I realize I am in the minority when I say that I generally see no need for super high-resolution cameras like the Nikon D810, the Canon 5DS R and similar bodies with full-frame sensors boasting crazy high pixel counts. It just doesn’t make sense on paper. The more pixels you cram on a sensor, the noisier it becomes. Why does that matter? The photo community seems to crave utterly noise-free cameras. Given the fact that so many photographers have been raised in the last 10 years to think any noise at any ISO is bad, something has to give. Either people want these high-res cameras and are willing to restrict their use to very, very low ISO – say 200, 400 or at the extreme 800 ISO or they simply don’t care about the noise.
But I wanted to go further than just putting it down on paper. I wanted to test this all out for myself. I rented or borrowed several cameras in this range over the past three weeks to see what all the fuss is about. Note – to avoid offending those fans of any particular camera brand, I’ll limit my discussion to the overall class of cameras. Most of what I say here applies to them all.
1. Who needs these high-res cameras? Based on years of polling here at Photofocus a very, very, very small subset of you work in an industry where super large files are necessary, i.e., advertising billboards for instance. An overwhelming majority of you don’t make prints larger than 13×19” if you make prints at all. Most of you share your images almost exclusively on the Web. So 36, 50 or more megapixels simply serves no real purpose for most of you.
If you are one of the very, very few people who are an exception to the above, you may actually profit from one of the new high-res cameras.
2. These cameras offer such high resolution that their sensors can resolve more horizontal line pairs of resolution than the average camera lens can supply. There’s simply not enough information being passed from the lens to the sensor. In short, unless you are using some of the most expensive lenses sold on this planet, your super hi-res camera may not be giving you what you thought you were paying for.
3. Most of you who make large prints know that mistakes are amplified when you print big. I learned this the hard way decades ago when I made my first 20×30” prints from 35mm slide film. At that size (and of course larger) any and all mistakes you made during capture are amplified and enlarged for all to see. Back in the day I realized a print that looked good at 8×10” may look like garbage at 20×30.”
Guess what – same thing goes for those who shoot big. When you’re working with hi-res files, every single mistake you make is equally amplified like those I made back then printing from slide film. If you have the slightest camera shake or if you’re not precisely on focus, etc. it will be painfully evident when you work with the files from these hi-res cameras. In other words your technique has to be flawless to get the best these cameras can deliver. Or put another way – an 18 MP camera will be more forgiving of operator error than a 50MP plus camera.
4. I hope you’re a coffee drinker. Or you have some other pass-time that you can fall back on when you import these super big files. The import process takes a long time due to file size. You also better have a whole bunch of free disk space. I used to fill up a 250 TB drive with new photos every month. If I used these cameras regularly, I would need three times that much storage. When you shoot with one of these hi-res cameras, everything (ingest, picking, rotating, cropping, editing, saving etc.) takes a lot more computer time than you might be used to.
5. If you are of the religion of low-light, i.e., your primary goal in photography is to take pictures of black cats in unlit barns at night with a cloudy, starless sky and you want to do so at a high ISO with no noise, keep moving – there’s nothing to see here. While I am personally okay with noisy pictures when the final result is superb either way, I do find these cameras to be extremely noisy at high ISOs. I might be spoiled by my Fuji X-T1 which produces very high quality, clean images, at even ISO 6400. Images at ISO 400 on these hi-res cameras were often too noisy or nearly too noisy for me. In all but a very few cases I found ISO 800 unsatisfactory. Yes – I expect you will see some comments below from hi-res camera owners claiming their camera does fine with the high ISOs, but I believe that to be confirmation bias. Without significant post processing, images from these hi-res cameras are substantively and noticeably noisier than images from the class of camera that uses sensors in the 12 to 24 megapixel range.
CONCLUSION
I decided to do this test because I didn’t want to be “that guy” who writes about photo gear he’s never used. “That guy” is readily available on the Interwebs to share his opinion about cameras he’s never, ever used. I wanted to test this all for myself. I admit my test is NOT scientific. I tested these cameras in real-world conditions that mirror the way I shoot every day. That should be the real test of any camera for any photographer. What looks good on paper or what the folks say in the camera forums means nothing. It’s how the cameras work FOR YOU that does matter.
I was actually hoping my initial reservations were wrong. I wanted to be a fan, I really did. I enjoy cool gear as much as the next photographer. But for me, it’s not a good fit. Maybe it will be different for you. I realize that nothing I say will stop some of you from buying these hi-res cameras, and actually – stopping you from buying one is not my goal. My goal with this post is to make sure anyone considering these bad boys will do so with open eyes and with an understanding of the challenges of using a hi-res camera. Of course, as always, your mileage may vary.
P.S. Thanks to lensrentals.com for helping me get some of the gear I tested for this post.
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Filed under: Gear, Photography Tagged: hi-res cameras 
