Author: Editor

The short answer is yes, the long answer maybe not. At this point many savvy buyers get that megapixels aren’t that important, but we suspect that most people still don’t realize its largely a marketing tool.

Low noise in high ISO is a much better thing to look at, largely because its harder to fake, it requires some sort of objective performance measurement. Our article on true resolution talks a bit about why we prefer to actually calculate resolution instead of using the rated number.

One thing I wanted to address was whether ISO should be the new megapixel.  Ignoring noise reduction algorithms and advancement of ccd and cmos tech and assuming we’re comparing two cameras with similar gen tech, the noise performance is largely a result of how much light each pixels is getting.  The amount of light is directly related to the pixel size in microns – you can search for cameras with the biggest pixels on our site (which we think is a really cool way to find high quality cameras) and not surprisingly they tend to excel at low light shooting as well as many other areas.

Funny the bigger the pixels the less megapixels the manufacturer can stuff in a given sensor so perhaps big pixels should be the new megapixel – resulting in cameras with less megapixels – ironic.  And yet we’re already seeing that.  Many high end cameras are using the newer backlit 10MP sensor while cheaper cameras are throwing in smaller 14MP sensors.

Consider the D3x vs D3s – both current gen top of the line SLRs from Nikon – so why the huge difference in mega pixels, high speed shooting is definitely a reason but when you look at their DXO mark ISO scores you start to see that big pixels might just be the real reason behind the difference.  The D3s has pixels which are twice the size 71.1 vs 35.2 microns of surface area and offers a significant advantage when shooting in low light.  Everything is just faster and better on the D3s.

12 clean megapixels is more than enough, heck most manufacturers should just stuff a slightly bigger digicam sensor with 6MP in their entry level cameras and the photo quality of most cameras would go through the roof: less compression needed, faster to process, faster shooting and response time, less noise, better color and dynamic range, etc.

Remember when you watch a great encoded blu-ray on a 80″ screen you’re watching 2MP and it looks fantastic, so of course you can do large prints with a really clean and sharp 5 or 6MP.

Today Snapsort released a significant update to its digital camera site: http://snapsort.com, as well as comparing cameras the site now recommends cameras for any price range and for any combination of features that are important to you.

Just tell me which camera to buy!

Not sure which camera to get?  Not interested in spending a lot of time figuring it out?   Simply enter your budget, and Snapsort will give you a few recommendations depending on whether you’re looking for a small camera or one with a lot of zoom (for example).

For example:

• See which digital cameras Snapsort recommends for $250
• Find a great DSLR for less than $1,000

Recommendations on the fly

You can explore digital cameras at Snapsort, to find cameras with the features that are important to you, instead of just putting the cheapest or newest camera at the top of the list, Snapsort ranks all the cameras instantly against your criteria to show you which ones are the best.

For example:

• The best cameras for less than $250 with a wide-angle lens
• All the cameras with a built-in GPS
• Cameras that shoot HD video and fit in your pocket
• Full frame DSLRs for pro shooters

Compare any two cameras to quickly see the differences

Once you’ve narrowed down your choices, you can compare any two digital cameras and have Snapsort tell you the advantages of each, and give its recommendation.  Snapsort even customizes the recommendations based on your exploration criteria.

Examples:

• Panasonic‘s travel zoom camera’s pack a lot of zoom and features into a conveniently small body, see what the differences are between their latest model the ZS7 vs the previous model ZS3.
• Sony has just introduced two new mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (also called electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens, EVIL), see how the NEX-5 compares to Panasonic’s GF1
• Looking for a small camera to use when you’re not shooting with your DSLR? Check out these two popular pro digicams, and decide for yourself which is better: the Canon S90 or Panasonic LX3

There’s much more to the site too, so dive in and take a look around!

Follow us on twitter: @snapsort

We’re starting a beta test of some new Snapsort features soon, if you’d be interested in checking them out before we release them, and giving us some feedback, we’d love to hear from you!

Email us or tweet us etc 🙂

– Alex

• Each dot is a camera, cameras are color coded by brand (Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Olympus, Leica, Others)
• Lines between cameras represent comparisons made, the thicker the line the more comparisons made between those two cameras

• The visualization seems to go from low end at the left to high end at the right
• Nikon and Canon are the center of the world 🙂  You can see tight competition between the Nikon D90 and the Canon Rebel T1i, and the Nikon D700 vs Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• The bottom left is occupied by Sony, you can see their line up from low end to high end, all competing with Nikon and Canon SLRs but not a lot
• At the top you see the micro four thirds cameras from Panasonic and Olympus, such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 and the Olympus PEN E-P2, competing with each other and sometimes the bigger SLRs
• To the far right there are a couple of Leicas mostly on their own
• Top left corner you see a number of Olympus cameras, a low end Sony, and a couple Pentax