The Eight Megapixel Invasion

In early 2004 a bunch of different manufacturers all announced cameras with eight megapixels; except for Sony, which pioneered the field by delivering theirs in December 2003. And you know what they say about pioneers - they're the ones with the arrows in their backs.

Since there are so many new cameras all of a sudden, I thought I'd make a little table to keep them straight.

sensor size FL (35mm eq.) lens speed weight reviews other
Sony DSC-F828 2/3" 28-200mm (7X) f2.0-2.8 35 oz. SD DP IR DC four-color sensor
Nikon Coolpix 8700 2/3" 35-280mm (8X) f2.8-4.2 17 oz. SD DP IR DC ED glass
Canon PowerShot Pro1 2/3" 28-200mm (7X) f2.4-3.5 19.2 SD DP DC UD glass & fluorite
Olympus C-8080 2/3" 28-140mm (5X) f2.4-3.5 23.3 oz. SD DP IR DC ED glass
Minolta DiMAGE A2 2/3" 28-200mm (7X) 2.8-3.5 20 oz SD DP DC image stabilization, megapixel EVF

I'm surprised to find that all five have the same size sensor. The Sony has been criticized for noisy images, which are presumably caused by cramming too many pixels into a too-small sensor. It will be interesting to see whether the other four cameras have similar noise issues.

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