Inverse Paradigm

Last year sometime I saw a suggestion on a website that people looking at digital cameras multiply the megapixels by the optical zoom and then compare the products of different cameras. The problem with this idea is that a camera with 6 mega pixels of imaging capability and a 5X optical zoom gives you the same number as a 5 mega pixel camera with 6X optical zoom. So which “30″ are you going to compare to some other camera? It’s a cute idea but it’s not very useful. You cannot do a decent comparison of features unless you keep those numbers separate and use optical zoom (a more useful feature) as your primary stat. A 12X optical/6 mega pixel camera is one I’d pick over a 9x optical/8 mega pixel model. The products are the same but I’d be able to produce better photos with 12X optical zoom. So if you have done one of these multiplications and lucked out, well you got lucky. It doesn’t work out that way for everyone.