WEBVTT - What the big deal with megapixels?

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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<v Speaker 1>tex Stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Hey there, everybody,

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Bolette, femin

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<v Speaker 1>editor here How Stuff Works, and sitting next to me

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<v Speaker 1>as always as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Can you picture that? Nice?

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<v Speaker 1>Thank you? So today we were going to talk about

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<v Speaker 1>digital cameras and specifically megapixels, right, and uh, here's something

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<v Speaker 1>this is probably that we should call us like the

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<v Speaker 1>podcast they don't want you to listen to. They being,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, the digital camera manufacturers and shops, because megapixels.

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<v Speaker 1>That's one of those things that that a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>manufacturers used to kind of differentiate their product from other

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<v Speaker 1>other competitors, like you know, this camera has ten megapixels,

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<v Speaker 1>or you'll see that in a lot of smartphones or

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<v Speaker 1>cell phones even now, where you'll say, like this cell

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<v Speaker 1>phone has three mega pixels, and there's a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>confusion like what does that mean? Are the higher numbers

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<v Speaker 1>automatically better? Um? Is there a point where the numbers

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<v Speaker 1>don't really matter anymore? So we're kinda gonna talk about

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<v Speaker 1>that and sort of straighten these things out. Yeah, and

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<v Speaker 1>and and to be honest, they probably wouldn't even care

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<v Speaker 1>if you didn't know the truth. They just uh, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a number that gets that people attached themselves too,

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<v Speaker 1>because they can they cann sort of compare it to

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<v Speaker 1>other machines. I mean it's sort of like, uh, mega hurts,

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<v Speaker 1>the mega hurts myth as they used to call it

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<v Speaker 1>for computer chips, because you'd say, oh, well that's faster,

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<v Speaker 1>that means it's better. Well, you know, megapixels is the

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<v Speaker 1>same way. Just because there are more megapixels in a

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<v Speaker 1>camera's ability to shoot. Um, yeah, it doesn't necessarily make

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<v Speaker 1>it a better camera. It just means it can capture

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<v Speaker 1>an image of more area. Right. It doesn't mean that

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<v Speaker 1>the pictures themselves will come out any clearer or sharper. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>It's just that alone anyway, right right. I mean the

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<v Speaker 1>megapixels do play a part in that. But here's the thing.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of people have chosen the megapixel number as

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<v Speaker 1>the way to define a digital camera. Right. It's like

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<v Speaker 1>because it's easy. Yeah, It's like that's an easy number.

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<v Speaker 1>You look at you're like, oh, well, this is a

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<v Speaker 1>five megapixel camera. This is a seven megapixel camera. Therefore

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<v Speaker 1>the seven one is better. That's not necessarily the case.

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<v Speaker 1>It may turn out that you could use both of

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<v Speaker 1>those cameras in similar lighting conditions to take a photo,

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<v Speaker 1>and the five megapixel camera may end up giving you

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<v Speaker 1>a better picture. Because it's not all about megapixels. It's

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<v Speaker 1>a lot about the lens of the camera, the sensor

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<v Speaker 1>in the camera, the the software in the camera. All

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<v Speaker 1>of these things play a major factor in how a

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<v Speaker 1>picture looks once you've taken the photos. So just because

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<v Speaker 1>a camera has the capacity to take more or to

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<v Speaker 1>cram more pixels into a picture, doesn't mean that that

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<v Speaker 1>picture is going to be better necessarily, that's true. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>There was a semi famous experiment that David Pogue did

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<v Speaker 1>from the New York Times. He uh, he was on

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<v Speaker 1>a Discovery Channel show called It's All Geek to Me,

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<v Speaker 1>And basically they took three pictures, one that had been

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<v Speaker 1>taken with a thirteen megapixel camera, another with an eight,

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<v Speaker 1>and another with a five. Basically made all three pictures

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen by twenty four and um, only one person that

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<v Speaker 1>they showed, you know, they went out in public, and

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<v Speaker 1>only one person that they showed could accurately figure out

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<v Speaker 1>which one was which, and that might have even been

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<v Speaker 1>a guess. Yes, but I should point out, Um, there's

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<v Speaker 1>one minor correction I need to make here. Okay, he

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<v Speaker 1>did not use three different cameras. He used one camera

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<v Speaker 1>and then used Adobe Photoshop to pull out mega to

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<v Speaker 1>pull out pixels to give you the equivalent of a

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<v Speaker 1>thirteen megapixel versus a seven versus a five. And his

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<v Speaker 1>logic was that it doesn't really matter if you're taking

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<v Speaker 1>pixels away or if you're using three different cameras that

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<v Speaker 1>capture three different uh amounts of megapixels. Um, it doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>that that's immaterial because you end up with the same thing.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the number of pixels in the image. Other people

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<v Speaker 1>were saying, no, no, no, because you're using Adobe and

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<v Speaker 1>you're artificially removing these pixels. That's what's affecting the image.

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<v Speaker 1>By this point was that it doesn't affect the image.

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<v Speaker 1>You could you know, they all looked pretty much identical

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<v Speaker 1>to one another, and as Chris pointed out, only one

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<v Speaker 1>person noticed any difference at all, and even that might

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<v Speaker 1>have been a guess. But here's here's why he did

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<v Speaker 1>not pick three different cameras. There was actually a good

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<v Speaker 1>reason for it, and that's the reason I was mentioning

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<v Speaker 1>before that things like the camera's lens and sensors can

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<v Speaker 1>make a huge difference in what how a picture looks

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<v Speaker 1>when it comes out, and there's no way of guaranteeing

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<v Speaker 1>that three different cameras are gonna give you the same

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<v Speaker 1>sort of image just because you know they're using different lenses,

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<v Speaker 1>they have different sensors, they have different software. So after

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<v Speaker 1>hearing this objection, what happened was he actually got a photographer,

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<v Speaker 1>a professional photographer wrote in and said, hey, I've got

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<v Speaker 1>a way that might fix this problem where we can

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<v Speaker 1>test this without you having to take megapixels out or

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<v Speaker 1>any pixels out. I shouldn't use the word megapixels um

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<v Speaker 1>any pixels out. So what he did was he brought

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<v Speaker 1>a camera I think it was a sixteen point seven

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<v Speaker 1>megapixel professional camera, and then took the same picture three

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<v Speaker 1>times from three different distances. Because the idea being that, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, essentially you crop out everything that's unnecessary in

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<v Speaker 1>the larger picture and zoom in and you get the

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<v Speaker 1>same effect as you would if you had a picture

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<v Speaker 1>using fewer pixels. For that same general area. So it's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of you know, cutting away all the stuff you

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<v Speaker 1>don't need in order to look at the stuff that

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<v Speaker 1>you can compare you know, apples to apples. And once again,

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<v Speaker 1>no one could really tell the difference. I think three

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<v Speaker 1>people out of fifty we're able to correctly identify the

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<v Speaker 1>three different images, but that means forty seven people couldn't. Yeah, yeah, well, um,

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<v Speaker 1>you know that's true. A lot of people did object

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<v Speaker 1>to the methodology, uh, that that David Pogue used, and

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<v Speaker 1>George Woo from zd net actually wrote a pretty substantive

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<v Speaker 1>blog post in which he basically went through all the

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<v Speaker 1>things that that uh, you know, David poke hadn't really

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<v Speaker 1>taken into account, including down sampling, UM, you know, things

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<v Speaker 1>like optical resolution test, which would give you a better

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<v Speaker 1>idea of the actual camera resolution. UM basically said, you

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<v Speaker 1>can't just look, you know, take a picture of a

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<v Speaker 1>random thing and compared to another picture of the same

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<v Speaker 1>thing and say that's got better resolution. You need to

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<v Speaker 1>actually use, um a card, an optical resolution card, and

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<v Speaker 1>and you know examine how the camera can can use that. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>They use JPEGs, which is a lossy compression for mhat

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<v Speaker 1>loses information when you save it, rather than that um

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<v Speaker 1>who said that he should have used um tiff or

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<v Speaker 1>the raw camera format, um, you know, and basically anything

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<v Speaker 1>motion wise. UM yeah, I should have seen the flaw

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<v Speaker 1>in my argument of about the three different cameras. Any

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<v Speaker 1>motion at all, um, you know would affect the picture

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<v Speaker 1>because it would show the limitations of the lens and

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<v Speaker 1>the shutter speed. So I mean there were a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of things that you know, in the in the the

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<v Speaker 1>process of putting together the three images, um, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>could have been done differently to show the difference in

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<v Speaker 1>the three different resolutions or I should say areas, because

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<v Speaker 1>megapixels are actually area. Yeah, we should probably go into

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<v Speaker 1>that a little bit. So you think, all right, I've

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<v Speaker 1>got three megapixel camera, what does that mean? Okay? So

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<v Speaker 1>images digital images are made up of pixels. That's picture elements.

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<v Speaker 1>It's little dots of light. And Uh, the way you

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<v Speaker 1>figure out the megapixels is you multiply the number of

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<v Speaker 1>pixels that go horizontally across an image and the number

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<v Speaker 1>of pixels that go vertically across the image. Multiply those

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<v Speaker 1>two numbers together, and the amount you get kind of

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<v Speaker 1>gives you the idea of a how many megapixels that

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<v Speaker 1>camera has. So for an example, let's say you've got

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand, forty eight pixels horizontally, uh, and you've got

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<v Speaker 1>one thirty six pixels vertically, and multiply those two together

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<v Speaker 1>you get a little over three million pixels. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>three megapixel camera. So if you're talking about a ten

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<v Speaker 1>megapixel camera, you have far more pixels horizontally and vertically,

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<v Speaker 1>actually not far more, but more. Um when you when

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<v Speaker 1>you start looking at it that way, with the area,

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<v Speaker 1>the increase is really not that significant. It sounds like

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<v Speaker 1>it is, but when you think of how many are

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<v Speaker 1>going horizontally versus vertically, it really isn't that significant. The

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<v Speaker 1>only time it really comes into places when you're printing

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<v Speaker 1>out enormous pictures. You know, um, if you're using anything

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<v Speaker 1>like a four megapixel camera or around that area like

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<v Speaker 1>a six by eight photos should be fine. Um. It's

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<v Speaker 1>only when you start to say, hey, I want to

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<v Speaker 1>cover this wall in a digital photo, know that you

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<v Speaker 1>have to start thinking, all right, I need enough. I

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<v Speaker 1>need to I need to have a camera with enough

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<v Speaker 1>megapixels so that it's not gonna look blocky when I

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<v Speaker 1>printed out, but most of us, you know, for most

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<v Speaker 1>of us, I don't think that's an issue. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, if you're gonna shoot a three by five

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<v Speaker 1>or four by six or even you know, eight and

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<v Speaker 1>a half by eleven sized, you know, that's not like

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<v Speaker 1>a five megapixel camera is good for pretty much anything

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<v Speaker 1>up to poster size really, uh and and very few

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<v Speaker 1>of us, at least on the amateur side of photography,

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<v Speaker 1>are going to print anything larger than that. Um. It's

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<v Speaker 1>really when you're getting into the semi professional or professional

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<v Speaker 1>where you'd have to worry about something where you need

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<v Speaker 1>more pixels in your in your digital image. So the

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<v Speaker 1>question then, is what's the most important thing for you

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<v Speaker 1>to look for in a camera. If it's not megapixels,

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<v Speaker 1>this is tricky. Yeah, here, this is this is not

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<v Speaker 1>an easy question to answer. There's no easy answer. Unfortunately.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not like we can tell you, oh, well, look

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<v Speaker 1>for this lens or look for this particular kind of sensor. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>It really depends on how the manufacturer put the cameras together.

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<v Speaker 1>And you may very well come up with a five

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<v Speaker 1>megapixel camera and compared against a twelve megapixel camera and

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<v Speaker 1>see that your pictures in the five one are are

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<v Speaker 1>far better. But a lot of that depends on your

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<v Speaker 1>skill as a photographer. The lighting, the composition of the shot, um,

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<v Speaker 1>whether or not your your subject is moving, uh, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>and and the software that the cameras running on. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>all of that stuff plays a factor. So the best

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<v Speaker 1>thing to do is probably test as many cameras as

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<v Speaker 1>you possibly can before making a purchase. It would also

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<v Speaker 1>probably help if you read uh professional reviews. Um. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>people who do photography all the time are you know,

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<v Speaker 1>certainly going to be more knowledgeable since they you know,

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<v Speaker 1>that's what they do. Um, so they're going to have

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<v Speaker 1>the experience that will help you, you know, figure this out.

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<v Speaker 1>And there are many professional photography Matt magazines out there

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<v Speaker 1>that that can help. And I'm sure that you know,

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<v Speaker 1>would probably be in your interest to visit a professional

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<v Speaker 1>camera store. You know, they they'd be happy to sell

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<v Speaker 1>you have five megapixel camera, just as happy as they

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<v Speaker 1>would be too, you know on Modus sixteen point seven

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<v Speaker 1>megapixel camera. I didn't even know they made those. Well

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<v Speaker 1>that's for professionals. Yeah yeah, no you guys, yeah, yeah, no,

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<v Speaker 1>you can you can find them. I mean they're really

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<v Speaker 1>expensive because it relates for the professional who can afford

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<v Speaker 1>to purchase it because it's part of a business. But um,

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<v Speaker 1>yeah I have I have a ten megapixel camera and

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<v Speaker 1>uh I got it because it was on sale and

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<v Speaker 1>it takes great pictures. But you know what, I also

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<v Speaker 1>have an older for megapixel camera that also takes great pictures.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not as a sleek It's doesn't have all the

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<v Speaker 1>features that my other camera has, so I don't use

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<v Speaker 1>it very often. But it the fact remains that for

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<v Speaker 1>my purposes, I could have stuck with the old camera

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<v Speaker 1>if I really wanted to. It's just that it's bulkier, uh,

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<v Speaker 1>and it doesn't have some of the neat features, like

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<v Speaker 1>some of the nice like nighttime shoot features things like that. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>You should also remember that if you have a camera

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<v Speaker 1>that has a lot of like goes on the high

0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.760
<v Speaker 1>megapixel side, some people have found that shooting and low

0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.600
<v Speaker 1>lighting UH tends to you tend to get these little

0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.160
<v Speaker 1>light specs um that sometimes pop up. That's not with

0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.600
<v Speaker 1>every brand of camera, but it can happen. So again,

0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.960
<v Speaker 1>don't just rush out and buy like the newest camera.

0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.800
<v Speaker 1>Because they've talked about how many megapixels, it has really

0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.280
<v Speaker 1>look into the other factors. Uh, you know, cost is

0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:45.240
<v Speaker 1>definitely something you should look at. Reliability, battery life, I mean,

0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.280
<v Speaker 1>all of these things are important as well as of

0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.320
<v Speaker 1>course the quality of the pictures sure, and um, you know,

0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.920
<v Speaker 1>an image sensor, quality of the lens. You know, these

0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:55.680
<v Speaker 1>are things that that you really should take a look

0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.120
<v Speaker 1>at it. And it's you know, unfortunately, it's not gonna

0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.320
<v Speaker 1>be something you can figure out in five minutes. Probably

0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:02.719
<v Speaker 1>they might take a little research and and if it's

0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:04.679
<v Speaker 1>gonna be something that you're gonna invest a couple hundred

0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.480
<v Speaker 1>dollars in or more more, then you should. You know,

0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:09.360
<v Speaker 1>you should really take the time to to look into

0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:13.080
<v Speaker 1>it anyway. Um, besides, you don't really need all those

0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.920
<v Speaker 1>extra megapixels anyway. I mean, you know, Mike Elgin from

0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.600
<v Speaker 1>Computer World was saying that if you're taking pictures with

0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:20.880
<v Speaker 1>you know, tons and tons of information, as you know,

0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:24.199
<v Speaker 1>these double digit megapixel cameras have, then you've got to

0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:25.880
<v Speaker 1>find a place to store all these things. And they

0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.679
<v Speaker 1>slow down your camera, so you know, I can think of, yeah, exactly,

0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.800
<v Speaker 1>do your camera it's slowly and the transfers really slow,

0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.320
<v Speaker 1>like if you've got a lot of of pictures that

0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.600
<v Speaker 1>you've taken with a ten megapixel camera, and you've taken

0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:42.240
<v Speaker 1>them on the highest setting. It takes a while to

0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.640
<v Speaker 1>pull those off, to rip those off of a smart card.

0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.960
<v Speaker 1>But I can think of one other instance where you

0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.640
<v Speaker 1>might want a camera that has a lot of megapixels. Okay,

0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.000
<v Speaker 1>let's say that you're taking a picture of a big

0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.800
<v Speaker 1>group of people and you're looking at the picture later

0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.520
<v Speaker 1>and you're like, Wow, that chick is cute. I really

0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.160
<v Speaker 1>want to have a full size picture of that chick.

0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.280
<v Speaker 1>But you know what, I don't want a restraining order.

0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.280
<v Speaker 1>So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to crop

0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.560
<v Speaker 1>everyone else out, and I'm gonna expand this picture so

0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:17.120
<v Speaker 1>that she takes up a full frame. Then you might

0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:18.960
<v Speaker 1>need a lot of megapixels so that when you do

0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.120
<v Speaker 1>crop everyone out and expand that section, there's enough resolution

0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:23.760
<v Speaker 1>there so that you can still tell that that's a

0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:28.960
<v Speaker 1>human being. I'm going to avoid asking you whether you

0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:34.440
<v Speaker 1>know this from experience. I will neither confirm nor deny that. Okay,

0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:41.160
<v Speaker 1>then Alice and Anakin call me, so all right, Well

0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.840
<v Speaker 1>that's got it for myne Okay, excellent, Well, then you

0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.280
<v Speaker 1>know what I think. I think I've pretty much covered

0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.120
<v Speaker 1>it too, so um, you know that brings us around

0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.160
<v Speaker 1>to well, you know what time it is? Right, Yes,

0:14:54.960 --> 0:15:02.920
<v Speaker 1>it's listener me. Seriously, I need to bring earplugs for that. Yeah,

0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.760
<v Speaker 1>I know. Okay, So today's listener mail comes from Michelle

0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:15.800
<v Speaker 1>Bell Me sham mom soon, I know. I'm sorry. Michelle says,

0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:18.360
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember if this should go to how Stuff

0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:20.640
<v Speaker 1>Works or tech Stuff Podcast, so I'll send it to

0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.960
<v Speaker 1>the generic address it got to us, so congrats. I

0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.040
<v Speaker 1>think it was Chris and Jonathan who were talking about

0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.480
<v Speaker 1>fun three D technology and how it works. A comment

0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.640
<v Speaker 1>was made that the color spectrum three D glasses and

0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.320
<v Speaker 1>technology wasn't something that really took off because the massive

0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.840
<v Speaker 1>headaches and ice strain that were fairly common, and someone

0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.560
<v Speaker 1>had wondered about the polarization three D glasses and tech

0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.080
<v Speaker 1>and if it worked any better. I just finished watching Coraline,

0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.400
<v Speaker 1>awesome movie even if you haven't read the book, and yes,

0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:47.560
<v Speaker 1>it's a good movie for grown ups too, and my

0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.120
<v Speaker 1>husband and I were in a showing that was showing

0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.280
<v Speaker 1>with polarized three D. It was amazing and I used

0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.120
<v Speaker 1>the glasses through the whole movie. I'm happy to report

0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.240
<v Speaker 1>no headaches or ice strain, and it was very much

0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.760
<v Speaker 1>worth the experience, thank of Michelle. Um. I actually also

0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.280
<v Speaker 1>saw Coraline in three D, and I with the polarized glasses,

0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.560
<v Speaker 1>I can also report no headaches. My wife's saying it

0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.880
<v Speaker 1>was a great experience. Uh, I think we're in for

0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.560
<v Speaker 1>a nice long future of three D films. It may

0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.400
<v Speaker 1>not be, it may not dominate the industry, but I

0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.880
<v Speaker 1>think I think it's more than a novelty. We'll see. Well,

0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.280
<v Speaker 1>it's good that it didn't leave you flat right. It

0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:29.080
<v Speaker 1>was a deep, deep film. So if any of you

0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.240
<v Speaker 1>have any comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, anything like that, you

0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.160
<v Speaker 1>can write to us at tech stuff at how stuff

0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.640
<v Speaker 1>works dot com. And we have a brand new thing

0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.760
<v Speaker 1>we can talk to you about. We have blogs. Yeah,

0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.400
<v Speaker 1>you can find them at blogs dot how stuff works

0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.760
<v Speaker 1>dot com. And uh that's blogs from several different writers

0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:51.520
<v Speaker 1>and editors here at how stuff works. So it's not

0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.280
<v Speaker 1>just tech, it's science, it's history, it's all sorts of things.

0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.400
<v Speaker 1>So go check it out and we will talk to

0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.600
<v Speaker 1>you again really soon for more illness and thousands of

0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:08.880
<v Speaker 1>other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com, brought

0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.119
<v Speaker 1>to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:12.720
<v Speaker 1>are you