Is a high resolution sensor harder to work with for general use?

Johnmcl7

I'm currently considering upgrading one of my 25MP cameras to a 42MP model although not for the higher resolution but other aspects.  What concerns me is that with any discussion on this camera or other ones that significantly increased resolution such as the Nikon D8xx series is that there's a lot of claims about needing to improve technique, be much more careful etc.  With the camera I have in mind dpreview mention shooting handheld is much less viable and you need to shoot at higher shutter speeds.

It's never quite clarified but I'm assuming they mean this is only if wanting to get pixel level sharpness or tight crops and if the camera is used the same way as the existing 25MP model then there will be no downside aside from larger file sizes.  I use the camera frequently in low light, hand held at 1/40 and wish to continue to do that.

I appreciate this seems like a daft question but I've been reading so many reviews and discussions over the last couple of days I thought it would be good to see people's real life views.

shotokan101

are both models the same Form Factor ?

Johnmcl7

Yes, identical body and lens.

rancidpunk

I thought that the only difference is that more pixels on the same size sensor = more noise. If anything the advice to increase shutter speed would be in contradiction to that as you'll be shooting at higher ISOs and introducing even more noise to the image.

snerkler

I’ve heard this said a lot, using the argument that the more detail the more it will enhance camera movement. I was concerned moving from the D750 (24mp) to the D850 (45.7mp) but haven’t noticed that Ive changed the way I shoot in any way, and haven’t increased shutter speeds.

wysinawyg

I don’t think that is really true anymore. You just have to look at the D850 and A7RIII to see that they’re on par with / ahead of most cameras with fewer megapixels.

It used to be a real issue but I think the newer technologies have dramatically reduced the amount of material / spacing between pixels. So previously as you got more pixels you got a lot more of the sensor which wasn’t actual sensor area any more. These days you get a lot less wasted space as you scale up the pixel count so manufacturers have been able to overcome the very small physics disadvantage by using better materials and technology on what tend to be higher end cameras.

snerkler

It is still true that like for like more MP will generally cause more noise. For example the A73 has better noise handling than the A7Riii and the D750 handles noise better than the D850, even thought the D850 has the BSI sensor. However, as shown with the likes of the D850 and A7RIII tech is getting so good that it's really not that important anymore. I can still shoot at 12800 ISO on the D850 and get perfectly useable images, do we need any more than that?

Johnmcl7

Thanks, this is what I was looking for.  I think it's just reviewers will examine cameras at 100% even though in practice, it may not quite apply in practice and it seems to be gospel now that high resolution sensors are more difficult to work with.

I certainly do, I find myself struggled at iso 12800 and shooting wide open to try and get a barely usable handheld shutter speed in low light.  At other times when I'm shooting with the DSLR I need a good shutter speed to capture the motion which just isn't possible living in the dark isles of Scotland where we don't see much sun light.  I'd love a few more stops in high iso to be able to get a decent shutter speed and be able to stop down the lens a bit as shooting wide open on FF can be problematic when you don't want shallow depth of field.