Is diffraction an increasing worry? Or, what's wrong with more megapixels?

Started 4 months ago | Questions thread
Great Bustard
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Re: Is diffraction an increasing worry? Or, what's wrong with more megapixels?
In reply to KenBalbari, 4 months ago

KenBalbari wrote:

Macx wrote:

And in the case where the resolution you want from your output is higher than the resolution your sensor can provide, there is still no advantage to having a sensor with a lower resolution.

Well larger pixels though might have an advantage in other areas, like lower noise or greater dynamic range, if we're talking about putting more pixels on the same size sensor.

Quite the opposite, really, so long as the sensor with more pixels is at least as efficient (and the evidence to date supports this to be the case, as a general rule).

But yes, more pixels will never give you less resolution. It's just that at some point, in order to get the benefits of more resolution, you are going to need sharper lenses at larger apertures (say f/2.8-f5.6 on 4/3).

Actually, if you put more pixels behind any lens, you will get more resolution, just as if you put a sharper lens in front of any sensor, you'll get more resolution.  Ideally, we want both, of course.

We haven't reached any limits yet, though. Shooting at f/4.0, resolution would still likely benefit some from having as many as 50MP on the 4/3 sensor size.

Even more than that.  The question is if the operational disadvantages outweigh the IQ advantages.

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