Quite. My Fuji is only 5mp, very small by today's standards but as I usually view the results on my pc and only occasionally print anything larger than 9"x5" I am quite happy with what I have got. The longer telephoto (real not digital) allows me to get closer to the object and thereby reduce the enlargement factor I may otherwise have to use when printing an image. If I was to regularly crop and enlarge a section of an image and then print A4 I would certainly be looking at a 12mp sensor or larger. There is also a question of cost. My Fuji is 5 years old and I would expect to be using it for at least another 5 years by which time I may be using a combined still/video camera on a smart phone for everything!

The only way to make sense of this stuff is to do as I did and fill the Great Photographer full of malt whisky in the Park Hotel and record his wildest ramblings.

my ricoh r4 is 6 meg and 7x zoom and circa 2006 , so i am in a similar set up to yours mr grumpy . however it is my wife who getting this new camera and she has chosen a sony hx20v . hope i get to have a go with it . i could have done with panorama sweep facility at loch lee last may. the weather will have to buck its ideas up though!.

I believe that Ansel Adams joked that the most important part of a camera was twevle inches behind the lens. The camera isn't important. We're looking for the photographers vision.

Oh come on Ade you must remember the one he told about the actress, the bishop and the duck.

Ian C.

Humph baby ,he wasn't joking ,Ansel never joked ...

Ansel Adams reputedly had a 9 inch rapid rectilinear!

Update , the hx20v is proving interesting . However the £40 cashback offer has not materialised as yet , 2wks now . the zoom totals 40x and the stabilisation is suitably effective at 20x hand held.the panorama mode is good too ,apart from the intruction " pan faster or pan slower". it seems to be a delicate balance. GOOD weather will be a must though!, i fear.