Old Gear is Good Gear

One of the things that I don't really understand is why people get so hung up on having the newest version of everything. Computers I can understand. They age and the programs they run get more bloated requiring more and more processing power. Cameras, especially digital cameras, are different though.

Now, in the dark ages (early 2000s) of digital cameras, photographers needed to be on the bleeding edge of camera tech because every time Canon or Nikon released a new top of the line camera, the miniscule megapixel rating would double. These early digital cameras didn't do much except take -acceptable- pictures and even then, the quality wasn't all that great because blowing up a 2 MP image to 8x10 would produce noticeable pixelation. However, after the megapixel ratings went above 8 MP, things got quite different. For example, I have an EOS 1D Mark II that is rated at 8.2 MP. Now many people would think that this would be borderline unusable for making prints, however, I made a portrait of a friend and blew it up to 16x20 and I couldn't find a single pixel.

8 Megapixels doesn't seem so shabby after all now, does it?

Now you can have a Canon T6s, a consumer DSLR costing under $1000 for the kit, with a 24 MP CMOS sensor. This is freaking massive considering that you're cramming more pixels than the Canon 1D X has in it's full frame sensor into an APS-C sensor that's 1.6 times smaller.

Why do camera makers increase the resolution of the sensor? Marketing. Pure marketing. Pretend you don't know anything about digital cameras at all. You walk into Best Buy, go to the cameras, and take a look. You see 2 DSLRs. One is 24 MP and the other is 20 MP. The 24 MP camera is $200 more. Camera people would probably go with the 20 MP (assuming both cameras have the same features) model but if you don't know any better you might splurge and get a $200 more expensive camera.

In my opinion, camera makers should address the picture quality issues of the APS-C sensors while simultaneously ramping up the pixel count every so often. If you notice, APS-C sensors have a lot of trouble in low light with noise and usually have more drab colors compared to full frames. This is one of the reasons why people don't consider crop frame DSLRs to be "pro" cameras. I'd much rather have a 15 MP crop frame camera that takes gorgeous photos than a 24 MP camera that takes ok photos.

Regardless, one thing that the "megapixel wars" do is drive the costs of older gear down. And the good thing about old gear is that it is as functional and useful as the day it was created.