Are the 5mp cameras really better than the 8mps?

A few in this newsgroup have made comments that the 5mp CCD cameras
are better in terms of image quality than the 8mp CCD ones, as the 8mp
cameras are "noise-ridden". This seems to be a widespread impression
and even appeared on some review sites. what do you guys think? I'd
like to hear some opinions on this.

P.S. Please don't bring DSLRs into this; we know it already.

 

(Mike Henley) wrote in

The troll of the day by Mike H/Sabinellen. Check the Google archives and DP
Review for some educated opinions.

 

Yes the newer 8 MP suck in noise, but better resolution so decide.

 

I think it's something you need to decide for yourself.

- personally, I think that people object far too much about noise. For
me, noise can add character to an image....

- unless you need very big prints (larger than 8 x 10 inches, say), you
may not need 8MP - 5MP may be enough.

- so is the 8MP worth the extra cost?

- or do the new or updated features in the 8MP cameras justify the cost?

Cheers,
David

 

I don't have the Oly C8080, for example. But I would imagine the noise
is no worse on this than the C5050. The question might be over the
color range, as some have suggested, or degradation as the camera
heats up. But I think you can solve a lot of such problems in PS. The
8080 would produce very large RAW files. With inexpensive CF that
might not be the issue it was just last year. And, if you can't really
fill the viewfinder/LCD, the larger format allows you to crop. I would
consider the 8080 principally for its ability to compose after the
fact, and to crop that which you just couldn't get in the field,
without perhaps losing DOF or introducing aberations.

 

The Redundant day of by Richard C. Thanks for the broken track tip
;-)

p.s. Check out rpe35mm for the provenance of this - his - post; the
disagreement we just had over there. Good to see you carry vexation
across newsgroups and topics, out of relevance and context, Richard.