OT: digital camera megapixel question

If anyone has a 2-5 megapixel camera would you please post your pictures. I'm thinking about buy one of two cameras. They are both sony, but one is 3 megapixels and the other is 5 megapixels. I would like to know how much of a difference I can expect to see.

They are both nearly the same price ($318 for the 3mp; $302 for the 5mp), but the 3 megapixel digicam uses 3" cd-r or cd-rw media, while the 5 megapixel uses memory stick/memory stick pro media which is a bit more costly.

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/57/40/pr-Digital_Cameras-Sony_CD_Mavica_CD350_Digital_Camera-resized200.gif
Sony MVC-CD350
http://www.epinions.com/pr-Digital_Cameras-Sony_CD_Mavica_CD350_Digital_Camera

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/c0/2e/pr-Digital_Cameras-Sony_DSC-P92_Digital_Camera-resized200.jpg
Sony DSC-P92
http://www.epinions.com/pr-Digital_Cameras-Sony_DSC-P92_Digital_Camera

BTW: I'd also appreciate your opinions on which one I should buy...I'm leaning more toward the 5mp digicam, but that's because I don't want to get stuck with a camera with poor quality pics...I want to be able to produce amazing film quality pics...maybe not the best pictures ever, but something better than most digital pics I see of cars online.

Click here (http://members.cox.net/enzowho/4mp.jpg) for a picture I took at 4 MP. The pic is about 4 megabytes. Let me know after you've seen the picture. I'm gonna take it off my website so it doesn't kill my bandwith. The camera I use is a 4.0 MP Kodak DX4900. You can see a closeup pic I took of the camera only on 2 MP here (http://members.cox.net/spoolins14/Dcp_2988.jpg) and you can see that it's still a pretty clear picture.

IMO, go with the DSC-P92. Although I normally end up shrinking my pics even after I took it on the highest resolution, I still like to have the ability to take very high res pics. Also, the memory stick that it needs to use is compatible with most of sony's products like digi cams, digital video recorders, mp3 players, etc... How much are those memory sticks exactly? My camera uses the compactflash cards. I bought a 256 MB card for about a hundred bucks. It will hold around 80 or so 4 mp pictures.

http://www.csun.edu/~laa2424/content/images/240sx/08.jpg
http://www.csun.edu/~laa2424/content/images/240sx/05.jpg

Above images were taken with my Sony DSC-P9 (4MP) and reduced to about a quarter of their original resolution...(2054 x something) my suggestion is go with the 5MP because cd-r read/write is too slow to take any decent pictures with. You might wanna look at the F717 or another of their Cybershot PRO series because of their SLR type functions. A brand I would highly recommend is Nikon... I'm somewhat satisfied with my camera. Pictures look much better scaled down from a larger resolution though so they might be a bit misleading. Good luck on your choice!

Pictures look much better scaled down from a larger resolution though so they might be a bit misleading.

I agree. In the 4 MP pic I posted above, you can see how it's kinda fuzzy. Once it's scaled down it looks much better. Here's the scaled down version of the one I posted up there. pic here (http://members.cox.net/spoolins14/Dcp_3297.jpg)

mrflip, just curious, how much did you pay for your camera?

megapixels really don't matter... i've seen 1.3MP cams take better pictures than 4MP cams

here's the camera i just got

http://exilim.casio.com/images/s3_mainpage.jpg

http://exilim.casio.com/s3model.htm

3MP. want examples check out the auction with the z at http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2444028372

i can't ask for a better and smaller camera. takes wonderful pics. highly recommend.

actually i wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends.... i want all the girls to hover around my cool camera

:)

J SPEC SilEighty - thank you for posting and I will definitely go with the P92 now. Scaled down they seem to add detail that a lower res digicam can't offer. You can remove the pics whenever you want :).

mynismo - quality is in the lense and exposure settings (apperture and shutter speed)...megapixels is the resolution only...so cameras offering higher resolutions aren't always better, but they allow more flexibility for enlarging and centering. Though poor lense quality can sometimes be masked when images are scaled down...still, with no modifications to the picture then megapixels don't change anything...they just offer a larger overall pic.

I'll make sure to post pics with my P92 soon...I plan to go check out a red s14...It's 6k and some change and looks nice in the pic. I'll see if I can get some pics of it and post it. 100k miles and it's an SE so I figure it's a decent price :)

I was actually considering the casio exilim S2, but it has no optical zoom and many of the features I want aren't on it. It's also only 2 megapixels. The S3 may offer the features I want, but walmart doesn't sell it so my 20% discount doesn't work on it :-/.

I agree. In the 4 MP pic I posted above, you can see how it's kinda fuzzy. Once it's scaled down it looks much better. Here's the scaled down version of the one I posted up there. pic here (http://members.cox.net/spoolins14/Dcp_3297.jpg)

mrflip, just curious, how much did you pay for your camera?

Too much... got it a year ago from Circuit City (needed it right away) for almost 1g .. that's extra battery, case, memory stick, tripod.

Too much... got it a year ago from Circuit City (needed it right away) for almost 1g .. that's extra battery, case, memory stick, tripod.
ouch. mine was $315/shipped... its purely awesome

yea the s2 sucks quality wise... get an s3. 315 you cant beat it... i swear.

hey klohiq my sis has the Sony DSC-P92 and I use it, 3.2 megapixels is still pretty damn clear and it's real simple and easy to use, which is why I like it. You already saw my car pics in the other thread, that was taken at 640x480 res and it's still pretty clear. had to take em at low res b/c my sis was taking up all the other space on her cam. The thing that sux is the sony memory stick it comes with is only 8 mbs., so you'll probably want to buy one with a much bigger memory load

the memory stick provided is actually 16mb publicenemy137. It's still pathetic and allows for only 7 pics at 5mp.

I'll post some images tonight or tomorrow. It's insane...unedited the pictures are ~2600x1500. I really like it. Paid 303 and some change and now I plan to get a 256mb memory stick pro card, camera case and a memory stick case (holds 8).

I reccomend it to anyone...though the battery life seems to be a bit short...Two fresh duracells lasted me only about an hour or so...though I was using the AF illuminator, zoom, flash and display pretty heavily. I can't comment on the Ni-MH batteries that were included yet...they are charging.

instead of just posting pics...i made a web page quickly (less than 5 minute :) )...

http://klohiq.tripod.com/misc/digicam/sony_dscp92.html

megapixels really don't matter...

u are so wrong about this, that i dont even wanna prove to you how wrong u are. so im just gonna let you play happily with ur -2 mp camera and think its the best thing in the world..



...just like a 240 with a veilside body kit... :loser:

megapixels dont matter as much as people say they do...granted if you expect amazing wideangle pics with a 1 megapixel camera you are shit out of luck, but a 2 or 3 megapixel camera can offer really good pictures at a great price.

I set my camera to 1.2 megapixels (the lowest setting on my camera) and it still took really decent pictures. They couldn't be enlarged much, but other than that they looked good...It was 1280x960 for the resolution so they weren't tiny pics...just not the monster 5mp pics I can make. If you resampled it just a little they make perfect desktop pictures (I use 1024x768).

and ralphcare...his camera is a 3 megapixel...not a 2. No optical zoom, but they are fucking great for carrying around with you, mine is a little bulky to shove in your pocket (unless I'm wearing my jncos, and usually I'm not).

Camera looks like it takes nice pics klohiq. You sure do take pics of anything you can.... dog food, fat? lol. Nice camera though :)

Oh yeah, did you manually set the ISO speed or did you have it set on auto? I was looking at the EXIF file for your pics and just noticed the ISO speed was different on various pics. Just wondering if you were setting it yourself or not..

Everything is on auto right now pretty much...I haven't even looked at the manual other than to know how to install the usb linkup shit (can be easily screwed up and then the computer will never work quite right with the device without formatting the hd...happened with my thrustmaster pro digital steering wheel)...I'll be messing with features eventually, but I haven't found much reason to...it takes really great pics without me doing anything but aiming at shit. Still feel like I'm missing some personality that an analog SLR has, but the instant image processing is really useful.

It usually takes really clear pictures...the one of the cat really amazed me...some of the outside pics I've taken haven't been the greatest...but It was a rainy night, it was pretty dark out and the battery power was so low it kept turning off. The thing seems to eat alkalines lol. 135 minutes is rated on the NiMH batteries that are included. They seem to last a bit longer than non-rechargeables...I'll try lithium batteries and see how well they do...I've had really good experience with them in my sony MD player and it ate alkalines just as bad.

yeah my camera kills my batteries also. It came with rechargeables also and those normally last me about an hour of picture taking. This is using the LCD screen as a preview and the flash sometimes. Normal alkaline batteries die VERY fast in my camera. I mean they will be dead in about 10 minutes. Lithium batteries seem to last me the longest. They will last me about 2-3 hours.

wait nm klohiq mine comes with 16 mbs also, u can't take many high quality pics with it. I have the exact same one as yours. It's great isn't it. I didn't read the manual, the system is pretty easy with the circle dial and menu button.

wait nm klohiq mine comes with 16 mbs also, u can't take many high quality pics with it. I have the exact same one as yours. It's great isn't it. I didn't read the manual, the system is pretty easy with the circle dial and menu button.

:biggrin: The controls are very easy to master and you can take pictures as soon as you get the batteries and memory stick installed. Everything is easy to find and well laid out.