3mp Camera Resolution

[Danielle Just]

Althoughthe megapixel race has been going on since the invention of the digital camera, the last few years in particular have seen a huge increase in resolution. The Sony A7RV has 61MP, a staggering number of megapixels for a full-frame camera.

It seems like we have already reached the theoretical maximum for handling noise at high ISOs with the current generation sensor technology, so the manufacturers are now focusing their efforts in packing more resolution, while keeping sensor sizes the same in order to lure more customers to upgrade to the latest and greatest. In this article, I will try to explain some basic terminology in regards to resolution and hopefully help our readers in understanding camera resolution better.

When Nikon first introduced its D800 / D800E cameras with 36.3 MP resolution full-frame image sensors, many photographers were still shooting with 12.1 MP full-frame cameras like Nikon D700 and D3 / D3s. Doing simple math, many claimed that the 36.3 MP sensor represented 3 times more resolution (12.1 MP x 3 = 36.3 MP) and some wrongfully assumed that upgrading to a camera like D800 would yield 3 times bigger prints. While the total number of effective pixels indeed is three times larger when comparing 36.3 MP vs 12.1 MP, the difference in linear resolution is actually far smaller.

In order to yield twice larger prints at the same PPI, you would need to multiply sensor resolution by 4. For example, if you own a D700 and you are wondering what kind of sensor resolution you would need to print 2x larger, you multiply 12.1 MP (sensor resolution) x 4, which translates to a 48.4 MP sensor. So if you were to move up to say the latest Sony A1 that has a 51 MP sensor, you would get prints a bit larger than 2x in comparison. To understand these differences in resolution, it is best to take a look at the below comparison of different popular sensor resolutions of modern digital cameras from 12.1 MP to 50.6 MP:

If we divide sensor width by image width, we can calculate the approximate size of each pixel. In the case of the D500, taking 23.5 and dividing by 5568 yields approximately 4.22 m, while dividing 35.9 on the Nikon D6 by 5568 yields approximately 6.45 m pixel size.

So what difference does pixel size make in images? In essence, larger pixels can collect more light than smaller pixels, which translates to better image quality and handling of noise per pixel. However, there are a few caveats you need to keep in mind:

So even though the iPhone X has computational photography, the images from it are in general worse than the Sony A7SIII, especially in terms of detail and noise, compared to the iPhone X. There is simply no way to get around this huge difference.

Big megapixel numbers on the sensor are useless, if the lens is too poor to resolve enough detail to provide data for each pixel on the sensor. A phone might have 50 MP resolution, but how much detail can it actually show at pixel level when compared to the 50 MP Sony A1 with a solid full-frame lens attached to it? It also depends on the lens.

When comparing same size sensor cameras with different resolutions, you have to keep in mind that the camera with more resolution will always put more strain on the lens in terms of resolving power. A lens might do quite well on a 12 MP camera, but fail to resolve enough details on a 24 MP or a 36 MP camera, essentially throwing away the high resolution advantage. In some cases, you might be better off not moving up to a higher resolution camera to deal less with other issues, such as the need for more storage and processing power.

Although manufacturers like Nikon and Canon have been actively releasing lenses specifically designed for higher resolution sensors, you might have to re-evaluate every lens purchased in the past to see which ones will provide adequate resolving power for the high resolution sensor and which ones will need to be replaced. In many cases older lenses will suffer from poor mid-frame and corner performance, which might not be desirable for certain types of photography such as landscapes and architecture.

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.

Hi Nasim! I know this is old school, but it is what I have. I am an artist and need to shoot some work for publication in a book. in the past, I never had a problem with using my iPhone for my digital imagery, however, for this publication I need to provide images that are shot at 300DPI!

You lost me with this paragraph. In fact the second print IS exactly 3x larger than the first. It is only 73% wider. The first print is 133 Sq inches and the second is 402 sq inches. You are only defining large by width but the print has gained height and area.

What is the problem? Trying to increase resolution and quality of web cam and OctoLapse videos. I would like the web cam image to be of better quality when I full size the dashboard and would like OctoLapse to render either 720p or 1080p (preferred) video with better image quality.

OctoLapsePic.PNG20441151 363 KB

So setting camera="raspi" allowed me to use the camera_raspi_options value, but I still get the same issue where resolution isn't actually increased, it just zooms in and gets blown up with worse quality.

It looks like my issue is related to this.

Raspberry Pi Camera V2 Settings? Webcams When I edit the camera settings in octopi.txt for my raspi cam, it zooms in like crazy and crops out most of the frame. I removed the hash tag for these two settings. camera="raspi" camera_raspi_options="-x 1920 -y 1080 -fps 30" I am running the latest version of OctoPrint This is my code: [image] This is my defaul setting result [image] This is my 1920x1080 settings result [image]

Sure we can increase resolution easily but the bitrate is not enough to support it. I get bad compression artifacts at 10Mbps? Netflix can stream you nearly 4k HDR UHD with that. Whereas here I can't get a reasonably clean 1640x1232.

Hi Berainlb,

I just mounted the camera, twisted the lens to give me the best focus, then followed the instructions for calibration and alignment. I was not aware of any settings. Are the settings you are referring to a part of Windows 10 or Lightburn? I hope there are settings to sharpen up any images.

Thank you, Andy

Hi Berainlb,

I just found the settings and came back to my pc to respond, when I saw your reply. The settings are already set for Custom and Highest Res. I am not clear on what you mean by the operating system app. When I do a Zoom meeting what I see is sharp. Am I able to use Windows 10 to see through the Lightburn camera?

So far I was not able to complete the full camera lens calibration and used the preset 120 calibration.

The pattern does not get recognized. I thought this was because of the low resolution, but now that you mention it the capturing window says 2592x1944:

I did some testing yesterday: Untitled video - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

I hid the honeycomb, mounted a ring light around the camera and tested different light settings while calibrating. I think something is not working correctly, because I need to capture a lot of images before one falls into acceptable range.

At the end I managed to complete the calibration process together with the camera alignment (I know I can improve this step a lot, but I want to fix one issue at a time). The outcome is still a really low resolution. Maybe this is just the best result regarding the resolution I can get?

I tried restarting, using another USB cable as well as different ports. I can also switch between Lightburn and other software and back and the resolutions stay the same - low in Lightburn and high everywhere else.

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In a CCTV application you will have many cameras with different resolutions but usually only one recording device. So make sure that the recording equipment you choose has at least the resolution capability of your highest resolution camera. Also, make sure it has enough hard drive space to record all of your cameras for a reasonable period of time given your application. Image resolution is most crucial when something happens and you need to playback that video. If you need to zoom in on a piece of video, the quality of that zoomed in image depends on the recorded resolution. So configure each channel of the DVR separately to record at the highest resolution that matches the camera.

I just purchased my first Ultimaker 3 and should have it in hand within the next fews days. I was wondering two things while I wait though. What is the resolution of the camera, and can it be upgraded at a later date (perhaps to HD if it's not, or 4k if it's already HD). Also, can the camera be used with Octoprint or is it only accessible through Cura?

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