Re: Nikon D200 and Fuji S5 megapixel count

(used to be) Fat Sam wrote:

> From what I can see, the D200 is an 8megapixel body, and the S5 is a
> 12.34 megapixel body.

The D200 is in fact a 10 Mpix camera.

Surely this sort of deceptive marketing is quite underhanded, and intended to deliberately mislead the camera buying public?

An additional complement to Mark's post.

This is the spec on Fujifilm's site:

"" 12.34million (S-pixel: 6.17million, R-pixel: 6.17million) pixels ""

So, you do have to ask, "what's an S-pixel; R-pixel"? What's that about?

I agree that they are not totally forthcoming and that the spec is a bit misleading.

However, Fujifilm face a very worrying truth. Where megapixels have caught on as the first metric of digital camera "power" most people would tend to see their 6 Mpix camera as weak. It's much harder to market the idea of dynamic range (even to people who should know better).

If I had a sole choice between the D200 (a fine camera) and the Fujifilm S5 I would really look carefully at what it was I would be shooting. If that included a lot of highlights and extreme contrasts, I'd probably aim for the S5.

The resolution difference between the D200 (10 Mpix) and the S5 (6 Mpix) is about 29%. That is not insignificant, but neither is it all that worrying.

With the 6 Mpix camera you can be sure to make very good prints up to 12x8 inches (even 15x10). With the D200 you could push that out 29% for comparable results.

Both cameras use Nikon lenses, so that's a plus.

If it's any comfort to you, many wedding photographers are totally in love with the S3 and S5 for its dynamic range. It makes wedding photos with the textures of the brides white dress and the grooms charcoal-black tux discernible in the same photo. A very natural look.


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