The crops are taken from the originals, saved as High Quality JPEGs in Photoshop CS2 and presented here at 100%. Each number represents 100 lines per picture height (lpph), so a figure of 20 means a resolution of 2000 lpph.

Here you can also see the relative advantages of a 10.2 Megapixel body such as the Nikon D200 and Sony A100, along with the 12.8 Megapixel Canon EOS 5D. Each clearly delivers a superior result to the 30D here, but it’s important not to view technical chart results in isolation.

In practice with real-life subjects, the differences can be much closer, as illustrated on the previous page. Certainly in real-life tests, there’s not a huge difference in resolving power between the 8.2 Megapixel 30D and 10.2 Megapixel D200 / A100, and as such, a buying decision should not be based on this figure alone.

While the Nikon D200 and Sony A100 will resolve fractionally higher detail than the 30D in practice, you’d really need to go to the Canon 5D or Nikon D2X to notice any significant difference. That said, we are looking forward to retesting the Sony A100 when higher quality lenses become available to see what it’s capable of.