Quote:
Originally Posted by gguruusa
Close. "Native" Megapixels are a function of your hardware, and are typically the best "Quality" you are going to get. Some cameras (not these) can improve on native MP by using time information and some fancy image processing or sacrificing color depth. Most cameras get higher-than-native megapixels by interpolation, which gives a half-***** illusion of more pixels depending on the quality of the interpolation algorithm and the nature of the original image. It is sales trick bafoonery. "Digital Zoom" usually falls into the same category - instead of fabricating pixels between real pixels, they throw out the pixels on the edges and double or triple the ones in the middle. On most devices, it is identical to cropping and then stretching to original dimensions your final image. The only time "Digital Zoom" isn't pure crap is when color depth is sacrificed - then you really are zooming, albeit not without a penalty.
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Exactly, you can't capture more pixels than the sensor originally recorded. You can manipulate them with software and interpolate/extrapolate/tweak/etc. but you are still dependent on the "raw" data. I routinely appear to be a much better photographer than I am after I finish with my images in Photoshop
I have also recently started experimenting with High Dynamic Range (HDR) in which case the finished picture can improve on the original(s) but you have to have 3 exposures of the same subject to work with. If anyone wants some nice wallpapers try
http://www.hdrwalls.com/index.php