How can people still be falling for the 3 mp sensor interpolated into '12' mp scam?

Question

Don't people understand what interpolated means!? Are they so focused on the 'more megapixels is better' idea that they fail to notice the stuff being advertised uses terms which are next to meaningless? Some smart and unscrupulous business is going to come out with a **20 MEGAPIXEL** (interpolated) camera and corner the market...

Answer 1

I don't think so.

First of all, camera companies have agreed on some standards regarding how cameras are to be advertised/specified, especially to avoid the issue you talk about.

Second, ALL cameras interpolate to some degree. Virtually all cameras use Bayer sensor designs, which means that the camera has to interpolate the data to get color and edges. The biggest exception is the Foveon sensor which has fewer megapixels, but performs like a Bayer sensor with more megapixels. So even seemingly absolute "non-interpolated" megapixel numbers can be pretty much meaningless.

Third: we've pretty much hit a megapixel wall, and people are starting to judge by image quality and not just price alone. Hence, if you look at the questions here, they are now about things like image noise, low light shooting, avoiding blur, and dynamic range, which means that people are less focused on resolution/large sizes and more focused on just plain getting better shots. And let's face it, 3mp is all you need for 4x6" prints, so most people don't even notice that it might only be 3mp not 12.

Finally, it doesn't matter how you advertise it, junk is junk. People will simply return their cameras, 20mp interpolated or not, if the images just plain stink. And if the cameras are high-priced, people expect a certain level of performance, and if they are super-low priced, they expect the performance to be poor anyway. If the camera doesn't deliver for the price paid, the camera gets returned and the market doesn't get cornered. So, why are you worried about it?

So, I think your worries are overblown.

Answer 2

Some people don't understand what "interpolated" means. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be very smart for a business to market a camera with a hugely inflated pixel count. No savvy customer would do business with such such a vendor and most of those who have been stung once by such a scam will be wiser next time and avoid that vendor.

Answer 3

There is an old saying: "Ignorance is bliss." There are a lot of blissful people out there.