Quote Originally Posted by Perry8
Hi everyone! so i have a few questions..
firstly, i'm new with dslr cameras, i've used my friend's canon eos 500d camera on a few occasions, and it's intrigued me to no end.
so, i was just wondering right now, should i buy a canon eos 60d or a nikon d7000? i'm really torn between these 2 choices because i dont really know specs and i'm looking for a durable, entry to mid-range dslr to start out with.
also, what are the factors that affect the quality of a picture? i've been seeing megapixels everywhere, would a normal photographer really notice the difference between 2 megapixels?
The 60D and D7000 are not entry-to-mid-range, more expert-to-low-end-pro.

Now about MPix. Decide what is going to be your final output. For most people this is an A4 (8x10 inch) print, or even (as in my case) an A3 print (about 16x20 inches). In my experience with different generations of DSLR:

- 6MPix is enough to make an excellent A4 print and even an excellent A3 print
- With 10Mpix I can see a very slight improvement over 6Mpix on an A3 print
- With 12Mpix I can't see any improvement over 10MPix

I've never tried 16Mpix or 18Mpix but I doubt very much if you would see any difference on an A3 print.

You might see a difference between 16Mpix and 18Mpix if you made a bill hoarding, but there is another factor to take into consideration. To be able to make use of this extreme level of definition then you need the best lenses possible (example 60mm Macro) and the best possible technique (camera on a heavy tripod or studio flash lighting). Otherwise your 18Mpix wonder is just going to be recording - blurrrrrr

BTW - if yout pictures are just going to be viewed on a computer screen then I've found that 800x600 pixels is enough to give an image that looks very good in tools like ACDSee or Picasa. 800x600 is only 0.5Mpix.