An 8 megapixel camera has 192 more pixels horizontally and 400 more pixels vertically. That's only 6.25% horizontally and 19% more vertically.

Additionally, the sensor in Camera X is 8.80mm by 6.60mm. The sensor in the 300D is 22.7mm by 15.1mm. It's a well known fact that smaller photosite (pixel sensors) create more noise, and the recent dpreview.com review on the 300D showed that it has less noise and ISO800 (in parameter set 2) than any prosumer has at ISO200 -- this is due to the sensor sizes.

So, while the 300D may have slightly fewer megapixels, the image quality is fantastically higher.
marius@marius.org

marius@marius.org