the recent announcements of the Canon 7D and 1DIV seem to have revived the old sawmill. Basically, the email I receive goes something like this: "I'm upset with Nikon. Canon now has six bodies with more than 12mp while Nikon continues to come up with new 12mp bodies. Nikon is falling behind." These emails almost exactly mimic emails I received a few years ago, with the only difference being that the complaint was about Nikon being stuck at 6mp (obviously, they weren't). A few comments:
- More megapixels don't necessarily mean better images. That's not a knock on Canon bodies, actually. In the right hands, used the right way, printed the right size, more megapixels might make a difference.
- Too many people are still "cropping later." They use extra pixels to be lazy. Remember, perspective is about where you put the camera relative to the subject. Not controlling perspective is one of the things that make amateur photos look amateur.
- 12mp prints quite nicely out to as big as you can put on a desktop inkjet. Ask yourself (a) how many prints larger than 19" you've actually made; and (b) whether you've actually tried upsizing a 12mp image to 24" or even 36". If you answer of a0 or b0, then extra pixels aren't in your future.
- More pixels mean more computer. Try this: convert a 6mp image and a 24mp image on your current computer.
- Nikon isn't hung up on numbers. They eventually move upward in pixel counts. But Nikon seems much more focused on other aspects of image quality, particularly noise handling right now. If the market really demands and needs more pixels, Nikon will get there.
Obviously, at any given point in time, any camera maker seems to be lagging at something. It's a giant gain of leapfrog, and there are plenty of factors that have to be "jumped" (autofocus performance, noise handling, pixel count, etc.). Canon's major product cycles are still almost exactly offset from Nikon's, even though they seem to be a tiny bit faster. That means we see Canon make a move that makes something Nikon look a bit behind, then Nikon makes a move that makes something Canon look a bit behind, then the cycle repeats. I have no doubts that by the time we get to the D400, D800, and D4 things will look differently.
Thus, as I wrote last time this happened, you have to make a decision. Either you're going to ping-pong between brands to get the latest and greatest every two years or so, or you're going to settle on a brand overall that accomplishes what you need, and stick with it. Jumping ship at every major announcement is the only way you can take advantage of "the latest and greatest." That's a costly way to update equipment, though.