Are megapixels still the predominant factor in image quality?

[VFC]

My wife works at a local theater. I take most of the pictures for the actors. I use an 50mm f1.4 lens (no flash allowed and an f1.4 zoom lens would cost a fortune). The iPhone 5S would not work in this situation.

Because I cannot zoom in, every picture has to be cropped significantly to focus in on each actor. My 10MP DSLR is not cutting it. I am looking for a new camera body with at least 20MPs.

Regarding outdoor pictures, because there is no optical zoom on the iPhone camera, I would have to crop almost every picture to get the subject in the correct perspective and position. 8MPs will not cut it.

Is the horse dead yet?

 

[Nevaborn]

When i followed the live blogs I was very worried that they were increasing the size of the pixels but would sacrifice up close detail for better low light images ( something the iPhone has struggled with )

however after watching the keynote I am not worried at all the camera part was for me the best bit.

 

[randy98mtu]

My wife works at a local theater. I take most of the pictures for the actors. I use an 50mm f1.4 lens (no flash allowed and an f1.4 zoom lens would cost a fortune). The iPhone 5S would not work in this situation.

Because I cannot zoom in, every picture has to be cropped significantly to focus in on each actor. My 10MP DSLR is not cutting it. I am looking for a new camera with at least 20MPs.

Regarding outdoor pictures, because there is no optical zoom on the iPhone camera, I would have to crop almost every picture to get the subject in the correct perspective and position. 8MPs will not cut it.

Is the horse dead yet?

They don't make a 1.4 zoom. Sigma just came out with a 1.8 however.

You could get a 135mm f/2.0 lens and not have to crop so much. Edit: Assuming you are using a crop body camera, most brands have a very affordable 85mm fast prime. You may want to look into that.

If you need to crop that much on your iPhone shots, I suggest you work on your composition a bit more. It's not a telephoto lens, but they do make such attachments. You are right, you won't get something you can print huge if you have to crop much. For sharing on the internet, which is what gets done with most photos anyway, you can get a fine image from 8MP with a reasonable amount of cropping.

 

[dwarnecke11]

The new local tone mapping feature would probably pay off better for harsh theatre lighting than a few extra MP would for a tighter crop in terms of overall IQ. I completely understand your point, I just think shooting something so demanding with a smartphone and expecting stellar results is unrealistic and would require more than a high MP count.

If you shoot Canon, I would recommend the 100mm f/2. I owned it and later, the 135 f/2L. The former was the better bang-for-the-buck.

 

[student_trap]

apple have been very clever in the way that they have approached this. As through quantifying explicitly (in the keynote and in sales literature) the size of the pixels themselves, they have introduced a quantifiable figure that can be compared between handsets.

Should mean better quality phone cameras for us all in the long run

 

[Namji]

I might be a lousy picture taker, but your comment is, at least for me, correct. I bought a Nikon DSLR D5000 around $900.00 with one lens. I took many out door shots, than later I got took some iphone 5 stills outside, and really could not see the difference. Finally sold the DSLR a few months ago, and will get the iphone 5S. Don't have to lug the DSLR around anymore and that is a big plus for the simple pictures I take.

Did you use auto mode or manual mode on the DSLR?
Most people buy DSLR cameras and use auto mode and wonder what was the big deal of an expensive camera?

 

[VFC]

Do I think they should? No. Do the money men at Apple think they should have, most definitely. Can you imagine the hype if they whacked in an inferior 20 mega pixel camera in the 5S instead of the 8 megapixel one? The whole world would be p!ssing themselves like an excited puppy.

Lol. I too am surprised by the dopamine-driven irrational loyalty to the Apple brand. I own products by many companies and all four major O/S's (Win7/8, Android 4.3, iOS, OS). I am relatively new to Apple products (first being an iPad 3 and cMBP 2012). While all three camps have their fanboys, Apple tops them all. I wonder if the aluminum case material is being absorbed into the skin and causing this behavior?

 

[CooKieMoNs7eR]

So iPhone's 5S's camera is better than that Nokia phone with 41 MP camera??

 

[scott911]

I'm surprised so many people knew the right answer to this misguided question. This Imaging Scientist is impressed!

 

[randy98mtu]

So iPhone's 5S's camera is better than that Nokia phone with 41 MP camera??

As I said, I doubt it. The Nokia sensor is twice the size of the Apple sensor. I think THAT would be the reason it would be better though, more than the 41 MP. I think it could be 20MP and do just as well (or better.)

 

[iz2sick]

My wife works at a local theater. I take most of the pictures for the actors. I use an 50mm f1.4 lens (no flash allowed and an f1.4 zoom lens would cost a fortune). The iPhone 5S would not work in this situation.

Because I cannot zoom in, every picture has to be cropped significantly to focus in on each actor. My 10MP DSLR is not cutting it. I am looking for a new camera body with at least 20MPs.

Regarding outdoor pictures, because there is no optical zoom on the iPhone camera, I would have to crop almost every picture to get the subject in the correct perspective and position. 8MPs will not cut it.

Is the horse dead yet?

You shouldn't be using a phone for these situations anyway. If you really want a phone to do some bit of a decent job at this, go get the Lumia 1020.

For the average user, iPhones have always had good quality. It's been competing with phones with twice as many megapixels. I see all these new Droid pictures on Facebook and they don't even look as good as my old 4S photos.

Megapixels matter to some and you're obviously included in that. But even for you, there's a point where it ceases to matter. For the average user, anything in the 5-10 mp range is sufficient.

 

[Makaveliarts]

I'd have to say that the iPhone doesn't need anything more than possibly a 12-13 MP Camera. More MP does have it's benefits when implemented correctly.

 

[FlatlinerG]

I guess you have never cropped a picture?

I purchased one of the first digital cameras on the market (1mp). The picture that justified my purchase was of my son scoring the winning goal in the championship game. I was unable to crop the picture to bring the image focus on the "moment" because the picture became too grainy.

Later I purchased a 10mp camera and I now have a nice collection of clean, cropped pictures of my son scoring goals in hockey. Nothing beats a close up (cropped) picture of just the goalie and my son with the puck passing by the goalie. You can only do that with a high-pixel-count camera.

That doesn't prove that higher megapixel count = better quality photos. That just proves that the first digital camera on the market wasn't as good one released after it.

 

[scott911]

My wife works at a local theater. I take most of the pictures for the actors. I use an 50mm f1.4 lens (no flash allowed and an f1.4 zoom lens would cost a fortune). The iPhone 5S would not work in this situation.

Because I cannot zoom in, every picture has to be cropped significantly to focus in on each actor. My 10MP DSLR is not cutting it. I am looking for a new camera body with at least 20MPs.

Regarding outdoor pictures, because there is no optical zoom on the iPhone camera, I would have to crop almost every picture to get the subject in the correct perspective and position. 8MPs will not cut it.

Is the horse dead yet?

You should shoot everything at the full dress rehearsal before the crowds are present - stand up front, move to where you want to, use flash, etc...

And if you're needing crop everything, you needs a new lens - that's why they're available in different focal lengths!

Maybe canon's 100mm f/ 2.8 - if you're in that system,- would be a good choice. It's a scary sharp lens.

Your camera sounds pretty old 40D?, but you'll generally get better results out of investing more in some more appropriate glass that newer bodies...

 

[VulchR]

Sensors do not mean squat if the quality of the lens is low. Also, sensors vary in how susceptible they are to noise, cross talk, and other properties, not just their sensitivity. This whole MP thing reminds me of:

 

[bensharma]

Apple is right to take this step -- HTC did the same thing with its Ultrapixel camera -- but I'd still have liked them to bump it up to 10 MP while working on the other stuff.

Oh well.

 

[Tammster]

Photography is a huge hobby of mine (my regular camera is a Canon 60D with various lenses) and when I saw these specs I was waiting for some feedback from the very respected photographers I follow since I really don't understand all of the internal stuff.

Here is an article from Scott Bourne that I found interesting.
Apple Announces The iPhone 5S – It May Become The Most Popular Smartphone Camera Ever

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I was extremely disappointed in the 5S still having 8mp. With digital cameras now averaging almost twice as much it's impossible not to be.

Actually, I'm ecstatic that they didn't cram in more worthless pixels.

You should educate yourself about how camera sensors really work. Your comment/assumption is 180 degrees off-the-mark.

Bryan

 

[deeddawg]

In daylight, it is hard to tell the different between a picture taken with a phone camera and high-end DSLR.

For a subset of well-lit scenes, yes. Particularly wide-angle and narrow aperture shots with a relatively close hyperfocal distance but also small aperture . For other shots the depth of field will be the give-away.

Megapixels = scalability
Lots of other things = quality

Yep. And scalability (cropping) is limited by the relationship between the lens quality and physical pixel size. Once the sensor outresolves the lens you're done. Often better to crop a lower MP image and post-process at that point.

The other thing that most people simply don't get is that detail and sharpness (assuming the lens outresolves the sensor) are a function of linear resolution - i.e. pixel count along X or Y axis. That figure increases as the square root of the increase in megapixels. Roughly, a 13MP sensor yields ~27% more pixels per inch linear resolution than an 8MP sensor (assuming the same aspect ratio).

 

[onirocdarb]

Megapixels were only ever a factor in the beginning of camera phones. Zooming in just a tiny bit would make it blurry. 8MP can be blown up and still look good, so it comes to to the colors and everything

 

[boomhower]

8MP is more than enough. Heck, 5MP would more than get the job done with a quality lens. Higher MP without a good lens is just going to give a bigger file size of a crappy picture.

 

[SSonnentag]

In my opinion, the iPhone 5 takes the best pictures of any cellphone out there. The 8MP size is perfect and was a nice improvement over the 5MP of the previous iPhone. I don't feel that more MP at this point would benefit image quality as the limiting factor now is lens and sensor size. The iPhone 5S camera upgrades are awesome. Better low-light capability, high speed, video zoom, continuous auto-exposure for panoramas, improved flash. The iPhone 5's camera was already significantly better than its competitors, and the 5S' is going to be even further ahead.

 

[ABC5S]

Did you use auto mode or manual mode on the DSLR?
Most people buy DSLR cameras and use auto mode and wonder what was the big deal of an expensive camera?

Both, but I have to confess that I did not learn that all the DSLR had to offer, and made a mistake in that a good point and shoot or iphone could suit me just fine. I bought it because I wanted to use it for such things as going to Cap Canaveral, and use the zoom function. However, how often would I really use it, and sold the camera after a couple of years. My mistake.

 

[notjustjay]

Both, but I have to confess that I did not learn that all the DSLR had to offer, and made a mistake in that a good point and shoot or iphone could suit me just fine. I bought it because I wanted to use it for such things as going to Cap Canaveral, and use the zoom function. However, how often would I really use it, and sold the camera after a couple of years. My mistake.

Not a mistake, just your personal shooting style.

I bought a Nikon D70 kit. Loved it. Took some really nice photos with it, with very little effort on my part. But it's heavy and hard to take anywhere, so I stopped carrying it around except to very special occasions.

The next camera I buy will be a Sony RX100. It has a very large sensor for its size. Not as big as a DSLR but way larger than the sensors used in most compact cameras. My focus now is not on biggest sensor size or largest zoom or most megapixels, but what is the most pocketable camera I can find that takes excellent photos. Canon PowerShot S100, S110, S120, etc. are second on the list.

But even for days when I don't carry a DSLR, or a micro 4/3 camera (I also play with a Panasonic GF2), or the new Sony or Canon, whenever I get it -- it's nice to be able to take decent shots with my phone.

 

[iz2sick]

In my opinion, the iPhone 5 takes the best pictures of any cellphone out there. The 8MP size is perfect and was a nice improvement over the 5MP of the previous iPhone. I don't feel that more MP at this point would benefit image quality as the limiting factor now is lens and sensor size. The iPhone 5S camera upgrades are awesome. Better low-light capability, high speed, video zoom, continuous auto-exposure for panoramas, improved flash. The iPhone 5's camera was already significantly better than its competitors, and the 5S' is going to be even further ahead.

Sorry sir, but you're flat out wrong. Lumina 1020 holds the cellphone camera crown and it does so firmly.

Though it's a massive compliment that the iPhone is even up there in comparison to it. If the iPhone 5 held up that well against it, I'm excited to see how the 5S holds up. That is until Nokia releases the successor to the 1020.