Which is better?

9 years 8 months ago #386319 by Joe Vertz
A high resolution camera with higher noise or a lower resolution camera with less noise?  This topic came up in my photography Meetup group yesterday and became a melting pot of opinions, but little clarity at the end.  


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9 years 8 months ago #386325 by Shadowfixer1
Lower Rez with lower noise for me.
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9 years 8 months ago #386377 by KCook
Resolution and noise are about the last things I consider in camera selection :pinch:

Kelly

Canon 50D, Olympus PL2
kellycook.zenfolio.com/

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9 years 8 months ago #386393 by Hassner
You can always enlarge a good photo, but even with noise reduction it leaves an unsharp image.


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9 years 8 months ago #386411 by garyrhook
With a higher resolution starting point you can apply noise reduction then down-size the image, effectively "hiding" the shortcomings.

That said, I'll go with "it depends."


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9 years 8 months ago #386897 by william_cpa
That is a very interesting question because you are comparing what the camera manufacturers marketing departments ideally want you to compare. Your lens will make a ten times bigger difference.
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9 years 8 months ago - 9 years 8 months ago #386903 by Stealthy Ninja
Larger MP cameras' images when reduced in size down to that of the lower MP, less noise camera, can produce similar if not the same results as the lower MP camera.

I showed this when I compared the D800 to the D3s:
www.aidavproductions.com/articles/D3svsD800.html

My conclusion at the time:
I feel resized the D800 up to 6400iso is VERY close to the D3s. This means the D800 can be used along side the D3s without too much trouble. The advantage of the D3s being smaller file sizes and a faster FPS (9 vs 4). The D3s should be good for sports and events and times where you don't need the 36MP resolution of the D800. The D800 on the other hand is great for landscapes, portraits, cropping and even low light. This makes the D800 a very versatile camera.

However, after 6400iso the D3s seems to break away a little. 6400 is the max native iso that the D800 will do, so after that it's being artificially boosted. This is probably the reason for the difference. So if you need to shoot 12800iso or higher on a regular basis, or you shoot events/sports then the D3s is a good way to go.
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9 years 7 months ago #392595 by Crammer

william_cpa wrote: That is a very interesting question because you are comparing what the camera manufacturers marketing departments ideally want you to compare. Your lens will make a ten times bigger difference.



:agree: :goodpost:


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9 years 7 months ago #394671 by Number 7

Hassner wrote: You can always enlarge a good photo, but even with noise reduction it leaves an unsharp image.



:goodpost:


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9 years 7 months ago #394780 by NicoIa

william_cpa wrote: That is a very interesting question because you are comparing what the camera manufacturers marketing departments ideally want you to compare. Your lens will make a ten times bigger difference.


:agree:


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9 years 7 months ago #394803 by Ido
I'd personally go with higher-resolution. Whenever I need to shoot in very dim light, I can simply export a downsampled file of similar resolution to the low-res image with less noise, making it, well, a low-res image with less noise. It may not be as good as the low-res camera's output, but if they are of similar quality (let's say, comparing the three Sony a7-series cameras), they shouldn't be far from each other when scaled to the lower resolution.

The high-res original image, when shot at a low ISO, lets me print larger than I would be comfortable with if I had the lower resolution image. So basically, the camera with the higher resolution sensor basically gives me more types of images in one.

That being said, there is a big advantage to lower resolution images that wasn't discussed here: They are much smaller files that are easier for the camera to move from the buffer to the memory card, so bursts can be held for longer periods of time, all things being equal. I have no practical use for that myself, as I won't hold a burst for more than two or three seconds at most.


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