Yes, it's always worth shooting with 48MPixel PNGs. And if you can't handle the speed - use 12MPixel ones. Examples below.
I did some extensive experiments, with a tripod in front of one of my (under-construction, LOL) game / book / CD / camera / clock etc. shelf, with my new precious and found out that:
1, if you do shoot compressed, JPG and HEIC files result in equal(ly bad)-quality images. They're, as have always been, an oversharpened mess.
2, you should AT LEAST shoot 12 Mpixel DNGs. (You WILL be forced to shoot them if you for example use the flash, even in good light where you only use the flash to cast some light in shadows!) The JPG exports done in MacOS' Preview are FAAAR better than the compressed garbage coming out from the camera - and even at a lower filesize!
(And the same stands for Preview's HEIC output. They can safely be used for, say, archiving - no quality loss there compared to JPGs, and the file sizes are vastly lower.)
3, and, of course, whenever you can do (you can put up with the slowness of even M1 Pro MBPs scrolling thru dozens of 48 Mpixel DNGs etc.), shoot 48 Mpixel. There is a vast resolution advantage particularly with contrasty, black-and-white content. (With low-constrast, colorful and/or very low-light content, the difference isn't as huge.)
OK, some examples. Note: the full-res images are all at https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72177720302306542 . The image/filenames do have the original file format as their prefix (jpg, heif, 12, 48.) Do use the Download icon particularly with the 48 Mpixel image ( ); then, select "Original (8064 x 6048)" to get the original files for pixel peeping - flickr, even with Pro accounts (like mine), only renders around 6 Mpixel worth of data when fully zoomed in, even on larger, hi-res displays if you "just" use their own interface instead of downloading the original file and zooming in on your own computer.
The four attachments show a heavily zoomed-in, center area of the screen with stacked CD's partly in light and partly in shadows. The CD inlays are variously colored. It's definitely worth notificing that black-and-white (or other kinds of very constrasty) content is VASTLY better in 48 Mpixels than in lower resolution. Not so with lower-contrast stuff, however. Check out for example "Pohjanmaan Sotilassoittokunta • Kytösavun aukella mailla" CD (dark blue writing on top of light blue background) just on top of the "STRAY CATS • CHOO CHOO HOT FISH" CD (the one with light blue letters on black background). It's equally unreadable on the 48 Mpixel image as is on the 12 Mpixel ones, while contrasty stuff like the just mentioned "STRAY CATS" does fare MUCH better on the 48 Mpixel images. This should be kept in mind - after all, it's not true raw image that you see here but a result of computational photography, which can't do REAL wonders.
Note: the "with flash, from close IMG_8381" file at shows a closeup shot of these CDs, lit with the flash (on the iPhone11) so that you can see what they look like in reality.
The attachments are very good-quality JPG exports of the original PNG MacOS screenshots.
I did some extensive experiments, with a tripod in front of one of my (under-construction, LOL) game / book / CD / camera / clock etc. shelf, with my new precious and found out that:
1, if you do shoot compressed, JPG and HEIC files result in equal(ly bad)-quality images. They're, as have always been, an oversharpened mess.
2, you should AT LEAST shoot 12 Mpixel DNGs. (You WILL be forced to shoot them if you for example use the flash, even in good light where you only use the flash to cast some light in shadows!) The JPG exports done in MacOS' Preview are FAAAR better than the compressed garbage coming out from the camera - and even at a lower filesize!
(And the same stands for Preview's HEIC output. They can safely be used for, say, archiving - no quality loss there compared to JPGs, and the file sizes are vastly lower.)
3, and, of course, whenever you can do (you can put up with the slowness of even M1 Pro MBPs scrolling thru dozens of 48 Mpixel DNGs etc.), shoot 48 Mpixel. There is a vast resolution advantage particularly with contrasty, black-and-white content. (With low-constrast, colorful and/or very low-light content, the difference isn't as huge.)
OK, some examples. Note: the full-res images are all at https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72177720302306542 . The image/filenames do have the original file format as their prefix (jpg, heif, 12, 48.) Do use the Download icon particularly with the 48 Mpixel image ( ); then, select "Original (8064 x 6048)" to get the original files for pixel peeping - flickr, even with Pro accounts (like mine), only renders around 6 Mpixel worth of data when fully zoomed in, even on larger, hi-res displays if you "just" use their own interface instead of downloading the original file and zooming in on your own computer.
The four attachments show a heavily zoomed-in, center area of the screen with stacked CD's partly in light and partly in shadows. The CD inlays are variously colored. It's definitely worth notificing that black-and-white (or other kinds of very constrasty) content is VASTLY better in 48 Mpixels than in lower resolution. Not so with lower-contrast stuff, however. Check out for example "Pohjanmaan Sotilassoittokunta • Kytösavun aukella mailla" CD (dark blue writing on top of light blue background) just on top of the "STRAY CATS • CHOO CHOO HOT FISH" CD (the one with light blue letters on black background). It's equally unreadable on the 48 Mpixel image as is on the 12 Mpixel ones, while contrasty stuff like the just mentioned "STRAY CATS" does fare MUCH better on the 48 Mpixel images. This should be kept in mind - after all, it's not true raw image that you see here but a result of computational photography, which can't do REAL wonders.
Note: the "with flash, from close IMG_8381" file at shows a closeup shot of these CDs, lit with the flash (on the iPhone11) so that you can see what they look like in reality.
The attachments are very good-quality JPG exports of the original PNG MacOS screenshots.
