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Undertoad · 06-19-2011, 09:34 AM

Megapixels are now a useless measurement of the quality a camera will produce. There is not so much difference between say 6MP and 8MP. It's more about the lens, what decisions the camera allows you to make, and how well the camera makes decisions that you don't make.

For web work in the last few months, I have been looking at output from an iphone4 (5MP) versus a higher-level 5-year-old Panasonic Lumix (also 5MP), and the Lumix wins every single time. This particular Lumix, the FZ7, does not have interchangeable lenses, and is sorta halfway between a compact and DSLR. It's considered "prosumer" and older models are under $100 on eBay.

Also, real cams have things like serious optical zoom (Lumix FZ models have either 12x or 18x), image stabilization, a usable flash with red-eye reduction etc. etc.

06-19-2011, 09:34 AM	#9
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Megapixels are now a useless measurement of the quality a camera will produce. There is not so much difference between say 6MP and 8MP. It's more about the lens, what decisions the camera allows you to make, and how well the camera makes decisions that you don't make. For web work in the last few months, I have been looking at output from an iphone4 (5MP) versus a higher-level 5-year-old Panasonic Lumix (also 5MP), and the Lumix wins every single time. This particular Lumix, the FZ7, does not have interchangeable lenses, and is sorta halfway between a compact and DSLR. It's considered "prosumer" and older models are under $100 on eBay. Also, real cams have things like serious optical zoom (Lumix FZ models have either 12x or 18x), image stabilization, a usable flash with red-eye reduction etc. etc.