(Megapixels) War...what is it good for....

[Kayaker72]

Nice pics Mark. I especially like the ape. Definitely looks sharp to me.

I do not disagree with any other points, granted, I really do not intentionally "downsample." I do it when I am creating smaller files to email people or something like that. But there is so little noise in my 5DIV, I really do not notice a difference. Granted, if I shot at ISO 25,600 or something, I might see it then (hmmm...perhaps a test in my future).

My next thoughts on this taking the R5 (which, BTW, is confirmed, but the 45 MP is still a rumor). That 45 MP, when looking at resolving power, is 1.22x my 5DIV and 1.5x the 1DX III (or II). But, if you are satisfied with the resolution of an image that fills the frame, more MP is overkill. For images where you need more "pixels on target", we essentially are talking about adding a 1.4x extender. Then there is the not all pixels are created equal argument that Jonathan was talking about. I recall tests on this forum where the general conclusion was that crop factor cameras actually provided about 1.2x more resolving power compared to 1.6x. As a crop sensor camera is essentially a subset of a high resolution FF camera, I really do not see why the same would not apply to high MP sensors.

EDIT: Another issue, but diffraction and whatever issues that will cause. Higher resolution, the lower f stop diffraction sets in at. For example, my 5DIV is f/8.6 while the M6 II is f/5.2.