISO I'd like, in the immediate future.