Olympus Manager: 12 is Enough

In an interview with CNET news at PMA 09, an Olympus Imaging manager says enough is enough ... when it comes to megapixels in advanced consumer-level digital cameras, anyway.

Saying the company has no desire to enter into "megapixel wars," Olympus SLR planning department manager Akira Watanabe says Olympus believes 12 megapixels of resolution will easily meet the needs of most consumers. Olympus will focus on improving image quality and camera performance in its E-System SLR line of digital cameras, rather than simply adding more megapixels.

Whether more manufacturers follow Olympus' lead remains to be seen, but this is an interesting approach from Olympus. It's easy for digital camera manufacturers to market their models by simply adding more megapixels, but, for most consumers, adding more megapixels is simply overkill. Most consumers would be better served with digital cameras with better image quality and with faster response times.

However, it remains to be seen whether digital camera makers can convince consumers of the need for improvements in features that are a little more difficult to understand than a simple increase in resolution.