dcjs wrote:
OK, so I\'ve heard this \"better tonal transitions in bigger formats\" over and over and was never able to come up with a concept to understand it. Does anyone have a mildly technical explanation where this is supposed to come from? If two sensors of different format have similar pixel pitch (like the Sony 16MP sensors and the D800), where do the \"better tonal transitions\" come from, and do they disappear when the D800 image is cropped to 16MP? Do I also get \"better tonal transitions\" when stitching several frames with the smaller sensor?
I guess the thing is that your example is an extreme one, D800 is the first FF that comes close to the pixel density of an APS-C. And, since the MP count is vastly different a similar sized output image would for the D800 use many more \"photon-buckets\" to combine a point in the final image than the APS-C.
For the more normal FF cameras, the MP counts of APS-C are closing (even surpassing) while the sensor sizes stay the same. Hence instead of more \"photon-buckets for the FF, they will simply be larger and therefor gather more light. And the bigger sized pixels gives other benefits which is more tied to handling and lens issues.
The big and bold thing with the D800 from my perspective, is that it house the potential for enormous sized and detailed prints (/or provides ample material for cropping), but it takes some effort to harvest it, not just point and shoot.
Aug 23, 2012 at 05:14 PM
Previous versions of wfrank's message #10905194 « How much sharpness do you need? »
