Pointless and Shoot?
Pointless and Shoot? |
| Monday, 01 June 2009 10:32 | ||||||
 An photo insight highlighting my return to compact point and shoot cameras. Having last shot with a 1.5mp Samsung some ten years ago, a review for Ephotozine and Park Cameras pushed some considerations slightly left field of the pre order frenzy. Points to consider if you are looking at a high end compact to fill a space in your camera bag where a lens should be.
I couldn’t help myself. First look at the RAW files and I was in for a big shock. The Ricoh was significantly worse than the Canon – noisier, flatter and uninspiring. In JPEG, both cameras were an improvement. Colours were more vibrant as the operation system took the helm, but here was the trade off – detail was lost, as onboard noise reduction kicked in and sharpening took hold. Smearing and smoothing are the Achilles heel of both cameras, but as my opinion of ‘sharp’ is coming from large sensors and top glass, it was important to initially try to cast this elitist snobbery aside and go looking for the enjoyment.
Agency Claims Now one notion that always concerned me is online forum claims that some pro-photographers had submitted pictures to agencies from these 12mp and higher compact cameras. The pre-order delierium and pre-release day dreaming, of pros romancing their compacts aloft mountain tops, relieved of the bag burden at last, or the dog walkers shooting stock, were surely fuelling advance sales. After submitting test shots to two separate agencies with the EXIF data stripped, both picked up on the inadequacies immediately. My main picture editor Richard at OSF gave an enlightening insight into other G10 submissions he has other photographers try to ‘sneak in’ over the past year, explaining that “if the subject is uncomplicated, like a flower head against a blue sky shot at low ISO with perfect exposure, then the G10 is near acceptable. For landscapes and other images that rely on fine detail, it’s considerably inadequate. We can never accept these cameras until the sensors become far bigger, or our reputation for high quality imagery would severely compromised. All our images are meticulously checked at 100% and no compact camera images can withstand client demand. Micro-stock agencies like IStockphoto that require lower size images for entirely different uses, would be more than happy to accept the images it produces.”
Sensors Read this quote from Emil Martin, a respected technical forum poster on Naturescapes.net - “Anyone considering a P&S would do well to remember that the sensor is at least 16x smaller in area than FF. It is gathering 16x less light for the same exposure. Therefore properly exposed ISO 100 on the P&S is like properly exposed ISO 1600 on FF, or worse. Anybody expecting better performance than that needs to think again; ain't gonna happen, not enough photons. Sorry.” No Peeping! OK, I said I wouldn’t pixel peep, I am sorry too, but I just can’t get excited. I am not going to put comparisons alongside some DSLR images and point the finger. Many photographers who use DLSRs have side stepped my obvious hang up and are happy to let go of the quality argument and shoot away without comparison. They are enjoying the capturing process, the spontaneity and forgetting everything else for the love of photography, good on them. I just can’t let it go, I just can’t. After my Zeiss, Leica and Olympus Zuiko adaptations onto my Canon DSLRs, by unlocking the potential of the 21mp sensor since last summer, just try and get me down off my geeky, hypercritical horse. It runs very much against the grain now I am sorry to say. Buy a G10 and you're over halfway to a second hand 5D, you could even get a 30D for less. I find it difficult to justify. So here’s my compact conclusion in a ten bullet point nutshell. It’s not based upon a stand alone argument, but from a DSLR owner’s perspective. I'm still on the wings for now –
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Thought provoking - I have been through a similar process - a search for a suitable camera when I didn't want or couldn't take a DSLR. I settled on a Canon G9 in late 2007 before an island hopping sailing trip. I bought back many pleasing images but missed many more. Fiddly controls and slow autofocus frustrated. Sometimes the lens cover would stick [I had to take the first one back- fortunately in good time before the trip ] I suspect the G10 was a step down from the G9 and the G11 may be much better.
I've now settled on the Panasonic GF-1 + 20mm pancake. [Before I saw your review!] It seems to be the answer at least for me and Apple have just updated their Raw files for Aperture so life seems to be complete in this respect, at least for now...
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12, Feb, 2010
pointless and shoot
Hi David,
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27, Feb, 2010
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With point and shoot cameras now seeming ever so compelling to DSLR photographers, many of us are considering carrying a ‘quality’ pocket camera as an alternative to the ‘bag of iron’. Whether it’s for recording compositions, ideas or just for plain fun, the sleek design and feature packed compact looks so very tempting. Some have even hailed that with features such as RAW and super wide angle lenses becoming standard, the quality could even be agency worthy. With one camera in each leg pocket, I spent the last month undertaking a compact experience rather than yet another pixel peeping test. Would I find these cameras enriching my photography, with and without my DSLR?
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