OT: choice of digicam

[ray .]

jus' cuz I know you guys, I'll ask this here instead of the digicam

forum...

 

I want to venture a little into insta-picdom with something a little

more flexible and capable than my 1.3 megapix p&s... don't want

to spend for a dslr yet, though. I'd use it for some street stuff,

and for shooting off a TV screen, initially. Would like to do macro

stuff too but figure that would require dslr(?)

 

What would be your choice in the 4 to 5 hundred $$ range, either

new or used?

[ray .]

.....For the most part, my ultimate intent is to make color prints

with this cam and my Epson 2200. Will I be able to achieve

some decent 13x19 stuff with a camera in this price range?

[ray .]

uh, maybe that's not quite the question. Come to think of it,

some of the TV stuff will be enlarged intentionally for the purpose

of diffusion of the image. How might it look different doing that

than if I used film?

[steve_unsworth1]

I have a Canon S70 that I've been pleased with. Here are a couple of shots - the first is full frame, the other is a selection at 100%. No sharpening on either.

<p>

<img src="http://www.leica-camera.com/discus_e/messages/3/105960.jpg">

<p>

<img src="http://www.leica-camera.com/discus_e/messages/3/105961.jpg">

[gerry_szarek]

Make sure you get one with a RAW capability. You should be aware that the high ISO (I mean anything above ASA 100) performance is very noisy so outside of brightly lit scenes don't expect much. I am biased to the canon line up, but the others are just as good. You should be aware that if you buy 2 lenses and a 300D the 300D price is a mere $500 or so.

[williamw]

Hi,

 

I recently got myself an Olympus 5060w. It probably came out about 1-2 years ago so can

be had for quite a low price.

It has a 28-105 lens which is quite good. Focusing is fairly fast and accurate. It has a lot of

menus but it also has a cool mode called ' my mode' where you can program your favorite

user settings. There's the possibilty to have 8 different user settings.

Like the chip on these cams are small depth of field is huge. I'm using mine in manual

focus a a lot, either preset at 28 or 35 mm.

The files are clean at 80 and 100 iso and a bit noisier at 200 and 400. Unfortuntaly at 200

and 400 there seem to be some internal noise suppresion going on so you seem to loose

quite some detail( this is of course in JPEG mode - raw mode takes between 6-9 secs to

save a pic - a bit on the slow side for street shooting).

I find the files a bit on the too clean side , the kinda look flat to me ) so I like to add some

grain in PS to give them some character - personal preference, of course.

 

All in all it's a nice little cam. I mainly bought it for the good price and wide angle of

28mm. I also has one of those LCD screens tht flips out and turns around. Optical

vievfinder is small and only shows 80-85 % of whats being captured. I still use it as I'm not

too hot on these LCD's for the moment.

 

If you want to know anything else I'll check this thread a bit later.

 

Cheers,<div></div>

[steve_unsworth1]

I agree about the RAW, it's one of the reasons that I chose the S70. The lens is a 28-100mm equivalent. Most annoying thing is that although you can run the camera in fully manual mode (or AP/Shutter priority), there's no indication of shutter speed or aperture in the viewfinder, only on the LCD panel on the back.

[max_fun]

You know, digicams are pretty good at macros, because they have such a deep DOF,

although their aperture goes down to f/8 for the most part only.

 

For $4-500, you can get a rather decent camera. I think something like the Canon G6 is

the top of the heap for 7MP cameras, and it has a nice and fast lens. The 7MP sensor is

supposed to be somewhat better (less noise) than the 8MP sensors and cheaper, so you

can also consider the other cameras with the same sensor, for example the Sony V3,

Pentax 750z and the Olympus C-7000.

 

For less megapixels, you can also consider getting the Panasonic FZ20 with the Leica 12x

f/2.8 zoom lens.

[williamw]

It seems like you posted while I was typing so I missed your questions.

 

13x19 with careful uprezzing shouldn't be much of a problem. Just depends on much

resolution you want.<div></div>

[wgpinc]

Personally I'm still using a Canon G3. I think the G series G3/5/6 are great little cameras within the limitations of digital P&S. I like the G series because among other things you can shoot raw. I have several portfolios on P.net done with the G3. If I wasn't using Canon I would probably look at the Olympus 5050 or 5060 or possible some of the Sonys with 'Zeiss' lenses. They all have teeny, inaccurate finders and horrible shutter lag but you can make pictures with them if you work at it and improve your technique. Best, Gil.

[travis1]

ricoh capli rx something 5mp...28mm ..suits your street style.

[steve_chan5]

The Canon S70 would be my pick - basically the G6 in a smaller form factor. If I recall correctly, the autofocus is a little pokey. I recently picked up a fuji E550, with the super CCD sensor, I'm impressed by the speed, the relatively low noise and the much higher than rated resolution - and oh, yes, the price!

 

Here's a dull test shot - not in the least bit interesting except as a test of dynamic range and resolution. Shot RAW, pulled to bring back sky detail and then shadow/highlight tool in PS used to bring back up the foreground. Auto levels/color/contrast applied - no noise reduction or USM.<div></div>

[agardner58]

I like the idea of the Ricoh Caplio RX too. Supposedly almost no shutter/focus lag. Unfortunately they are almost impossible to get in the US.

[steve_chan5]

Here's a 100% crop.<div></div>

[brunom]

Ray

 

I'm in the same position as yourself [ but for different reasons] and have decided on a Canon S70,which seems to be ,more or less a G6 but in a much more pocketable shape that can be placed in a briefcase or jacket very nicely.

 

Regards

 

Bruno

[really__]

I hate all these little digicams after owning several. Why not get an inexpensive "user"

Canon D60 or an old Kodak DCS 520/720 with a fast prime lens or two? Galbraith's

forums has lots of that stuff in the $500 range. The megapixels might not be there, but

you'll get control and high ASA ability - the two things the pocket cams lack.

 

If you're fast there are also great bargains like the guy who sold two D70s for $675 each

last night. But then went within 30 minutes of his posting.

 

(I either use my phone or my D70 for digital. The phone is the ultimate P&S.)

[godfrey]

<center>

<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/godders/istds-firsttest2/image/tigerlily-buds

-0149.jpg"><br>

<i>Tiger Lily Buds - Pentax *istDS<br>

ISO 200 @ f/5.6 @ 1/45 second, f=28mm (43mm equiv 135)</i><br>

</center><br>

<br>

I own several small sensor digicams as well as two DSLRs now. Of the small sensor

cameras, the most useful to me is the Konica Minolta A2. Excellent quality images,

excellent features and controls, a very very good lens, and the best Electronic ViewFinder

of any of them. It's responsive, accurate on focus and exposure, and very handy.

<br><br>

Small sensor digicams are all limited, ultimately, by the sensitivity possible with their

small, high density sensors, best results happen in the range of ISO50-100. As long as

you can work in decent light, or can use a tripod and long exposure times for lower light,

they work very well. The A2 can also save exposures in RAW format which nets you a very

useful improvement in dynamic range (and more usable quality up to ISO 400) with good

post processing.

<br><br>

The big advantage of DSLRs is the much larger sensor and greater responsiveness, plus

the usual advantages of an interchangeable lens camera. The Pentax *istDS which I bought

recently is remarkably small and light, pretty inexpensive. I am using it with the excellent

Pentax manual focus prime lenses ... body and a Pentax-A 28/2.8 is very reasonably

priced, and takes up as little room in my bag as the A2. I have found that ISO speeds up to

1600 are quite useable.

<br><br>

Both the A2 and the *istDS are quite handy and not too unreasonable in price. Both can

return excellent image quality, and both are flexible enough for a LOT of good

photography. The A2 will cost you about 2/3 of what a basic *istDS kit will cost, you can

expand the *istDS well beyond that depending upon your needs.

<br><br>

Godfrey

[leslie_cheung]

The ricoh rx is 3mp. The *gx* is 5mp plus a few changes.

[bobtodrick]

I recently did a lot of research in a quest to find a digicam that, though mainly for my wife to do family archive stuff (at least that's what I tell myself) would be something I would use occasionally as well, especially for color (I have a Minilux Zoom for B&W 'snaps'). I settled on the Konica/Minolta Dimage Z3 for the following reasons: 12x optical zoom with asph elements, anti-shake, full manual controls, hot shoe...but mainly the fact that it is 'only' 4.0MP. An interesting thing I found is that the quest for higher resolution is not always the best thing. A higher megapixel camera may give a bigger image than one of lower resolution...but it doesn't mean it is necessarily going to give a better image...a lot has to do with firmwear and the like. But, and it's a big but...the higher the megapixels the smaller each individual sensor. The smaller the sensor the more noise it tends to generate in low light situations (the kind of lighting we Leica users gravitate to). I decided on a 4 megapixel camera for this reason...4 meagapixels gives me a near photo quality 8X10 (at 200dpi), with a useable 400 ASA capability. If you check out the specs of the 7+ megapixel cameras you will find that many of them are classed as unacceptable at 400 ASA and even poor at 200 ASA. Better like that built in flash!! Of course this does not include DSLR's as they have a much bigger sensor, hence bigger sensor sites.

[edmo]

<i>Better like that built in flash!! </i>

<p>

Or you could just turn it off.

<p>

Ray, been playin with the S70 lately...it's nice. Also not sure if you have seen this, <a href="http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/majoli/"> <u>http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/majoli/</u></a>.

[stephen_jones4]

Godfrey - that's a very nice image - got any more to show from the DS?

[markci]

I prefer the S70 over the G6, for size and because the lens is one the widest available for digicams -- 28mm equivalent, rather than most cameras (including the G6) 35mm equivalent. It can make a big difference for scenics and indoor shooting.

[markci]

It's true, by the way, that all digicams are noisy above ISO 100. But I've taken to shooting at 400 and desaturating. Color noise is ugly, but noise in b&w looks a lot like sharp film grain, and can even make an unsharp photo look much sharper than it is.

[leslie_cheung]

28mm f2.5 lens, very intuitive layout, compact, A and M mode

among others and short AF / shutter lag.<div></div>

[godfrey]

<i>stephen jones:<br>

.."Godfrey - that's a very nice image - got any more to show from the DS?"..</i>

<br><br>

Thank you! I'm enjoying this camera a lot, and just getting started exploring the lenses I

bought for it. Never owned Pentax gear before, but I'd always heard their lenses were

excellent. I'm finding that is definitely the case.

<br><br>

My first test shots were all about exploring the noise at different ISOs. This is a set of not-

particularly-breathtaking photographs but shows what the noise is like at various ISO

settings from 200-3200: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/godders/istds-firsttest/

index.html" target=new><b>*istDS - First Tests 1</b></a>. Each one in the set

includes a 400x400pixel full-resolution detail clip with no processing applied and a

reduced-size full frame image. The EXIF data runs down the right hand side of each page.

<br><br>

Second set was beginning to explore the imaging with the Pentax-A 28/2.8 and Pentax-M

85/2 lenses: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/godders/istds-firsttest2/index.html"

target=new><b>*istDS- First Tests 2</b></a>. Again, not what I'd call breathtaking

subject matter in most cases, but I'm very much liking the kind of image quality that I'm

seeing. The 85mm has a particularly creamy/smooth OOF rendering.

<br><br>

I saw a field of yellow flowers as I was driving home the other day and quickly stopped

between rain showers to catch this photo using the Pentax-DA 14mm f/2.8 lens... It looks

best in a

somewhat larger presentation: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/godders/flowers1

-0075/" target=new><b>*istDS- First Tests 3</b></a>. Makes a very nice desktop

background for my computer screen!

<br><br>

<center>

<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/ramarren/photo/PAW5/large/anthony-drama

-0240.jpg"><br>

<i>Drama Face - Pentax *istDS</i><br>

</center><br>

Since then, the Pentax-A 50/1.4 lens I won on auction arrived and I've been having fun

working on portraits. This is a wonderful lens, beautiful out of focus rendering and

excellent sharpness, speed. The one above was a grab shot of one of my friends putting

on a

"dramatic" face... ISO 800 @ f/2 @ 1/6 second in the rather poor light of a cafe at night,

quick guess focus (he was only a couple of feet away from me).

<br><br>

enjoy,<br>

Godfrey