Quote Originally Posted by swifty View Post
From my understanding, for a given sensor size with respect to noise, there's no disadvantage to having a high MP count compared to low MP given the same tech (quantum efficiency of sensor) when you normalize the final picture to the same size print. On a pixel level, yes you would have less noise on the low MP version but with regards to the image as a whole, it's the sensor size and underlying tech that matters. Of course on a high MP sensor there may be more supporting electronics reducing the light collect
ing area.......
From what I've seen and read of the comparisons of printed or displayed images set to the same size, captured at high ISO values from both the D3/D3s compared to the D3x, the colour of the D3/s images are far superior.
That is, images at full res 100% pixel view from the D3/s still look superior in terms of faithful colour reproduction compared to the downscaled images from the D3x.
The lower ability to capture the true colour available in the scene lets down the higher Mp sensor.
It's not just about the noise level. It's true that in comparison to each other on a pure SNR ratio, they're probably not much different.

The other side of the argument is that where a lower res sensor allows you (say) 204k ISO, the higher res sensor may top out at say 25K ISO.
Those extra 3 stops of light gathering power are .. well .. lets say, handy to have

Another side issue of the problem of higher Mp numbers is of course diffraction.
if they don't stop this insane onward march of outdoing each other, at some point in the next few model generations, just about all cameras will be diffraction limited to f/2.8 .. and even more seriously f/1.4. This will be great news for the lens makers as there will be a stampede of the hoards to purchase expensive f/1.4 lenses, but what happens beyond this point??
The next stop in diffraction limitation will be something like f/1.2(of which there are very few Nikon lenses available, and past this point, we get into seriously silly levels of limitation of f/0.95, and larger.

it's already a well known fact that most of those super high res small sensor compacts have breached diffraction limitation points, and are simply not resolving any real detail onto their sensors.
The pixel densities of the sensors are currently diffraction limited past f/2.8, and most of the lens designs are f/3.5 and slower.
It's a tribute to the camera's firmware engineers that they can program the image processing ability of the cameras to render any useful detail when viewed at 100%.
So it begs the question ... if the detail isn't real, and is a process of guesswork on the part of a software engineer.. what's the point of having all those pixels in the first place?

I'd prefer to see Nikon cease this pointless exercise before it gets to the level it has in P&S circles and concentrate on better, more accurate data collecting power from lower density sensors and under more demanding conditions.(oh! and video too )