Posted on March 30th, 2009 by David Fearon

Full HD – not all it’s cracked up to be

Being embroiled in a digital compact cameras group test at the moment, I’ve noticed an insidious little logo starting to appear on boxes and the little tags attached to new cameras. The logo says, “Full HD”. Nothing wrong with that of course, except it often refers to still-image resolution.

It’s not wrong but it’s certainly surprising, if you do the maths.

The little logos appear to be implying that full HD-resolution photos are cutting-edge, and a marvellous reason to buy the camera. The example above is from a Fujifilm tag, but Fujifilm isn’t the only one to be doing it.

Full 1080p HD resolution is 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Thus, the total number of pixels in a ‘full HD’ photo is 1,920 multiplied by 1,080. Here’s the sum in all its glory:

1,920 x 1,080 = 2,073,600.

Yes, that’s just over 2 million pixels.

Two megapixels.

A glance back at the PC Pro archive reveals that 2-megapixel cameras were bog-standard as far back as issue 98, the cover of which you’ll see here and which graced the shelves of your newsagent in December 2002.

Full HD video is certainly something to look out for in a compact camera, and I love the fact that digital compacts have become viable stand-in camcorders. But full HD photos? Sooo last decade.

Don’t get suckered by the marketing.

Tags: compact camera, HD

Posted in: Hardware

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12 Responses to “ Full HD – not all it’s cracked up to be ”

RichardB Says:
March 31st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Doesn’t the “FullHD” tag refer to the camera’s ability to display pictures in 1920×1080 on a TV via HDMI, instead of the photograph resolution?
PaulJ Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:51 am
RichardB- I think that’s probably got more to do with the TV’s capability than the camera’s. Clever marketing ploy to the uninitiated, but you can’t blame the manufacturers, everywhere you turn you see the HD promise, they’re just jumping on the bandwagon, but more importantly they’re not really telling fibs are they……..
Steve Bosman Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:22 am
except 2 mega pixel used to mean 1600×1200 (i.e. a 4×3 resolution and strictly speaking 1,920,000 pixels).

I’m fairly sure cameras have not been taking widescreen HD images for very long (although obviously anyone with any nous could have cropped a 3 megapixel photo to size).
Bryan Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:13 am
I’m fairly sure that your maths are wrong. When camera manufacturers talk about megapixels each colour, red, green, and blue, counts as a separate pixel. So, to get HD resolution images on your PC you’d have to multiply your results by 3. This adds up to a 6mp camera, which again isn’t exactly leading edge today, but isn’t quite as bad as your article suggests.
Rickard Lucey Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
While this may be a marketing band wagon, as RichardB states this obviously refers to the camera’s ability to output images to HD tv’s for preview purposes in full HD resolution as opposed to standard tv resolution. As a result two things bother me – that the writer of this post should have known this and why was it inevitable that an argument would start about the meaning of HD and megapixles – way to go at reinforcing the stereotypical geek image of guys working in IT.
David Fearon Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Some interesting points there!

Yes, technically the HD Photo tag means you can plug your camera into an HD telly. But I’m not buying it. Most punters seeing that logo will be hoodwinked into thinking that the camera is an HD camera. And that’s disingenuous in my book. I’d like to see the figures for the number of people who have ever plugged their camera into their TV.

Bryan – my maths are right I’m afraid Camera megapixel ratings refer to the number of complete three-colour pixels the camera spits out. It’s true that as far the sensor is concerned, each photosite is filtered to only one colour and the other two colours are guesstimates, but a 12-megapixel camera nonetheless outputs 12 million full-colour pixels per image. And likewise, an HD 1080p frame is 2-megapixels.
FatherTed Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Sorry, David, but I’m not buying your last comment. Your original article completely failed to mention the camera’s ability to output full HD to a TV – the precise function the badge refers to. I can’t give you figures for how popular it is but I have used TV output from my camera more than once, HD output is a feature I would find attractive.
Perhaps you just misunderstood what was being advertised? No shame there, but when in a hole, stop digging!
Kumar Says:
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 am
Take a look at the tag. It’s a full HD PHOTO, not TV connection. I for one think it can take HD photos!!! If I to see that tag. I can put money on it that all the manufactures only put the maximum number of pixels to make there product look good.
Dave F Says:
April 6th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
David,

About the output to TV option…

As with most people who bimble around snapping other people at family get-togethers I find that the best way to show the results to a group is to plug the camera straight into a nearby telly…

Nicew big screen, nice bright images and no daft crowding round a tiny LCD or laptop screen…

P.S. “Full HD” and “Wideangle LCD” can’t be a coincidence, especially given the preference for widescreen displays throughout the digital world… I guess those of us who remember APS cameras have seen all this “panoramic aspect ratio” stuff before…

All the best

Dave
SpeamgymnHape Says:
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
[...] tart about the meaning of HD and megapixles – way to go at reinforcing the stereotypical …

…
sandro Says:
May 5th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Tenha 463 Canais de TV em seu PC
http://www.tvhd.com.br Você está disposto a pagar quando para ter 463 canais em sua casa?
Então acesse http://www.tvhd.com.br e descubra como ter 463 canais.
http://www.tvhd.com.br
Full HD Says:
September 6th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
When some camera’s say they are Full HD they are not misleading you..like the Sanyo’s 2009 HD Xacti camcorder –so I’ve heard.