Thread: Image resolution in cameras used on hunting trips

I’m proposing that contributions to the thread can either be single-camera assessments, or a comparison between two or more cameras. Either way hopefully we start to build up a pool of information for capability in this one respect. The idea is to take a photo or photos and then inspect these in an editing program to see if there is detail recorded down at the individual pixel level.

Other than using the longest focal length setting – that is the maximum optical zoom (but please not any additional digital extenders) – could I offer some additional guidelines, or standard conditions if you like, for the images posted here, for keeping a level playing field?

— if presenting pairs of images for comparison please use identical subject material. Best then to use stationary objects,

— for good stability use tripod mounting with delayed or remote shutter release if possible, and if image stabilization is offered, please use it,

— while best results may well be from a post-processed RAW format, could we please stick with comparisons of the default compressed JPEG files — only because not all cameras support RAW. So we will be overlaying each camera’s compression software onto this assessment,

— use lighting conditions that don’t reduce this exercise immediately to a comparison of objective lens diameters, though of course a differences in resolving power /sharpness of the lenses between “bridge” and “compact” sizes may well in time be exposed in this thread regardless. Being disregarded is that much game photography is in low–light conditions requiring low ISO, and that would benefit from using large sensors. However I have noticed that so many of the zoom models in the past decade have retained the 1/2.3” sensor size to the point where it is almost a constant.

— please select the largest image size available from the camera, a low ISO for noise, and around f/8 for aperture avoiding the worst of either diffraction or lens edge effects. Typically depth of field won’t be a consideration when photographing target species.

The only other things I can think to mention for now are that when manipulating those cropped images for uploading, low–loss compression should be used, so the quality of the captured images being presented can best be retained. That said, I can’t answer for how the forum re-scales images when these are uploaded. My recollection is that images have to be in .jpg format and that .tiff are not accepted. Please share cropped portions of images for comparison when possible and not multiple full 10MB–plus file sizes as they can take unnecessarily long to download for some end-readers. It would be convenient to also present the maximum focal length of your camera/s rather than just the zoom ratio. As has been pointed out on here before, the starting point for zoom lenses won’t necessarily be a 24mm full-frame equivalent.

A note here that I'd like to leave anything regarding video capability out of this particular thread since the older camera models are going to be HD while the new models 4k, and the relationship between video and still-image resolution also varies depending on how the sensor output has been used. Something for another thread perhaps? Also DSLRs have been left out of the survey, the thinking being that if you are hauling one of these out for a walk, hunting is probably not your primary goal.


Hopefully the end result will be to point Forum members in the direction of gear that can be demonstrated as able to take high resolution photos of deer, tahr and the like and that meet our expectations, and away from those that don’t and won’t.