This year, there is a trend toward increased sensor density in DSLR, mainly because of the new 10 megapixels cameras.
Many people (including me) are wondering about the noise level of those cameras compared to the lower density sensors. We have the following models that are in competition:

Canon 400D (10Mpix) vs Canon 350D (8Mpix)
Sony alpha-100 (10Mpix) vs KM 5D/7D (6Mpix)
Pentax K10 (10Mpix) vs Pentax K100 (6Mpix)
Olympus E400 (10Mpix) vs Olympus E500 (8Mpix)

The first constatation is usually that the 10Mpix cameras are producing more noise at higher ISO sensitivities. Comparing full scale crops side by side shows an increased noise level.

But there is something that should be considered: the increased resolution. Let's compare the noise of a 10Mpix to what a 6/8Mpix would gave you, but resized to 6/8Mpix. Once resized, it's not that obvious anymore that the noise level is increased.
So for 10Mpix DSLR we have:

*increased noise in full frame size
*similar noise when resized
*higher resolution
*similar noise level at low ISO
*lack of 3200 ISO setting (usually)

Seems that after all, the only real drawback might be the lack of 3200 ISO setting, but not really an increased noise level.

Comments are not available for this entry.