Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with
Speaker 1: tex Stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Hey there, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Bolette, femin
Speaker 1: editor here How Stuff Works, and sitting next to me
Speaker 1: as always as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Can you picture that? Nice?
Speaker 1: Thank you? So today we were going to talk about
Speaker 1: digital cameras and specifically megapixels, right, and uh, here's something
Speaker 1: this is probably that we should call us like the
Speaker 1: podcast they don't want you to listen to. They being,
Speaker 1: you know, the digital camera manufacturers and shops, because megapixels.
Speaker 1: That's one of those things that that a lot of
Speaker 1: manufacturers used to kind of differentiate their product from other
Speaker 1: other competitors, like you know, this camera has ten megapixels,
Speaker 1: or you'll see that in a lot of smartphones or
Speaker 1: cell phones even now, where you'll say, like this cell
Speaker 1: phone has three mega pixels, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: confusion like what does that mean? Are the higher numbers
Speaker 1: automatically better? Um? Is there a point where the numbers
Speaker 1: don't really matter anymore? So we're kinda gonna talk about
Speaker 1: that and sort of straighten these things out. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and and to be honest, they probably wouldn't even care
Speaker 1: if you didn't know the truth. They just uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a number that gets that people attached themselves too,
Speaker 1: because they can they cann sort of compare it to
Speaker 1: other machines. I mean it's sort of like, uh, mega hurts,
Speaker 1: the mega hurts myth as they used to call it
Speaker 1: for computer chips, because you'd say, oh, well that's faster,
Speaker 1: that means it's better. Well, you know, megapixels is the
Speaker 1: same way. Just because there are more megapixels in a
Speaker 1: camera's ability to shoot. Um, yeah, it doesn't necessarily make
Speaker 1: it a better camera. It just means it can capture
Speaker 1: an image of more area. Right. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: the pictures themselves will come out any clearer or sharper. Um.
Speaker 1: It's just that alone anyway, right right. I mean the
Speaker 1: megapixels do play a part in that. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have chosen the megapixel number as
Speaker 1: the way to define a digital camera. Right. It's like
Speaker 1: because it's easy. Yeah, It's like that's an easy number.
Speaker 1: You look at you're like, oh, well, this is a
Speaker 1: five megapixel camera. This is a seven megapixel camera. Therefore
Speaker 1: the seven one is better. That's not necessarily the case.
Speaker 1: It may turn out that you could use both of
Speaker 1: those cameras in similar lighting conditions to take a photo,
Speaker 1: and the five megapixel camera may end up giving you
Speaker 1: a better picture. Because it's not all about megapixels. It's
Speaker 1: a lot about the lens of the camera, the sensor
Speaker 1: in the camera, the the software in the camera. All
Speaker 1: of these things play a major factor in how a
Speaker 1: picture looks once you've taken the photos. So just because
Speaker 1: a camera has the capacity to take more or to
Speaker 1: cram more pixels into a picture, doesn't mean that that
Speaker 1: picture is going to be better necessarily, that's true. Um.
Speaker 1: There was a semi famous experiment that David Pogue did
Speaker 1: from the New York Times. He uh, he was on
Speaker 1: a Discovery Channel show called It's All Geek to Me,
Speaker 1: And basically they took three pictures, one that had been
Speaker 1: taken with a thirteen megapixel camera, another with an eight,
Speaker 1: and another with a five. Basically made all three pictures
Speaker 1: sixteen by twenty four and um, only one person that
Speaker 1: they showed, you know, they went out in public, and
Speaker 1: only one person that they showed could accurately figure out
Speaker 1: which one was which, and that might have even been
Speaker 1: a guess. Yes, but I should point out, Um, there's
Speaker 1: one minor correction I need to make here. Okay, he
Speaker 1: did not use three different cameras. He used one camera
Speaker 1: and then used Adobe Photoshop to pull out mega to
Speaker 1: pull out pixels to give you the equivalent of a
Speaker 1: thirteen megapixel versus a seven versus a five. And his
Speaker 1: logic was that it doesn't really matter if you're taking
Speaker 1: pixels away or if you're using three different cameras that
Speaker 1: capture three different uh amounts of megapixels. Um, it doesn't
Speaker 1: that that's immaterial because you end up with the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's the number of pixels in the image. Other people
Speaker 1: were saying, no, no, no, because you're using Adobe and
Speaker 1: you're artificially removing these pixels. That's what's affecting the image.
Speaker 1: By this point was that it doesn't affect the image.
Speaker 1: You could you know, they all looked pretty much identical
Speaker 1: to one another, and as Chris pointed out, only one
Speaker 1: person noticed any difference at all, and even that might
Speaker 1: have been a guess. But here's here's why he did
Speaker 1: not pick three different cameras. There was actually a good
Speaker 1: reason for it, and that's the reason I was mentioning
Speaker 1: before that things like the camera's lens and sensors can
Speaker 1: make a huge difference in what how a picture looks
Speaker 1: when it comes out, and there's no way of guaranteeing
Speaker 1: that three different cameras are gonna give you the same
Speaker 1: sort of image just because you know they're using different lenses,
Speaker 1: they have different sensors, they have different software. So after
Speaker 1: hearing this objection, what happened was he actually got a photographer,
Speaker 1: a professional photographer wrote in and said, hey, I've got
Speaker 1: a way that might fix this problem where we can
Speaker 1: test this without you having to take megapixels out or
Speaker 1: any pixels out. I shouldn't use the word megapixels um
Speaker 1: any pixels out. So what he did was he brought
Speaker 1: a camera I think it was a sixteen point seven
Speaker 1: megapixel professional camera, and then took the same picture three
Speaker 1: times from three different distances. Because the idea being that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, essentially you crop out everything that's unnecessary in
Speaker 1: the larger picture and zoom in and you get the
Speaker 1: same effect as you would if you had a picture
Speaker 1: using fewer pixels. For that same general area. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of you know, cutting away all the stuff you
Speaker 1: don't need in order to look at the stuff that
Speaker 1: you can compare you know, apples to apples. And once again,
Speaker 1: no one could really tell the difference. I think three
Speaker 1: people out of fifty we're able to correctly identify the
Speaker 1: three different images, but that means forty seven people couldn't. Yeah, yeah, well, um,
Speaker 1: you know that's true. A lot of people did object
Speaker 1: to the methodology, uh, that that David Pogue used, and
Speaker 1: George Woo from zd net actually wrote a pretty substantive
Speaker 1: blog post in which he basically went through all the
Speaker 1: things that that uh, you know, David poke hadn't really
Speaker 1: taken into account, including down sampling, UM, you know, things
Speaker 1: like optical resolution test, which would give you a better
Speaker 1: idea of the actual camera resolution. UM basically said, you
Speaker 1: can't just look, you know, take a picture of a
Speaker 1: random thing and compared to another picture of the same
Speaker 1: thing and say that's got better resolution. You need to
Speaker 1: actually use, um a card, an optical resolution card, and
Speaker 1: and you know examine how the camera can can use that. Um.
Speaker 1: They use JPEGs, which is a lossy compression for mhat
Speaker 1: loses information when you save it, rather than that um
Speaker 1: who said that he should have used um tiff or
Speaker 1: the raw camera format, um, you know, and basically anything
Speaker 1: motion wise. UM yeah, I should have seen the flaw
Speaker 1: in my argument of about the three different cameras. Any
Speaker 1: motion at all, um, you know would affect the picture
Speaker 1: because it would show the limitations of the lens and
Speaker 1: the shutter speed. So I mean there were a lot
Speaker 1: of things that you know, in the in the the
Speaker 1: process of putting together the three images, um, you know,
Speaker 1: could have been done differently to show the difference in
Speaker 1: the three different resolutions or I should say areas, because
Speaker 1: megapixels are actually area. Yeah, we should probably go into
Speaker 1: that a little bit. So you think, all right, I've
Speaker 1: got three megapixel camera, what does that mean? Okay? So
Speaker 1: images digital images are made up of pixels. That's picture elements.
Speaker 1: It's little dots of light. And Uh, the way you
Speaker 1: figure out the megapixels is you multiply the number of
Speaker 1: pixels that go horizontally across an image and the number
Speaker 1: of pixels that go vertically across the image. Multiply those
Speaker 1: two numbers together, and the amount you get kind of
Speaker 1: gives you the idea of a how many megapixels that
Speaker 1: camera has. So for an example, let's say you've got
Speaker 1: two thousand, forty eight pixels horizontally, uh, and you've got
Speaker 1: one thirty six pixels vertically, and multiply those two together
Speaker 1: you get a little over three million pixels. That's a
Speaker 1: three megapixel camera. So if you're talking about a ten
Speaker 1: megapixel camera, you have far more pixels horizontally and vertically,
Speaker 1: actually not far more, but more. Um when you when
Speaker 1: you start looking at it that way, with the area,
Speaker 1: the increase is really not that significant. It sounds like
Speaker 1: it is, but when you think of how many are
Speaker 1: going horizontally versus vertically, it really isn't that significant. The
Speaker 1: only time it really comes into places when you're printing
Speaker 1: out enormous pictures. You know, um, if you're using anything
Speaker 1: like a four megapixel camera or around that area like
Speaker 1: a six by eight photos should be fine. Um. It's
Speaker 1: only when you start to say, hey, I want to
Speaker 1: cover this wall in a digital photo, know that you
Speaker 1: have to start thinking, all right, I need enough. I
Speaker 1: need to I need to have a camera with enough
Speaker 1: megapixels so that it's not gonna look blocky when I
Speaker 1: printed out, but most of us, you know, for most
Speaker 1: of us, I don't think that's an issue. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're gonna shoot a three by five
Speaker 1: or four by six or even you know, eight and
Speaker 1: a half by eleven sized, you know, that's not like
Speaker 1: a five megapixel camera is good for pretty much anything
Speaker 1: up to poster size really, uh and and very few
Speaker 1: of us, at least on the amateur side of photography,
Speaker 1: are going to print anything larger than that. Um. It's
Speaker 1: really when you're getting into the semi professional or professional
Speaker 1: where you'd have to worry about something where you need
Speaker 1: more pixels in your in your digital image. So the
Speaker 1: question then, is what's the most important thing for you
Speaker 1: to look for in a camera. If it's not megapixels,
Speaker 1: this is tricky. Yeah, here, this is this is not
Speaker 1: an easy question to answer. There's no easy answer. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: It's not like we can tell you, oh, well, look
Speaker 1: for this lens or look for this particular kind of sensor. Um.
Speaker 1: It really depends on how the manufacturer put the cameras together.
Speaker 1: And you may very well come up with a five
Speaker 1: megapixel camera and compared against a twelve megapixel camera and
Speaker 1: see that your pictures in the five one are are
Speaker 1: far better. But a lot of that depends on your
Speaker 1: skill as a photographer. The lighting, the composition of the shot, um,
Speaker 1: whether or not your your subject is moving, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and and the software that the cameras running on. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of that stuff plays a factor. So the best
Speaker 1: thing to do is probably test as many cameras as
Speaker 1: you possibly can before making a purchase. It would also
Speaker 1: probably help if you read uh professional reviews. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: people who do photography all the time are you know,
Speaker 1: certainly going to be more knowledgeable since they you know,
Speaker 1: that's what they do. Um, so they're going to have
Speaker 1: the experience that will help you, you know, figure this out.
Speaker 1: And there are many professional photography Matt magazines out there
Speaker 1: that that can help. And I'm sure that you know,
Speaker 1: would probably be in your interest to visit a professional
Speaker 1: camera store. You know, they they'd be happy to sell
Speaker 1: you have five megapixel camera, just as happy as they
Speaker 1: would be too, you know on Modus sixteen point seven
Speaker 1: megapixel camera. I didn't even know they made those. Well
Speaker 1: that's for professionals. Yeah yeah, no you guys, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: you can you can find them. I mean they're really
Speaker 1: expensive because it relates for the professional who can afford
Speaker 1: to purchase it because it's part of a business. But um,
Speaker 1: yeah I have I have a ten megapixel camera and
Speaker 1: uh I got it because it was on sale and
Speaker 1: it takes great pictures. But you know what, I also
Speaker 1: have an older for megapixel camera that also takes great pictures.
Speaker 1: It's not as a sleek It's doesn't have all the
Speaker 1: features that my other camera has, so I don't use
Speaker 1: it very often. But it the fact remains that for
Speaker 1: my purposes, I could have stuck with the old camera
Speaker 1: if I really wanted to. It's just that it's bulkier, uh,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have some of the neat features, like
Speaker 1: some of the nice like nighttime shoot features things like that. Um.
Speaker 1: You should also remember that if you have a camera
Speaker 1: that has a lot of like goes on the high
Speaker 1: megapixel side, some people have found that shooting and low
Speaker 1: lighting UH tends to you tend to get these little
Speaker 1: light specs um that sometimes pop up. That's not with
Speaker 1: every brand of camera, but it can happen. So again,
Speaker 1: don't just rush out and buy like the newest camera.
Speaker 1: Because they've talked about how many megapixels, it has really
Speaker 1: look into the other factors. Uh, you know, cost is
Speaker 1: definitely something you should look at. Reliability, battery life, I mean,
Speaker 1: all of these things are important as well as of
Speaker 1: course the quality of the pictures sure, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: an image sensor, quality of the lens. You know, these
Speaker 1: are things that that you really should take a look
Speaker 1: at it. And it's you know, unfortunately, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be something you can figure out in five minutes. Probably
Speaker 1: they might take a little research and and if it's
Speaker 1: gonna be something that you're gonna invest a couple hundred
Speaker 1: dollars in or more more, then you should. You know,
Speaker 1: you should really take the time to to look into
Speaker 1: it anyway. Um, besides, you don't really need all those
Speaker 1: extra megapixels anyway. I mean, you know, Mike Elgin from
Speaker 1: Computer World was saying that if you're taking pictures with
Speaker 1: you know, tons and tons of information, as you know,
Speaker 1: these double digit megapixel cameras have, then you've got to
Speaker 1: find a place to store all these things. And they
Speaker 1: slow down your camera, so you know, I can think of, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: do your camera it's slowly and the transfers really slow,
Speaker 1: like if you've got a lot of of pictures that
Speaker 1: you've taken with a ten megapixel camera, and you've taken
Speaker 1: them on the highest setting. It takes a while to
Speaker 1: pull those off, to rip those off of a smart card.
Speaker 1: But I can think of one other instance where you
Speaker 1: might want a camera that has a lot of megapixels. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's say that you're taking a picture of a big
Speaker 1: group of people and you're looking at the picture later
Speaker 1: and you're like, Wow, that chick is cute. I really
Speaker 1: want to have a full size picture of that chick.
Speaker 1: But you know what, I don't want a restraining order.
Speaker 1: So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to crop
Speaker 1: everyone else out, and I'm gonna expand this picture so
Speaker 1: that she takes up a full frame. Then you might
Speaker 1: need a lot of megapixels so that when you do
Speaker 1: crop everyone out and expand that section, there's enough resolution
Speaker 1: there so that you can still tell that that's a
Speaker 1: human being. I'm going to avoid asking you whether you
Speaker 1: know this from experience. I will neither confirm nor deny that. Okay,
Speaker 1: then Alice and Anakin call me, so all right, Well
Speaker 1: that's got it for myne Okay, excellent, Well, then you
Speaker 1: know what I think. I think I've pretty much covered
Speaker 1: it too, so um, you know that brings us around
Speaker 1: to well, you know what time it is? Right, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's listener me. Seriously, I need to bring earplugs for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. Okay, So today's listener mail comes from Michelle
Speaker 1: Bell Me sham mom soon, I know. I'm sorry. Michelle says,
Speaker 1: I can't remember if this should go to how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works or tech Stuff Podcast, so I'll send it to
Speaker 1: the generic address it got to us, so congrats. I
Speaker 1: think it was Chris and Jonathan who were talking about
Speaker 1: fun three D technology and how it works. A comment
Speaker 1: was made that the color spectrum three D glasses and
Speaker 1: technology wasn't something that really took off because the massive
Speaker 1: headaches and ice strain that were fairly common, and someone
Speaker 1: had wondered about the polarization three D glasses and tech
Speaker 1: and if it worked any better. I just finished watching Coraline,
Speaker 1: awesome movie even if you haven't read the book, and yes,
Speaker 1: it's a good movie for grown ups too, and my
Speaker 1: husband and I were in a showing that was showing
Speaker 1: with polarized three D. It was amazing and I used
Speaker 1: the glasses through the whole movie. I'm happy to report
Speaker 1: no headaches or ice strain, and it was very much
Speaker 1: worth the experience, thank of Michelle. Um. I actually also
Speaker 1: saw Coraline in three D, and I with the polarized glasses,
Speaker 1: I can also report no headaches. My wife's saying it
Speaker 1: was a great experience. Uh, I think we're in for
Speaker 1: a nice long future of three D films. It may
Speaker 1: not be, it may not dominate the industry, but I
Speaker 1: think I think it's more than a novelty. We'll see. Well,
Speaker 1: it's good that it didn't leave you flat right. It
Speaker 1: was a deep, deep film. So if any of you
Speaker 1: have any comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, anything like that, you
Speaker 1: can write to us at tech stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. And we have a brand new thing
Speaker 1: we can talk to you about. We have blogs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can find them at blogs dot how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. And uh that's blogs from several different writers
Speaker 1: and editors here at how stuff works. So it's not
Speaker 1: just tech, it's science, it's history, it's all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: So go check it out and we will talk to
Speaker 1: you again really soon for more illness and thousands of
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Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
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