What is better? Bigger pixels or more megapixels? Apple software engineer –Mark Zimmer explains it all on his Relativistic Observer. And I meant all. This post is very high tech and admittedly, most of it was too much for me. However, if you are into photography or undecided whether to get the iPhone 5s with its bigger pixel or the Nokia 1020 with more mega-pixel, this is this post is highly recommended.
Mark Zimmer (spoiler at the end as to which is better):
Apple and others have shown that cameras can be smaller and smaller, such as the excellent camera in the iPhone 5S, which has great low-light capabilities and a two-color flash for better chromatic adaptation. Nokia has shown that a high-resolution sensor can be placed in bigger-thicker-heavier phones that has the flexibility for binning and better optics that push the smartphone cameras ever closer to human-eye capabilities.
Human eyes are hard to fool, though, because they are connected to pattern-matching systems inside our visual system. Look for image interpretation and clarification algorithms to make the next great leap in quality, just as they do in the human visual system.
So is it bigger pixels or simply more of them? No, the answer is better pixels.
