Nex-7 outresolves M9 w/ 50 ASPH

The testing method is dubious at best, but note, he did need to use a Leica lens to achieve the bogus result, so no need to sell your M9 just yet, unless you want all your Leica lenses to shift towards the telephoto end of the range.

Steve
 
Don't worry. These kinds of "tests" just annoy me because they do it for shock value to draw attention to themselves. Those of us who are into Leica are not going to trade for a Nex unless economics just forced us to. If Nex owners use this to pound their chests and proclaim they have a better image maker than an M9, let them knock themselves out. They'll probably wonder what that snickering sound is that they keep hearing.
 
Oh.

So all we can expect is a slew of M9's on sale, but still nobody budges when it comes to selling some nice lenses for petty cash?

B*mmer.


:p
 
I remember when I noticed a "lack of sharpness" problem with my M8, then, I had it cleaned professionally: it was like new (i.e. "as sharp as when new").
 
uhoh7 said:
This is interesting:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sony_nex_7_rolling_review.shtml#m9
Click to expand...
No surprise there whatsoever. First you crop an 18-megapixel image and then figure out a way to compare that crop against a 24-megapixel image. If you can't get the 24-megapixel image to outresolve the cropped 18-megapixel image, your 24-megapixel image must be pretty bad. I don't think anyone thought the NEX-7 would be bad.

What I didn't fully understand was the final size that the images were compared at. The guy explains that he downscaled the NEX-7 image to 18 megapixels. But that was not the size of the M9 image after the crop anymore! Did he downscale the NEX-7 image even smaller or upscale the M9 image back to original size? It looks like the former, but he fails to explain the process properly even after receiving emails from people to point this out.

I would rather test with the same field of view than the same lens to get something corresponding to real-life photography. I don't buy the explanation that sometimes you only have one lens and need to stand in one point. Why do you then have two cameras, and why does the desired picture correspond to what the cropped sensor camera happens to see? Makes no sense to me, but then again I haven't worked decades as a professional photographer. :D
 
And the Sony images are being downsampled, so of course they'll appear to have better resolution - a wholly expected result, as the quote at the end of the test makes clear: 24 MP will kill 18 MP.

Comparing apples to pears...

A more interesting test would be comparing 100% crops from both cameras using images with the same field of view, i.e. without downsampling. Two different lenses with similar resolution would be needed...
 
Yeah agreed with the above 2 comments completely. Luminous landscape has gone really downhill with their reviews and 'tests' IMO.
 
RichC said:
24 MP will kill 18 MP.
Click to expand...

And new will kill old in the sensor world. If you leave out the lenses and ergonomics, you are testing sensors and electronics. And these are still enough of a evolving field that new is almost always better. This is a continuing problem for DSLR makers as a entire succession of affordable consumer models will always top the sensor of their aging high-end model before they can replace the latter with a successor.

If you buy a camera for having the best sensor performance, buy cheap, as it will lose its top rank within weeks. And if you buy a camera for ergonomics, lenses or some other non-sensor feature, accept the fact that its sensor will be a average performer within a year and become outdated (at least in public perception) within two. No big deal, as it will still do what it could when you bought it - you'll merely lose the bragging rights on sensor specs.

There is no need to upgrade every time something new is released - for much of its history, film has gone through no less of a evolution than electronics, and many photographers stuck to the same film type for a entire lifetime...
 
Also you have to keep in mind, that when you look at the pixel density of the two cameras and compare that, the sony nex 7 has the density of a 54 megapixel full frame camera. So it really shouldn't be a surprise it outresolves an 18 megapixel sensor ;-)
 
The German "news" magazine "Die Welt" recently published an article about the new generation of EVIL cameras, including the NEX-7, claiming that even a Leica M9 didn't stand a chance against this new breed of camera.

Uh, yeah. Sure.

EDIT: Link to the discussion on LUF
 
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d__b said:
Also you have to keep in mind, that when you look at the pixel density of the two cameras and compare that, the sony nex 7 has the density of a 54 megapixel full frame camera. So it really shouldn't be a surprise it outresolves an 18 megapixel sensor ;-)
Click to expand...

Precisely. A more densely populated sensor will pick up more detail than a less densely populated sensor. I can't understand how anyone would be surprised (let alone refuse to believe) that the new sensor in the NEX out resolves the one in the M9. There are plenty of reasons to prefer an M9 to a NEX, but resolution is not one of them.
 
Who really cares? Honestly, all of these cameras are pretty damn good these days.

Put a zeiss planar or a zeiss c-biogon on a M9 and you'll see details in your photos that are miles away in the background. I'm not sure I need more resolving power than that.
 
j j said:
Precisely. A more densely populated sensor will pick up more detail than a less densely populated sensor. I can't understand how anyone would be surprised (let alone refuse to believe) that the new sensor in the NEX out resolves the one in the M9. There are plenty of reasons to prefer an M9 to a NEX, but resolution is not one of them.
Click to expand...

Yes. Precisely.
 
I would like to see a Nex 7 sensor full frame!

I would like to see a Nex 7 sensor full frame!

Now how would all of this look if Sony made a full frame version of the Nex 7? Price, I would say $2500. The M9 would get a beating for sure!!!
 
eleskin said:
Now how would all of this look if Sony made a full frame version of the Nex 7? Price, I would say $2500. The M9 would get a beating for sure!!!
Click to expand...

People always think Leica is competing with consumer models, but I really don't think that is the case. Leica is a luxury brand that will do well regardless of if Sony makes a full frame mirrorless or not. Unless SONY rebadges the M9 and sells it at half the price, none of this stuff cuts into Leica prices. Most people who want a mechanical digital rangefinder and make do with a mirrorless were never serious about buying a M9 in the first place I would imagine.
 
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