Hi Dan.
As a general rule (all other things being equal) as you make the pixels physically smaller (more megapixels) the noise factor increases.Of course, there are lots of other factors mainly revolving round the 'quality' of the CCD. A 'cheap' 8 meg camera will certainly be more noisy than a more expensive 8 meg camera at the same equivalent ISO setting. The quality of the electronics used to amplify the signal from the CCD (to increase the effective ISO) also has a significant bearing on the noise level, some cameras are (much) more noisy as you wind up the ISO level. As to what happens when you shoot at 5meg with an 8meg camera. I suggest that because some degree of noise-cancellation or averaging will occur during the downsampling you will see less noise than you would on an 8meg shot. As to whether it would be more or less noisy than a 5meg CCD, who knows, I would suggest that it would still be more noisy than the 5meg, but that is really just a guess based on a number of years in the electronics industry rather than any concrete evidence or experimentation. As you pass the 5meg mark the quality of the image becomes more dependent upon the optical system rather than the number of megapixels. My 6meg EOS D-60 produces much better images than many 8meg cameras mainly due to the superior optics of high-end 35mm lenses. As with all these things, the only real way to find out is to suck-it-and-see. Read the reviews, handle the gear, play.!!! One last thing, personally I would avoid the 'pseudo SLRs' with electronic viewfinders (yuk), go for either a 'real' DSLR or, if the budget won't stretch that far, a simple optical viewfinder. Any other questions, please ask here, loads of good advice is available from a lot of very knowledgeable people. Cheers Dave C.
5/25/2004 2:57:24 AM
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