[wim]

 I don't get it!   It can only be a headline numbers game...

 

1. Canon haven't exactly been known for their low noise sensors, at least in RAW  and the 5DR is in essence a slightly dated DSLR with a high resolution sensor, will this be a further sacrifice in image noise?  

 

2.  I think Canon would be wise to concentrate on a good solid low noise high DR sensor rather than just going full out for Mps, really the 5DR has not been a huge success in terms of overall IQ, yes it's high res, but,

 

...has Canon got any lenses that can resolve 120Mps?

 

 

  Edit:..Your a Canon man BC....What's your call?

 

1. Canon doesn't provide pre-processed raw files, and hence noise is greater. The advantage is that it is possible to extract more detail from dark areas.

 

2. Of course Canon has lenses which can "resolve 120 MPS". The Nyquist frequency of a 120 MP FF sensor is 187 lp/mm. Any good F/8 lens or faster will manage that, based on Raleigh diffraction limits. IOW, we're still "sensor limited" at this resolution, even if IMO this is a term that should not be used, as it confuses the hell out of most people.

What people in the digital age still don't seem to understand, is that system or final resolution depends both on lens resolution and medium (sensor or film) resolution, and the simple version of the formal to calculate system resolution is

1/(system res.) = 1/(lens res.) + 1/(medium res.)

In short, ANY lens will benefit from a sensor with higher resolution, as the system resolution will be higher, i.e., the resolution that ends up in the raw files.

 

If you then take into account that most good to very good lenses resolve close to the Rayleigh diffraction limits around F/4, which is 400 lp/mm, we still have a long way to go before sensors even get close. A rough calculation learns that we are talking about a 3,5 Gigapixel FF sensor to achieve this.

 

Having said that, the best and sharpest fairly slow B&W film we used in the past, and I am not talking about ortho-film or anything similar here, only resolved up to 125 lp/mm, with colour negatives or slides reaching half that or less.

 

Looking at good amateur negatives, FF/35 mm, the system resolution was about 30 to 40 lp/mm, and for professionals about double that, translated in MPs that is about 6 MP and 12 MP respectively. And we are talking ISO 18 type sensitivity here.

These days we appear to want it al. Highest resolution, no noise, extremely high isos. That just doesn't add up. People should realize that these days at 3200 and 6400 iso we tend to get better results than we used to get at 18 and 15 iso with film, at much higher resolution, and in full colour.

 

Kind regards, Wim