hi guys

sorry, I meant to be here

but nature called, and I couldn't help but do some actual photography for once :P

Thanks for the insight, Eruditass.

In all counts, I think your right.

Another talking point might be dynamic range.

My knowledge may be a little old, as what you mentioned about more efficient electronic circuits is very true, but isn't the physical size of a photo site (pixel) a key factor in dynamic range?

Are the very small photo sites of the D60 capable of capturing as much dynamic range as the larger photo sites of, say, a 5D II or D3?

anyone here?

One reason the density may matter is if there are effectively larger gaps between the photosites for other electronics. Microlenses aim to take care of that, and I have no idea about the efficiency or room for improvement. If they are very efficient and the gaps are effectively zero, each photon coming in will end up in a photosite and it shouldn't matter, while a larger sensor will capture more photons period.

Last I had read, one area of noticible room for improvement is black read noise aka readout noise aka bias noise. Note that dynamic range and high ISO performance are pretty much the same thing.

One thing I haven't heard about but would clearly help is to have a higher well capacity for photosites.

Intuitively, higher density sensors would mean less photons go in each photo-site, so for the same noise floor, it would have less DR / SNR and higher perceived noise. However, I remember someone refuting this point when I made it. Nevertheless, I'll link you to an interesting paper that shows it. It may actually cancel out with an effectively higher well capacity due to less photons hitting each photosite, not sure.

You've reminded me that none of this gear and tech stuff really matters nearly as much as going out, taking photos, and having fun.

Wait, nature called + photography? Interesting.

Oh yes, I think this was it. Higher density sensors will have more noise per pixel, but with more pixels, people apparently have shown it averages out and the overall image when resolution normalized will often have the similar noise and DR. Of course, these are different sensors and cameras with different technology and electronics, so this isn't a controlled experiment.

With a new camera and sensor, it's hard to tell. One might just wait for DxO, falklumo, GordonBGood, etc. to do testing. Typically one invests in a system and doesn't whore around, though :P

You can try to find trends with dxomark.com/index.php/en/Camera-Sensor/Sensor-rankings