Megapixel Test: Nikon D100 (6.1MP) vs. D80 (10.2MP)

Megapixels are a very important feature in any digital camera. The more, the merrier. Right? Right?

This morning I decided I wanted to conduct my own megapixel experiment to put to rest any argument I had in my head about megapixels. I wanted to convince myself that my Nikon 80 was vastly superior to my 7 year old Nikon D100. Seven years is an eternity in the digital photography world and my D100 is certainly showing its age. My D80 is a wonderful camera and has many features my D100 doesn't. Most importantly, my D100 has 6.1 megapixels while my D80 has 10.2. That would seem like a huge plus for the D80. That's four whole megapixels.

To prove to myself those 4 megapixels make a difference, I conducted the following experiment. I took two pictures with each my D80 and D100 of the same two subjects, a sunflower and a lily, I have in my backyard. I used the same lens, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, file format, and lighting conditions. The results were stunning. Without further ado, I give you my experiment:

Subject One: Sunflower
Taken with a Nikon D100 6.1 Megapixel Camera
Len Used: Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8D
Shutter Speed: 1/200th of a second
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 200
Auto White Balance
Nikon NEF Raw Format
Slight fill light adjustment


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Zoomed to 100%


(Same exact) Sunflower taken two minutes later in the same lighting conditions

Taken with a Nikon D80 10.2 Megapixel Camera
Len Used: Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8D
Shutter Speed: 1/200th of a second
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 200
Auto White Balance
Nikon NEF Raw Format
Slight fill light adjustment


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Zoomed to 100%

Notice a difference between the two cameras and these four images? Neither did I. Undeterred, I pushed the magnification to the extreme on the second subject.


Subject Two:
Lily
Taken with a Nikon D100 6.1 Megapixel Camera
Len Used: Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8D
Shutter Speed: 1/400th of a second
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 200
Auto White Balance
Nikon NEF Raw Format
No post processing adjustments. (Straight from camera).

Full Screen Size

Zoomed to 400%



(Same exact) Lily
Taken with a Nikon D80 10.2 Megapixel Camera
Len Used: Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8D
Shutter Speed: 1/400th of a second
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 200
Nikon NEF Raw Format
Auto White Balance
No post processing adjustments. (Straight from camera).

Full Screen Size

Zoomed to 400%

Once again, I cannot detect a discernable difference between these comparisons and, consequently I am left to conclude that megapixels are not as significant a feature as Nikon, Canon, Kodak, etc, would have us believe. Bigger is not better apparently. The seemingly significant bump in megapixels from the D100 to the D80 does not appear to have a major impact on the quality of my photographs.

The lens I used for this experiment was not flashy, but it is made by Nikon and is of a fairly high quality. This experiment proves to me that a great Digital SLR camera with a lot of megapixels is only as good as the lens you put on the front of it. A good lens evens the megapixel playing field.