A friend was wondering if there was any real benefit to getting a camera with more than 5 megapixels. Well, that depends on a lot of factors, but unless you are shooting with a DSLR, you are probably not going to gain that much by adding 5MP, except noise perhaps. ;'] Of course, if you plan on cropping your images and want to squeeze out as much detail as possible, then more pixels aren't necessarily a bad thing. In this comparison I photographed at both the 5MP and full 10MP settings of my FZ50. I then cropped out a same sized section from each full image. While you can see that there is more detail in the 10MP version, it is not really a whole lot more. The noise and noise reduction effects are also more visible at 10MP. I hope this helps you out fitzy. *(be sure to click to view full size)*

Yes you are probably right Kort and much depends on the quality of the sensor etc what is your friend is going to do with the images posting on the net or printing when the extra megapix will be more advantageous... Good point about the noise

As above I think much depends on what final outcome is wanted. 
Certainly number of pixels is not the only consideration because a limit will be reached where the sensor is out resolving the lens and requires higher quality optics to produce a finer image.  At the point where budget for the camera matches expectations of outcome is the happy position most of us would like to be able to achieve.  It is not easy, and things get muddied by the whole marketing hype so rational decision making is almost impossible. Throw in that for most people a camera is a personal item and pride of ownership etc plays an enormous role in what people will want, technical specfication to perform the task sometimes becomes only one of the prime movers in decision making. 

More great points. Thanks for chiming in Richard. You too Danny. Another important aside would be that all factors have to come together to make higher quality in a larger image. A cheap lens will not take not help a 10MP sensor show more clarity (as Richard pointed out) and a high quality lens can only do so much with a tiny, overpopulated sensor.

Reading the above I'm asking myself the same question - what is the final need for the image? Big prints for walls or web shots?

For web shots you'll never notice the difference, so why spend the money?

And yeah - I've seen PLENTY of images with 8-10MP cams taken with the cheapest lenses they could possibly skimp on - gotta love the yellow/blue fringing - it just adds that touch of class to an expensive 11x14 portrait print ;-) Again, no distinguishing traits from what size sensor was used.

I'm going to guess this is mostly hobby for them (just a hunch - nothing was said above) so I'd reccommend the 5-6MP cam with a good lens (or set of lenses if they can afford it) - if they ever need it to be bigger, get Genuine Fractals and double it - which will end up bigger than the 10MP cam anyway.

Tell them good luck-
-Lew ;-)

Will do, thanks Lew. I am not sure what Fitzy wants it for, hrmmm.

Reassured that my 5mp fuji is just fine for the job! Lol. Thank you. :biggrin: :thumbupboth:

Always a pleasure! ;']