[Gimbal]

I have been shooting motorcycle races this winter and have been averaging 1000 shots per event.

Why save them all, is there anyone who would like to see 1000 shots of the same thing?

[RonHendriks1966]

Megapixels on sensors are going to increase. That's a given and camera manufacturers for the most part are stuck with what the sensor manufacturers are giving them. There are some downsides to more pixels such as file size which in turns, slows down the burst rate and overall speed of the camera. It may not matter all that much to some but could be extremely important to others. I know it doesn't take long to fill up a hard drive these days. Each year, we all take more and more photos. I have been shooting motorcycle races this winter and have been averaging 1000 shots per event. I filled a 1TB external drive last year and I now have a half filled 3TB drive. I also have internal drives filled on my desktop towers. These are K10D and K5 shots. Imagine 36 or 50 MP files. Start spreading this over a lifetime of shooting.

Elsewhere in the Forum are threads about PP and computers which are just as important in all this as our cameras. The trend of the computer industry are tablets, small form factor desktops like the NUC and Mac Mini, and lightweight laptops. They are pushing devices with flash memory and SSD's and urging users to use the cloud. There's a lot of threads with the " What Laptop?" or "What Computer?" should I buy titles. Yet, the 2 industries are going in opposite directions. Think about where this leaves us a photographers. Just for fun, try uploading full sized RAW files to the cloud some time. This isn't a reasonable option for serious photographers. We're going to need our own servers to store all these hi res photos!

I believe there's a lot of improvement to be made in digital photography and just making sensors with more pixels isn't going to be the answer but that's all they can currently do right now. We need high resolution lossless photos with small file sizes.

You have to learn to select images and trow all others away. I know your drive and problem, but in the end no one is interested in that amound of images.

[emalvick]

The one thing I would wonder as resolution goes up (or more as pixels get smaller since that will be my concern) is at what point will my best lenses be out resolved by the sensor. I figure that point is where more MP is completely useless (for the same format or sensor size). If I stay with APSC and someone comes up with 50 MP, will it matter? The point of more MP is really to be able to resolve detail at the field of view rendered by a pixel. But if my lens can't resolve anything to the size of a pixel, it won't really matter how many MP are there.

The rest is really a matter of personal taste, opinion, and belief. Once I process an image, I'm happy finishing it at 6 to 12 MP. I may crop to get there or just reduce the resolution. It doesn't matter much unless I really need that pixel of detail. I've not yet really needed it on the K3, which at 24 MP is quite a bit more than I really thought I need. But, without the AA filter, I've definitely made more use of crops than I ever have in the past.

It's all an interesting topic. I appreciate the discussion, especially with regard to those discussing shutter speed with respect to heavy cropping. I've noticed this without thinking as logically about the repercussions of heavy cropping. It makes much more sense now.

[reeftool]

You have to learn to select images and trow all others away. I know your drive and problem, but in the end no one is interested in that amound of images.

You're quite right when you think about it but on an emotional level, there is something that just feels wrong about throwing away a photo. I already toss the crap. The stuff I have are usable photos. There is a lot of redundancy, several shots out of a burst is one example that comes to mind. If they're usable, I keep them, just like the boxes of prints, negatives, and slides from the film days. My external HD's take up very little space on a shelf above my desk. My albums, extra prints and stuff from my film days take up a full bookshelf. I'm not even going to mention the VHS tapes........

I'm also starting to print a lot more. Some of my own paranoia about something happening and computers becoming useless.

[Obin Robinson]

I regularly crop down to 5MP or less. Only having 5MP to start with is unthinkable for most of what I do...

Same here. I never cropped photos with my 5MP and 10MP cameras. I regularly crop them with my K-3 and I find that the crops still look great. It saves me from needing to swap lenses during auto races and air shows.

---------- Post added 03-30-15 at 17:59 ----------

Why save them all, is there anyone who would like to see 1000 shots of the same thing?

Have you ever shot an auto race? I've taken dozens of photos of the same car at the same point lap after lap. After reviewing 50 attempts you may find that ONE photo that you like. When you contact the driver or team owner they may like a different shot. I once spent several hours and over a hundred shutter clicks trying to get a certain motion blur along with sparks flying out from under prototype race cars. The same goes for snapping photos of tire smoke as cars fought for traction in a chicane. I saved all the photos except the ones out of focus or too blurry.


obin

[Nicolas06]

Have you ever shot an auto race? I've taken dozens of photos of the same car at the same point lap after lap. After reviewing 50 attempts you may find that ONE photo that you like. When you contact the driver or team owner they may like a different shot. I once spent several hours and over a hundred shutter clicks trying to get a certain motion blur along with sparks flying out from under prototype race cars. The same goes for snapping photos of tire smoke as cars fought for traction in a chicane. I saved all the photos except the ones out of focus or too blurry.


obin

We don't say you shouldn't take the shoots, more that there no need to keep the 1000 photos for years. Once the drivers took their shoots you can delete all the photos except the best one you want to keep.

[Nicolas06]

You're quite right when you think about it but on an emotional level, there is something that just feels wrong about throwing away a photo. I already toss the crap. The stuff I have are usable photos. There is a lot of redundancy, several shots out of a burst is one example that comes to mind. If they're usable, I keep them, just like the boxes of prints, negatives, and slides from the film days. My external HD's take up very little space on a shelf above my desk. My albums, extra prints and stuff from my film days take up a full bookshelf. I'm not even going to mention the VHS tapes........

I'm also starting to print a lot more. Some of my own paranoia about something happening and computers becoming useless.

The question is more how often you enjoy to look again at all theses photos, in particular the less good or the 10 time almost the same shoots? How often do you look at the photos you took 5 years ago?

Do you feel it justify to keep 30K-100K photos a year?

Honestly nobody really care so if you and your relatives don't spend time looking at them there are just useless. And the more photo you have, the least each one is interresting.

[zapp]

If we make a photobook large size square, 30x30cm, that is almost 12x12 inch one only needs 5 megapixels for good quality. Yes it gets a little better at 8 megapixel and even just another notch better at 12 megapixel, but I doubt you will see this on a regular base.


So why do some people think that 50 megapixels for the next FF camera is a great idea?

Funny reasoning. Print larger than 30x30 cm and boom you need more pixels. Start cropping, ....

Also the calculation for 30x30 cm is not as easy. A 5 MP camera does not record 5 MP in red, green and blue channel. Recoding fine detail at 50 MP and compressing the data to a 5 MP image will yield more information than starting out with 5 MP image in the beginning. Not everyone needs 50 MP or 80 MP, but some people do and some people just want it because they can. No reason for a discussion.
Why does Pentax introduce a 36 MP camera, why not start out with 12 MP. You have to find out for yourself, everything else i spointless reasoning.

[RonHendriks1966]

I made a new book with sportsimages I made over the past 5 years. Not so much as highlights in images, but some of them are my finest images, but more a collection of some of the sports I have been and some images that make some personal story for me. The book is 30x30cm, 200 pages but for now it's only online, since it did not reached my home, probably early next week.

For you to enjoy with the warning that the next click is NSFW

Sportsimages 2009-2014, Ron Hendriks

[Clavius]

Now that I think of it better... An APS-C version of the A7s 12mp sensor would be 5 megapixels. How well would a small point & shoot with such a light sensitive APS-C sensor perform? A few times better than the tiny 20mp sensor of my smartphone anyway. Add a fast fixed WA lens to it and it would be a really good idea for new GR variant.

[boriscleto]

I made a new book with sportsimages I made over the past 5 years. Not so much as highlights in images, but some of them are my finest images, but more a collection of some of the sports I have been and some images that make some personal story for me. The book is 30x30cm, 200 pages but for now it's only online, since it did not reached my home, probably early next week.

For you to enjoy with the warning that the next click is NSFW

Sportsimages 2009-2014, Ron Hendriks

What was NSFW? I looked really hard too.

[RonHendriks1966]

What was NSFW? I looked really hard too.

Maybe you are from Europe and don't get score so fase.

[boriscleto]

Maybe you are from Europe and don't get score so fase.

There was nothing there that wouldn't be seen on ESPN or in Sports Illustrated, or the sports section of the newspaper for that matter.

[BennyBoy]

50mp would be fine by me. 36mp min, so when I use C lens I'll still get enough to play with.

[adpo]

Now that I think of it better... An APS-C version of the A7s 12mp sensor would be 5 megapixels. How well would a small point & shoot with such a light sensitive APS-C sensor perform? A few times better than the tiny 20mp sensor of my smartphone anyway. Add a fast fixed WA lens to it and it would be a really good idea for new GR variant.

I'm a current a7s owner and former GR shooter. I definitely think that you can fit the sensor into a GR type body if you disable video mode, given how compact the a7s is even with the extra bits for an evf and video functions. Knowing how compact they made the GR lens back in the film era, the only issue I see in regards to doing this would be the heat dissipation factor. Since ricohtax have taken quite a liking to using magnesium alloy for all their high end models, it might even be possible to design it so that the whole camera can act as a heat sink. Sorry if I'm rambling, I just really love the idea of an a7s/GR hybrid