HELP. Here is the problem. I was going to get the 10mp Olympus and they were out and the salesman told me the?

Question

Canon was better because of the ISO. What the hell does that mean? I thought pixels were the most important thing. I have 14 to return this and get the other one. It is a Canon power shot SD750. The viewer is bigger than the Olmypus, but I am concerned about the pixels. that is the one thing I hate about digital cameras is that the pictures are too grainy. What should I do? Keep this one or take it back and wait for the 10 mp Olmypus to come in? HELP.

The Olmpus I thing is the 1000 model. It was onsale for 199.00 and the guy gave me the Cannon for the same price. So I don't know if I got a deal or if I should go back and get the Olympus. My regular camera is Olympus and I like that. But I know that digital is a different world. I hate bad pictures. Why is ISO important? Is it really MORE important than pixels? I tend to think not. But I don't know. And the typo above is I have 14 days to exchange it.

Answer 1

Myself am waiting to afford the Canon XTi 10 MP, I currently have an Olympus C-5050 5.1 MP and is to grainy also. I've seen results from the XTi and the new 900 titanium point and shoot, tough choice whether interchangeable lenses or point and shoot.

ISO on digital is the same as film speed on a 35mm, the faster the grainier. I usually make prints min. 8"x10"

Answer 2

Really the MP doesnt have much to do with the grain. Noise reduction does and the ISO the camera is set at. Most point and shoot cameras have poor noice reduction so pictures can be grainy at higher ISOs. Digital SLRs like the canon 30d or even the digital rebel have great noise reduction. The biggest mistake amature photographers make is thinking that megapixels matter. Really what matters is the lens. Even an older digital slr at 5mp with a good lens will take a far better picture than an 11mp point and shoot camera.
Reality most people use cameras for online posting and small prints up to 8 x 10. Realy most consumers will never need more than 5mp. MP are more of a marketing thing,

Answer 3

ISO refers to the ability of the sensor to capture images in low light. If you can tell the camera to operate the sensor at, say, 1600 ISO you have a 5X advantage over 100 ISO. Just the same as using faster film, and in the same way as film it comes at a cost - graininess in film is like digital noise.

You say you hate grainy digital images, but remember film was never perfect. These days you can zoom in on your PC with a few clicks and see each pixel like you never could with film.

What matters is how large you want to print your images. If you are not printing above 10x8 then 8M is plenty big enough.