Has anyone abandoned DSLR photography for a compact?

<p>I think it's all about knowing why you bought a DSLR (hopefully you had a reason). I use mine for my major hobby of wildlife photography. When I want to shoot serious wildlife, of course nothing else would remotely serve the purpose. For all other kinds of documentary photography (ie, out at dinner, on a vacation), point and shoots are ridiculously capable these days, including under water. Canon D10, although its new and already we have a "lens error" we need to get checked out with Canon.</p>

<p>Well.. I have had my Nikon D3 for about three years, but have taken less and less photos with it.. All inspiration gone with the intimidating size and weight of the D3. So I bought a D5000 as backup.. The size and weight of that camera has made me wanting to take pictures again - and compared to Nikon D3 its a "compact" with all the bells and whistles I need. Its also MUCH better when it comes to metering. Its a better camera. Lower Fps and deeper dof, but thats it. I cant really see the differences in image quality.. My D3 has been lying in a bag for about three weeks now..</p>

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<p>Dave, technology has nothing to do with making good photographs.</p>

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<p>It does if the DSLR is so large you can't be arsed to carry it and it stays at home.</p>

<p>A year ago I realized I wasn't taking many photos anymore because of the weight of a camera, four lenses, and filters for my film camera. Since I am primarily a snap shot shooter, I switched to a Canon SX10 IS superzoom with a 28-560 lens. The IS allows me to leave my tripod at home most of the time. I miss my old wide angle 17-35mm lens for landscapes, but I have adjusted to it and I can always stitch together in the camera. I adjust the photos in Picasa. I now take more photos than I have in years and they are better than I have ever taken before. The SX10 can be frustratingly slow, but I'll put up with that for a camera that is only 18 ounces.<br>

I have considered the Panasonic G2, but the cost is holding me back. I also would miss the grab and shoot convenience of the superzoom. The long lens is far from perfect, but it allows me to shoot fast wildlife photos that I would miss otherwise.</p>

 

<p >Size and weight are not an issue for me when I head out to accomplish a specific task. I carry an slr with a 2.8 24-70 zoom and I am well aware I am lugging it about. I have a digital pocket camera for all those times when there is not a high degee of intension or for surprise & serindepity.</p>

<p >I hike, often times in beautiful locations. The images I am able to contribute to the group collection after the event with the slr generally receive exceptional comments and are distinctive due to the speed with which I can react with this set up, the relatively fast wide end of my zoom and my experience.</p>

<p >Contributing to the group is primary but, in shooting landscapes for myself in the process, I wind up with a beautiful slide which gives me great joy.</p>

<p >For almost 40 years, I have enlarged and framed prints of my family, our experiences and put them up on the wall. It has been very satisfying and rewarding for all. My boys, now adults, have demonstrated the beauty of the vast number of great images out there grabbed by their cell phones and small point & shoot cameras and this has inspired me to carry a Canon s90 to capture all these wonderful opportunities.</p>

<p >For me, the lesson is “both please”.</p>

<p>No, no, not EVIL.<br>

In their documentation, Olympus calls the E-P1 and E-PL1 cameras "Live View" cameras. That designation makes more sense - fitting in the scheme of "rangefinder" and "single lens reflex." So I vote for calling them "live view" or "LVs." <br>

Furthermore, if someone adds a phase focus module for speed to one of these, the DSLR advantage will be severely eroded. However, the new Oly software for these two cameras, IMHO, combined with using a center spot focus (and then reframing the photo) just about solves the focus speed problem. </p>

<p>Seems that more than a few feathers were ruffled! If one wants to carry a large bag with heavy bodies, larger lenses all in the pursuit of a perfect image why are there such sharp critics for those who chose an easier route? i have carried lights,tripods,reflectors,camera bodies,various formats, lenses, filters and more accessories for pro-jobs. Sadly a lot was merely "for show"!<br>

i once shot a magazine feature with a Leica M, a borrowed 21mm, my 50mm and a 90mm. No assistants, no make-up person, no doodles,poodles and ganders. The shoot was stunning. Easy walking into various shops and doing different fashion shots. The models changed in the washrooms. needed to tell managers and security. The magazine editor almost dropped dead seeing how little equipment i was using. The magazine NEVER used me again, in spite of favorable mail and critics.<br>

The idea of traveling the world with a digicam, not only possible but very advantageous in terms of possibilities. If a memory card can hold almost unlimited films, no light balancing headaches.<br>

It's easy to see why some photographers in Magnum, National Geographic are using such little monsters. I hated all the schlepping. Better to see images than tote gear wondering "what to use now".</p>

<p>Jim the picture you posted of the 'Blue Mosque' in SultanAhmet,Istanbul is actually The Hagia Sophia the building on the otherside of the square. It was famous for having the largest dome for over 1000 years and is now a world heritage site.<br>

I too prefer to use a compact when I'm travelling on holiday, on this occasion I used an Olympus MjuII and fuji 200 film. Mainly because it's light and I have a spare if anything had happened to it, which it didn't.<br>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27024361@N03/4794498940/in/photostream/#/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/27024361@N03/4794498940/in/photostream/#/</a><br>

<img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27024361@N03/4794498940/in/photostream/#/" alt="" /></p>

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<p>As much as I like my Nikon D300, my little wonder Nikon P6000 is with me more and more lately. The D300 is a huge camera, a giant. I feel like it's even bigger than my Hasselblad 500cm with lens and back attached. I do like my D300 for times when the I'm shooting for money, and times when I need the absolute best quality I can get. The P6000 is fine for every other time, which is about 85% of the time I want to take photos. Sure it's slower, but I am a slow photographer anyway. The P6000 shoots a decent RAW file too when I feel I need that for archiving. Most of the time the JPG Fine is just perfect for me out of the P6000. It's a tiny but classic camera that I hope will last for many years. Here's a photo I took with the P6000. I was driving by on the freeway in Seattle and noticed this old passenger ship moored in Elliot Bay. I had the P6000 with me and was able to get this photo. A longer zoom would have been nice but this is better than nothing! It is the former Kungsholm, built in 1966, and was on its way up to Vancouver Canada to be a lodgings ship for workers at the Olympics. Since then its slated for the scapper in India, sad to say. It is probably the last old passenger liner that will ever visit Seattle, so it was great to get this photo.</p>

<p><img src="http://hull534.smugmug.com/photos/790449713_qavju-L.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></p>

<p>Here is a crop of the ship, from a different photo but taken from the pier:</p>

<p><img src="http://hull534.smugmug.com/photos/771561889_Am5Ak-L.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="507" /></p>

Dave, I wonder why the tonal curve on the 2nd photo is so hazy? The Levels > Value histogram was all bunched up on the right side; slider slud (as Dizzy Dean used to conjugate it) here. Maybe just because it was a crop? You didn't save the EXIF so it's hard for me to judge what happened.<div></div>

<p>Amir is correct - the photo I posted was the Hagia Sophia Mosque. It is an illustration of how difficult it can be to keep facts straight when doing travelogues - since shooting 1500-2000 photos a trip has become the norm! Below is the real Blue Mosque.</p><div></div>

<p>Well... I HAVE done it. And take this from me: I don't regret it at all. I'd never say I hate Reflex cameras. Actually, I find it a little odd the mere idea of somebody hating any sort of cameras. But was just SO tired of having to carry a heavy equipment everywhere, that I decided to buy a compact. It gives me approximately the same quality, considering I am far from being a pro, and, on the other hand, it provides me with much more freedom and by far many more chances to get photos (simply: I can carry it everywhere and on a daily basis, which of course I could not with my SLR). <br>

My current equipment is neither heavy nor complicated: a Panasonic DMC TZ-8 (with this little gem you can work not only on Auto mode, but also in A-priority, S-priority or completely manual mode). I also have bought a tiny external flash unit, the Metz 28 Cs-2, which I use as a "torch" in combination with a Gorillapod. As you can imagine, it is very easy to carry those little things in a little back-bag, and, if you know a bit about photography, you can get nearly as good results as you could with a way more expensive and complex equipment. <br>

Anyway, I have ALWAYS thought that it is not the camera but the photographer the one who takes the photos. And that, consequently, the equipment you decide to carry with you should not be the main point at issue. ;-)<br>

I ask you to forgive me for my just awful English. Obviously, it is not my native born language. <br>

Regards from Spain.</p>

<p>Alfonso. <br>

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<p>I bought the Fuji HS10 and I love it. It's great for shooting on the street, in the park, or on the boardwalk. I've made very good 8x10's even from shots that were moderately cropped. It's bigger and heavier than other bridge cameras, but it's not nearly heavy enough to be a problem. It's lens is a little wider and longer than most other bridge cameras, and it is the only one with a manual zoom. I find the manual zoom faster and more accurate than the power zooms other bridge cameras have. AF and AE work well, and AF is fast outside. Like a mid level DSLR it has a lot of buttons for most commonly used functions. I tried a Kenko 0.75x supplimentary lens with it and it worked well. There was a little darkening in the corners, but it is easily corrected in Elements.</p>

<p>On the negative side is that it is not a great low light camera. ISO 800 is pushing it's limit. Above that is for emergency use only. It also focuses slowly in low light. Indoors you're mostly limited to using flash, but it's one of the few that has a hot shoe. It's not dedicated, but there are still good flashes with built-in sensors that work well. You can even use bounce flash with them. It takes 58mm filters, but it does not come with a lens hood. There are hoods available on Amazon and E-bay. I'm using the hood from my old Fuji S6000fd. It fits perfectly. The camera is made for a hood, but Fuji doesn't offer one.</p>

<p>If you are looking for a light weight camera that's more than a P&S, you should consider it. It's the most DSLR like bridge camera I've found.</p>

<p>Dave, I love my Nikon P6000. I don't know why Nikon discontinued it. I guess it didn't sell well. Everyone talks about the Canon G10 and G11 and the P6000 gets little attention even though it a terrific little camera.</p>

<p>Thanks for your feedback on the HS10, Mark. Please post some photos from it here if possible.</p>

<p>I am not planning to "abandon" my DSLR, but certainly considering the HS10 for the positives you noted, including portability. I have one more week to make up my mind as the sale price of $459 Cdn will be over by next weekend.</p>

 

<p>Victor, I would if I could figure out how to do it. You couldn't tell much from pictures on the web anyway. In the meantime, dpreview.com had a very good review of it. It was part of a review of several top bridge cameras. I read it before buying and if anything, the camera is even better than the review. You're right not to abandon your DSLR (unless it's a Canon..ha,ha). This is a great addition to your gear, but not a full-time replacement for a DSLR.</p>

<p>Did I "Abandon" DSLRs? No, I never bought into them.<br>

"Back in the day," film SLR's (Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad and Olympus) fed and supported my family.<br>

But these days photography is how I stay sane.<br>

And I no longer think that switching lenses while I miss my shot is a sane behavior.<br>

My first digital, a Canon Powershot S2 IS, has a 12x zoom that starts at a 28mm equivalent. My newest, the Stylus Tough 8010, has an internal 5x optical zoom that also starts at 28mm.<br>

I've got Olympus OMs with lenses from 17-500 mm, but I take the Tough along with me daily for the grab shots.<br>

In photography, it's "the nut behind the wheel" that makes the difference. That would be you and your vision and your mind and your creativity and your commitment.<br>

If you have those and a Diana or an Argus C3 or a Kodak folder or a GE digicam, you will shine.</p>

<p>I would not go the Panasonic/four-thirds route. I did, and I regret it. I bought the E-510 three years ago, and it turned out to be a big disappointment. Olympus hyped it as "prosumer" grade, or "semi-professional quality". It is nothing of the sort. DPReview rated it as "entry level" (after I bought it, of course). I would rate it "rip-off level". The E-510 features a very noisy sensor that has a limited dynamic range and blows the highlights all of the time, an auto-focus that does not work correctly, auto-white-balance that does not work correctly, and lots of other "automatic" features that don't work correctly, a flimsy plastic body with a hotshoe that breaks if you put a flash unit in it and do some walk-around city street shooting (mine did). Then Olympus had the gall to turn off functions, like the internal image stabilization and focus confirmation, when you mount legacy lenses on the camera with an adapter. It took me six months of fighting with them and posting embarrasing messages on the Internet to get them to turn on the image stabilization, and it looks like they will never turn on the focus confirmation. Corporate policy. They want you to buy new lenses, rather than re-use legacy lenses.<br>

Speaking of lenses, be aware of the fact that four-thirds and "micro-four-thirds" on the new little "pen" point-and-shoot cameras are not the same thing, and they are not compatible. Calling them similar names is deceptive advertising. So you will have to buy two sets of lenses if you want to use both kinds of small bodies. Sure some of the four-thirds lenses will work with the expensive adapter that costs as much as a lens, but some won't.<br>

I also like to carry around a bunch of point-and-shoot cameras for backups, and for wide-angle shots. I don't need a DSLR for wide angle shots; I need it for telephoto shots, like birds and other wildlife. I like the Canon and Nikon point-and-shoots the best. Just at this minute, I have a Canon Powershot A95, Canon SD780IS, Canon S410, and Nikon Coolpix 4300 hanging off of my body, in addition to the E-510 and a film Mamiya/Sekor 500DTL that I am testing. (It is old as the hills, and works perfectly.) I like the Canons, they take beautiful pictures, and 5 Megapixels is far more than enough for pictures that I will post to the web. I was using a Nikon Coolpix S3, which I loved, until I dropped it. Nothing but black pictures now.<br>

Have a good day.</p>

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<p>Well, after much thought and about a years worth of procrastination I have decided to do it. I have put all of my stuff up for sale barring my Fujifinepix F200EXR. This time next week I should have either a Panasonic GF1 or G1 as my main camera and the Fuji as a backup. I will make sure I let you all know how I get on. Only time will tell but so far I have had no pangs of regret when I get the "You sold your item" email from e-bay. </p>

<p>Thank you to all of you for taking the time to respond.</p>

 

<p>I worked for decades as a working pro but when the newspaper at which I worked slashed staff I took a buyout and they took my gear. Without any camera bodies, I sold my Canon f1.8 200mm and bought a Fuji HS10 and a Canon S90 to replace my entire pro-kit.<br>

Hey, I'm old, I'm retired, and I drive a little, old Morgan roadster. There's hardly room for my wife and me let alone a big whack of camera gear. My little point and shoot kit keeps me very happy.<br>

Do I miss the pro stuff? You betcha! But, no sense in looking back. My present stuff answers my needs and does so without breaking either the budget or my back.<br>

I took the kite-surfer picture in California in 2010 after driving right across the States in my old English sports car. I never would have had such a long lens handy if I'd still had my old, pro gear. There is simply not enough room in a Morgan for the big, long lenses that DSLRs demand.<br>

Cheers!</p><div></div>

Nice image, Ken! Hard to complain about image quality. I hear that you can stretch the HS10 even further by using RAW mode.