Panasonic, I love you!!!!!

[macfly]

It can only be better, and also it be will what defines the need to have a camera. The next gen of iPhones and Androids will have 8-10MP cameras, and nice glass too, so camera makers are going to have to go far beyond the playing field of the tradional point and shoot. The phone will completely pull that rug from under them, and so far it looks like only Sony are addressing that with the NEX-7

 

[Dave]

What this tells me is that the megapixel "race" will never be over,

Well people said the same a couple of years ago concerning the "Megahertz-Race" at CPUs.
I think the same will hapen at the sensor resolution.

Maybe not so soon. But their are physical limits. And the final Limit will be the optical resolution of the lenses.

 

[PeterJ]

Dynamic range is probably a more critical improvement to be made but the sensor technology itself seems to be the limiting factor here.

I was pondering this recently and wonder if it's the sensor or limitations of ADC technology? It's pretty easy to get a 24-bit delta-sigma converter, but they normally take in the order of thousands of samples per second at best. For say 20MP at 8fps you'd need a 160MHz minimum sample rate. Looking at a few manufacturers while some have products that can do that sample rate at 16 bit resolution the ones I took a quick look at only had 20MHz odd analog bandwidth which I imagine would be "OK" but presumably would give some softness around sharp contrasty edges.

I work with embedded electronics but not imaging, so my comments are far from expert, but I thought I'd throw it out there that the current 14-bit sampling is probably pushing the limits of affordable and practical analog converter technology. To "fix" the problem the usual way would be to use an array of ADC converters, but they aren't real cheap at the high-end and draw quite a bit of current. I think it will change over time as they become cheaper and draw less power all the time. At the moment using an array of converters (or more if they already use that idea) probably wouldn't be off the cards for a 1 series camera from a cost / size point of view, but I imagine it might slash battery life by an amount a lot of people wouldn't care for.

 

[Hillsilly]

Everyone knows that Canon reached the peak of technical perfection in 2004. If you do a DXO Mark comparison between the 20D and the 60D, the results have barely moved. But in the real world, is anyone going to argue that they prefer the lower resoltion of a 20D?

I see this discussed all of the time. I know that many people get very irrate over higher megapixels, but I've never understood why. I'm not very technically minded and I don't understand a lot of this discussion (what's a 24-bit delta sigma converter???), but if Mr Canon produced two cameras with the same dynamic range and noise, but one had 8mp and the other 18mp, who wouldn't take the 18mp?

If Canon wants to take the 5Diii to 30+mp, go for it! I don't see any down sides.

 

[Jedifarce]

I've just read that Panasonic has anounced a new Brudge Cam, the DMC-FZ150. With 12MP it has 2 Megapixel LESS(!!!!!) than it's predecessor (14MP).
I hope this will set a sign to Canon, Nikon & Co. I want more "real" features, not just more megapixels.

regards, Dave

I'm more concerned about the video files -> AVCHD. Yuck. Cleaning up an AVCHD footage in post always requires a lot of color grading just to make it look decent.

 

[Dave]

Could anbody close this thread please? Don't want to get any more "smites"...

 

[nesarajah]

I've just read that Panasonic has anounced a new Brudge Cam, the DMC-FZ150. With 12MP it has 2 Megapixel LESS(!!!!!) than it's predecessor (14MP).
I hope this will set a sign to Canon, Nikon & Co. I want more "real" features, not just more megapixels.
regards, Dave

i know this will raise the ire of many but I will be completely honest that I miss the image quality of 4/3rds. it has that certain look to it. even though the high ISO quality is rubbish, the 2x crop factor is perfect for compressing features and is quite flatering. I movee only because Olympus was the kind of company Apple is and is quite happy abandoning its user base.

That said : I want MORE megapixels . I want higher resolution. I shoot with the lowest ISO I can. i think most people shoot the same way but want the flexabilty of high ISO.