Heart of darkness

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Hi,

I’ve ordered an R6 and was eagerly awaiting it’s arrival. I was very excited. All the reasons I wanted it made sense and I could hardly wait to get my hands on it.

Lately there’s been a tiny niggle: I’m starting to worry that 20mp might not be enough. I’m someone who has owned a 20D ( 8mp) 5D (12mp) D700, briefly(12mp) 5D2 (21mp) 5DmkIV (30mp) Fuji X-T1 (16mp) Fuji X-T3 (26mp).

None of this mattered and on my screen, as far as resolution goes, they all looked the same. In prints, none of them failed to satisfy me up to A3+ and one of my 20D prints is on our living room wall right now beside where I'mI sitting: it looks great.

I never really felt that even my 20D lacked resolution.The only camera I tried and didn’t like - returning it - was a D800 which had 36mp: an insane resolution at the time!

I love my APS-C Fujis and the only reason I’m moving from them is because I find the buttons fiddly and painful for my arthritic hands to operate.

Why all the angst then? Have I a psychological issue from going from 30 mp to 20? Is it because both cameras have launched at the same time and in the internet age weighing up decisions comes with more baggage than ever? I don’t know, but I’m guessing it’s what keeps people like Canon, Sony and Nikon in business. Switching is endemic and chasing the “next best thing” is a real barrier to creativity or pleasure. I thought I was relatively immune but it seems I’m not.

Looking back, the camera that gave me most excitement was with my very inexpensive Cosina or my Olympus OM1 SLRs when I was making my first B&W prints. My happiest times boating was on my first one - a 20ft Norman with outboard motor. I’ve owned a lot of extremely expensive guitars but the one that gave me most pleasure was the very first one I got to start learning. IIRC it cost £12 secondhand from McCormacks in Glasgow.

Maybe a lot of our purchasing activity is a vain attempt to buy back the thrill of first love|?

No idea what point I have to make.

It’s a funny old life.
 
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My happiest times boating was on my first one - a 20ft Norman with outboard motor.
It’s a funny old life.

Twenty two years ago I had a 20ft Norman with a Honda 7.5 hp outboard engine.
I'm not in any way superstitious, but nothing went well after buying that boat
The day I moved it down to nearer home my missus got rushed into hospital with Pancreatitis.
After a few more unpleasant occurrences I sold the boat and things definitely picked up again
 
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Twenty two years ago I had a 20ft Norman with a Honda 7.5 hp outboard engine.
I'm not in any way superstitious, but nothing went well after buying that boat
The day I moved it down to nearer home my missus got rushed into hospital with Pancreatitis.
After a few more unpleasant occurrences I sold the boat and things definitely picked up again

Interesting. My live-in girlfriend, at the time of purchase, and I split up not too long after I bought that boat. I also had a Honda 4 - stroke outboard fitted to mine! Still the happiest time of my life :p
 
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I eventually intend buying the R5 instead of the R6 and the only real reason is megapixels, the top lcd would be nice but I don't need (or want) the 8k video, cfexpress, higher res viewfinder etc. My K-1 is a 35MP full frame and I regularly crop to less that 2MP and sometimes a lot less so starting at 20MP just wouldn't give me the resolution I want a lot of the time.
 
Why all the angst then? Have I a psychological issue from going from 30 mp to 20? Is it because both cameras have launched at the same time and in the internet age weighing up decisions comes with more baggage than ever? I don’t know, but I’m guessing it’s what keeps people like Canon, Sony and Nikon in business. Switching is endemic and chasing the “next best thing” is a real barrier to creativity or pleasure. I thought I was relatively immune but it seems I’m not.

I've usually only bought new camera because they offered something different.

My first digital camera was a Fuji S602 and it was slow and unresponsive so I changed to a Canon 300D. I can't quite remember why I later went for the 20D but something must have convinced me to. I later added a 10D for indoor social use as the 20D sounded like an anvil being thrown into a tin bath and the 10D was almost silent by comparison. I kept the 20D for over 7 years and then moved to a 5D. What prompted that move was that I had the excellent Sigma 50 and 85mm f1.4's and 12-24mm and I wanted to use them on a FF camera.

I came to resent the bloated size and weight of DSLR's and began moving to mirrorless with a Panasonic GF1. I hated back screen shooting so changed to a G1 and then other Panasonic cameras and when the Sony A7 came out I got one of those and sold all my Canon kit.

When I had the 5D I thought I'd never want or need a better camera but the Panasonic cameras I have now are much better and the A7 is in a different Universe. The A7 is only 24mp but as I was able to make A3 prints from my Canon 300D 24mp seems adequate for me :D

Looking at what other people are doing with high mp count cameras I can see the advantages for cropping but dealing with those big files does seem to be quite a high price to pay for that cropping ability.

These days my only real photography kit addiction seems to be manual lenses especially old ones from the film days and thankfully some of them are still available at fairly reasonable prices.
 
I guess there's a number of reasons for moving or upgrading but it's sometimes hard not to get caught up in the hype. The mp thing puzzles me a little. I've never bought into the idea that I'd need more mp but it's crossed my mind for some reason now. I wonder if the lenses I would probably end up using EFmp than with an adapter are really going to show any more resolution with 45 than 20. Maybe stye will, I don't know. My main lens with the 5Div was the 400mm f5.6L which is pretty old and though a good perfomer, I'm guessing it wouldn't let me crop much more from a 45mp sensor. I'm not about to chuck another £5k at glass so I reckon the truth is it wouldn't make any difference.
 
Whilst I understand your angst in going 'backwards' from 30mp to 20mp the reality is 20mp is more than enough for most applications and it's unlikely you'll miss or even notice the other 10mp.

I've got a crazy high mp camera just so that I can use shorter tele lenses and crop to keep the weight down, but when shooting other things I do wish sometimes that I could choose to shoot at around 20mp. I had the EM1-II which is 20mp and that was plenty for most things (y)
 
Whilst I understand your angst in going 'backwards' from 30mp to 20mp the reality is 20mp is more than enough for most applications and it's unlikely you'll miss or even notice the other 10mp.

I've got a crazy high mp camera just so that I can use shorter tele lenses and crop to keep the weight down, but when shooting other things I do wish sometimes that I could choose to shoot at around 20mp. I had the EM1-II which is 20mp and that was plenty for most things (y)

Does the A7rIV not allow you to shoot in smaller res RAW files if you want to?
 
Does the A7rIV not allow you to shoot in smaller res RAW files if you want to?
It does but IIRC it also reduces quality, such as only 12 bit and clipped highlights. However, I may have to revisit this as it may have changed/I remember it incorrectly (y)
 
I do realise 20mp is enough but it's the psychological effect I've noticed that I was really posting about.

BTW, if you want 50mp on a budget, HDEW have the 5DS at a crazy low price.
 
I do realise 20mp is enough but it's the psychological effect I've noticed that I was really posting about.

BTW, if you want 50mp on a budget, HDEW have the 5DS at a crazy low price.
It’s the constant brainwashing we encounter every day telling us the we need more mp ;)
 
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