So I did some testing. After reading in a spec sheet that it has a 16mp sony cmos sensor(which I softly doubt, but it may still be SOME kind of 16mp sensor) and after my observations over my first day(and 300 pics) of shooting at multiple resolutions and filters I have the following soft conclusions.
- The raw quality seems to be 8mp. Chosing a higher resolution doesn't really increase detail at all. At 5mp and 3 mp, there is obvious downscaling and loss of quality.
- There is a baseline sharpening and film grain across all filters, including normal, to some extent.
- This post processing and filter application seems to happen post upscale at the upscaled resolution.
This means that(and I may need to do more pixel peeping) that 8mp to 64mp does not affect the raw underlying image. But the sharpening, film grain, and filter are all much higher quality at higher mp settings. Although there are diminishing returns after 48mp or so.
I will gather some more images in sun later, but the easiest way to show are a couple close crops at 5 or 8mp and then at 64, focusing on the filter processing or film grain.
Pictured are close crops of the same scene and filter in lowish light at 3mp, 5mp, 24mp and 64. Then of another scene in kitchen lighting and normal filter at 3, 8 and 64 to show the grain.
The image data also shows all pics are captured at around 1/1000s for the coat hanger pics. So shutter time isn't affected by mp. Only time to process and save the image.
Subjectively I find the edges and vibe of the photos "creamier" softer, and more filmish the higher you go. And I like knowing I'm giving the engine more to work with ie rendering the final filter, which is one of the most important parts of the character of these toy cameras.
At 64mp, it does take a second or so to save an image. At 3, images are taken as fast as I can press the shutter button.
This is more high effort pixel peeping than I ever thought I'd do for a $30 toy camera lol. I hope reddit doesn't screw up the images too bad.
Also the font on the date text changes at 64mp for some reason.
Disclaimer, none of this is scientific, but I'm keeping mine at 48 or 64 going forward. It's not just upscale bloat.
Edit: reddit did soften the images. The 3 mp and 5mp images had hard square artifacting out of the camera.