Mindo, Ecuador, 2024

This bird photo was shot with a 300 mm lens. I was standing on our hotel balcony looking into treetops and could not get as close as I would have liked, so I cropped the original shot to frame it in a stronger way. This is about 3/4 of the original image, and still with enough resolution (pixels) to make a print from 15 to as much as 30 inches wide. Since this reproduction was for screen use I reduced the resolution to about a quarter of what was available even after the crop.

(A brief tutorial, for anyone less versed in the lingo: Resolution is simply pixel count. A pixel, picture element, represents a single tone/color, the most basic information in a digital image. A digital photograph is essentially Impressionism. Resolution may be presented in one of three ways–1) total pixel count, like my camera being 40.2 megapixels, 2) width and height proportions, such as the 7728×5152 pixel dimensions of my sensor, or 3) pixel density, for instance the traditional ask for printing a digital photo was to have 360 pixels per inch {ppi} for best quality, by which criteria an 8×10 print would want 2880×3600 pixel dimensions, and my sensor would produce a 21.4″x14.3″ print. Screen viewing needs far less resolution; a 4K screen would need half of my sensor’s native resolution.)

A question that came up regularly at the beginning stages of digital camera development, when new features and capabilities were coming rapidly was, “Should I get the highest resolution camera?” The answer then, and now, was/is, “Maybe.” My answer to all photographic questions is, “It depends.”

It’s a lot more complicated question: what are you going to do with the photos (screen or print), more pixels mean smaller pixels which increases noise (graininess) in the image, higher resolution reveals poor camera handling more quickly, what’s your budget, etc. You have to balance those things based on your real life conditions and needs, but “resolution,” (horsepower) was the easiest marketing spec, which needed the least amount of explanation, so that’s what the ads and promotional materials highlighted.

If you are only going to look at photos on a screen, or make small prints (like most people) a camera in the 10-12 megapixel range is more than enough resolution. The nominal reason for having more pixels is to make really big prints. Yet, although I seldom make prints, and very seldom make large prints, I’m now using a 40 MP camera, for two other ways to utilize horsepower:

Better detail–a sensor with more pixels has the potential for recording more tonal and color variation in a given space; and,

Cropping–retaining enough resolution to still be usable for whatever output I need or want.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index.