It’s all about the megapixels. But why?

A TriMet MAX light rail train rolls through the Rose Quarter Transit Center in Portland, Ore., in September 2015. Photo by Brian Schmidt

When I was younger, back in junior high and early high school, I was a tech junkie. I built my own computers, mastered the Internet download, and, yes, even dabbled in Linux. But as time wore on I found myself wanting more stability from my technology, and lost the desire to ride its cutting edge.

At the time my photography was entirely film-based. I learned photography on an all-manual SLR. I had to set the shutter speed and aperture, and even advance the film one frame at a time. For high school graduation, my parents bought me a cutting-edge, advanced amateur electronic SLR. It had all of the fancy exposure modes, automatic film advance at a blazing four frames per second, and an electronic viewfinder with a grid overlaid to aid in composition. Heavy stuff, indeed.

Eight years later (was it really that long? I guess it was…), the price and availability of film were such that I finally took the plunge on digital. I bought a secondhand but relatively new DLSR from a friend.

My first DSLR, which clocks in at 12 megapixels, will turn eight years old (as a model) this year. (I’m not sure just how old my copy is, however.) My newest camera, a mirrorless wonder introduced in 2013, only brings 14 megapixels to the party, and has already been superseded twice, the latest update packing 24 megapixels.

So of the four cameras I keep in regular service, two DSLR and two mirorrless, two pack 14 megapixels, one packs 12 megapixels, and one packs just 10 megapixels. And I don’t feel like I need any more.

I can blow them up to two full pages in the magazine, 11 x 17 inches. I can crop a vertical from a horizontal and still print at 8 x 10 inches for home. And, of course, I can still downsize and share on all kinds of social media platforms.

The newest digital cameras top 36 megapixels, and I see railfans out there, some with a new camera about every time, constantly upgrading. So why the rush for more pixels? Are there railfans making poster-sized enlargements on a regular basis? I’m curious to know what drives the upgrade cycle of railfan’s cameras – especially for those who don’t pay the rent with it.