25 Reasons to Choose a P&S Camera Instead Of an Overpriced DSLR (minor typo corrections)

savvo added these comments in the current discussion du jour ...

I rather suspect that a good 10mp P&S makes a better picture
than older DSLRs of only a few years ago. At some point,
most people will probably go with the smaller, lighter,
option.

I rather suspect you've never examined the output of those two
cameras, whichever two you choose.

Being that "more mega pixels means better pictures" being the sales
and marketing watchwords of late, much like the "horsepower wars"
of the car industry, I'd say you are right.

However, it is also the nature of both innovation and marketing
that competitors in a highly charged market segment such as digital
cameras, often leapfrog each other with either incremental or
revolutionary improvements. So, to any prospective buyer, the
absolute image size may well be secondard to other valid criteria
and it may well be difficult or impossible to determine whether any
given P & S, EVR, or DSLR from even the same manufacturer is the
same, better, or worse than another.

For any basic set of buying criteria such as size, price, features,
AND image quality, I generally advise newbies to ask people who
actually own what they're contemplating buying but before they do
anything, simply go to their fav store and just pick up the cameras
and handle them a bit. It is often surprising how revealing that
can be.

--
HP, aka Jerry

"Laid off yet? Keep buying foreign, and you soon will be!" -
increasingly seen on bumper sticker

Reason 26: The lens diameter of the usual point-and-shoot will fit within
the openings of a cyclone fence. This saved me a trip home for a ladder,
and also provided a more advantageous angle.

Reason 27: I can reach in my pocket, come out with the camera and get the
shot before it is gone. The big camera in my gadget bag, if I have it with
me, takes much longer to get into action.

Reason Minus 1: The viewing screen on the back of most point-and-shoots is
hard to see in bright light, and hard to use for careful composition in all
cases.

Leo Lichtman wrote:
Reason 26: The lens diameter of the usual point-and-shoot will fit
within the openings of a cyclone fence. This saved me a trip home
for a ladder, and also provided a more advantageous angle.

Reason 27: I can reach in my pocket, come out with the camera and
get the shot before it is gone. The big camera in my gadget bag, if
I have it with me, takes much longer to get into action.

Reason Minus 1: The viewing screen on the back of most
point-and-shoots is hard to see in bright light, and hard to use for
careful composition in all cases.

Reason 28--if someone nicks the point and shoot, good riddance.

Reason 29--you can get a cheap drop resistant waterproof point and
shoot, and after you take a little sandpaper and brown rust-oleum to
it nobody's going to _want_ to nick it.

Reason 30--if you drop your motorycle and land on the point-and-shoot
it hurts a _lot_ less.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Leo Lichtman wrote:

Reason Minus 1: The viewing screen on the back of most point-and-shoots is
hard to see in bright light, and hard to use for careful composition in all

Never buy a P&S without an optical viewfinder.

"SMS" wrote: Never buy a P&S without an optical viewfinder.
My P & S has an optical viewfinder, but viewable image is cropped a little,
so I don't like to rely on it. I solved the viewing problem another way: I
use the viewing hood from a Hasselblad pressed against the back of my P & S.
It shades the screen perfectly, and provides wonderful magnification.

Referring to item 30 in J Clarke's post: I have never had my motorcycle
fall on the camera, but it did wipe out the screen on my Palm organizer.
Which reminds me to mention, I also use my Hasselblad shade/viewer/magnifier
to look at my Palm in bright daylight.

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:22:31 -0800, SMS wrote:

Leo Lichtman wrote:

Reason Minus 1: The viewing screen on the back of most point-and-shoots is
hard to see in bright light, and hard to use for careful composition in all

Never buy a P&S without an optical viewfinder.

You really should read this list that totally disproves why anyone would need or
want an optical viewfinder, if they had any intelligence that is.



1. P&S cameras can have more seamless zoom range than any DSLR glass in
existence. (E.g. 9mm f2.7 - 1248mm f/3.5.) There are now some excellent
wide-angle and telephoto (tel-extender) add-on lenses for many makes and models
of P&S cameras. Add either or both of these small additions to your photography
gear and, with some of the new super-zoom P&S cameras, you can far surpass any
range of focal-lengths and apertures that are available or will ever be made for
larger format cameras.

2. P&S cameras can have much wider apertures at longer focal lengths than any
DSLR glass in existence. (E.g. 549mm f/2.4 and 1248mm f/3.5) when used with
high-quality tel-extenders, which by the way, do not reduce the lens' original
aperture one bit. Only DSLRs suffer from that problem due to the manner in which
their tele-converters work. They can also have higher quality full-frame
180-degree circular fisheye and intermediate super-wide-angle views than any
DSLR and its glass in existence. Some excellent fish-eye adapters can be added
to your P&S camera which do not impart any chromatic-aberration nor
edge-softness. When used with a super-zoom P&S camera this allows you to
seamlessly go from as wide as a 9mm (or even wider) 35mm equivalent focal-length
up to the wide-angle setting of the camera's own lens.

3. P&S smaller sensor cameras can and do have wider dynamic range than larger
sensor cameras E.g. a 1/2.5" sized sensor can have a 10.3EV Dynamic Range vs. an
APS-C's typical 7.0-8.0EV Dynamic Range. One quick example:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/...7ceaf3a1_o.jpg

4. P&S cameras are cost efficient. Due to the smaller (but excellent) sensors
used in many of them today, the lenses for these cameras are much smaller.
Smaller lenses are easier to manufacture to exacting curvatures and are more
easily corrected for aberrations than larger glass used for DSLRs. This also
allows them to perform better at all apertures rather than DSLR glass which is
only good for one aperture setting per lens. Side by side tests prove that P&S
glass can out-resolve even the best DSLR glass ever made. After all is said and
done, you will spend 1/4th to 1/50th the price that you would have to in order
to get comparable performance in a DSLR camera. When you buy a DSLR you are
investing in a body that will require expensive lenses, hand-grips, external
flash units, heavy tripods, more expensive larger filters, etc. etc. The
outrageous costs of owning a DSLR add up fast after that initial DSLR body
purchase. Camera companies count on this, all the way to their banks.

5. P&S cameras are lightweight and convenient. With just one P&S camera plus one
small wide-angle adapter and one small telephoto adapter weighing just a couple
pounds, you have the same amount of zoom range as would require over 10 to 20
pounds of DSLR body and lenses. You can carry the whole P&S kit in one roomy
pocket of a wind-breaker or jacket. The DSLR kit would require a sturdy
backpack. You also don't require a massive tripod. Large tripods are required to
stabilize the heavy and unbalanced mass of the larger DSLR and its massive
lenses. A P&S camera, being so light, can be used on some of the most
inexpensive, compact, and lightweight tripods with excellent results.

6. P&S cameras are silent. For the more common snap-shooter/photographer, you
will not be barred from using your camera at public events, stage-performances,
and ceremonies. Or when trying to capture candid shots, you won't so easily
alert all those within a block around, from the obnoxious noise that your DSLR
is making, that you are capturing anyone's images. For the more dedicated
wildlife photographer a P&S camera will not endanger your life when
photographing potentially dangerous animals by alerting them to your presence.

7. Some P&S cameras can run the revolutionary CHDK software on them, which
allows for lightning-fast motion detection (literally, lightning fast 45ms
response time, able to capture lightning strikes automatically) so that you may
capture more elusive and shy animals (in still-frame and video) where any
evidence of your presence at all might prevent their appearance. Without the
need of carrying a tethered laptop along or any other hardware into remote
areas--which only limits your range, distance, and time allotted for bringing
back that one-of-a-kind image. It also allows for unattended time-lapse
photography for days and weeks at a time, so that you may capture those unusual
or intriguing subject-studies in nature. E.g. a rare slime-mold's propagation,
that you happened to find in a mountain-ravine, 10-days hike from the nearest
laptop or other time-lapse hardware. (The wealth of astounding new features that
CHDK brings to the creative-table of photography are too extensive to begin to
list them all here. See http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK )

8. P&S cameras can have shutter speeds up to 1/40,000th of a second. See:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CameraFeatures Allowing you to capture fast subject
motion in nature (e.g. insect and hummingbird wings) WITHOUT the need of
artificial and image destroying flash, using available light alone. Nor will
their wing shapes be unnaturally distorted from the focal-plane shutter
distortions imparted in any fast moving objects, as when photographed with all
DSLRs. (See focal-plane-shutter-distortions example-image link in #10.)

9. P&S cameras can have full-frame flash-sync up to and including shutter-speeds
of 1/40,000th of a second. E.g.
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Samples:_...%26_Flash-Sync without
the use of any expensive and specialized focal-plane shutter flash-units that
must strobe for the full duration of the shutter's curtain to pass over the
frame. The other downside to those kinds of flash units, is that the
light-output is greatly reduced the faster the shutter speed. Any shutter speed
used that is faster than your camera's X-Sync speed is cutting off some of the
flash output. Not so when using a leaf-shutter. The full intensity of the flash
is recorded no matter the shutter speed used. Unless, as in the case of CHDK
capable cameras where the camera's shutter speed can even be faster than the
lightning-fast single burst from a flash unit. E.g. If the flash's duration is
1/10,000 of a second, and your CHDK camera's shutter is set to 1/20,000 of a
second, then it will only record half of that flash output. P&S cameras also
don't require any expensive and dedicated external flash unit. Any of them may
be used with any flash unit made by using an inexpensive slave-trigger that can
compensate for any automated pre-flash conditions. Example:
http://www.adorama.com/SZ23504.html

10. P&S cameras do not suffer from focal-plane shutter drawbacks and
limitations. Causing camera shake, moving-subject image distortions
(focal-plane-shutter distortions, e.g.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/ch...istortions.jpg
do note the distorted tail-rotor too and its shadow on the ground, 90-degrees
from one another), last-century-slow flash-sync, obnoxiously loud slapping
mirrors and shutter curtains, shorter mechanical life, easily damaged, expensive
repair costs, etc.

11. When doing wildlife photography in remote and rugged areas and harsh
environments, or even when the amateur snap-shooter is trying to take their
vacation photos on a beach or dusty intersection on some city street, you're not
worrying about trying to change lenses in time to get that shot (fewer missed
shots), dropping one in the mud, lake, surf, or on concrete while you do, and
not worrying about ruining all the rest of your photos that day from having
gotten dust & crud on the sensor. For the adventurous photographer you're no
longer weighed down by many many extra pounds of unneeded glass, allowing you to
carry more of the important supplies, like food and water, allowing you to trek
much further than you've ever been able to travel before with your old D/SLR
bricks.

12. Smaller sensors and the larger apertures available allow for the deep DOF
required for excellent macro-photography, WITHOUT the need of any image
destroying, subject irritating, natural-look destroying flash. No DSLR on the
planet can compare in the quality of available-light macro photography that can
be accomplished with nearly any smaller-sensor P&S camera.

13. P&S cameras include video, and some even provide for CD-quality stereo audio
recordings, so that you might capture those rare events in nature where a
still-frame alone could never prove all those "scientists" wrong. E.g. recording
the paw-drumming communication patterns of eusocial-living field-mice. With your
P&S video-capable camera in your pocket you won't miss that once-in-a-lifetime
chance to record some unexpected event, like the passage of a bright meteor in
the sky in daytime, a mid-air explosion, or any other newsworthy event. Imagine
the gaping hole in our history of the Hindenberg if there were no film cameras
there at the time. The mystery of how it exploded would have never been solved.
Or the amateur 8mm film of the shooting of President Kennedy. Your video-ready
P&S camera being with you all the time might capture something that will be a
valuable part of human history one day.

14. P&S cameras have 100% viewfinder coverage that exactly matches your final
image. No important bits lost, and no chance of ruining your composition by
trying to "guess" what will show up in the final image. With the ability to
overlay live RGB-histograms, and under/over-exposure area alerts (and dozens of
other important shooting data) directly on your electronic viewfinder display
you are also not going to guess if your exposure might be right this time. Nor
do you have to remove your eye from the view of your subject to check some
external LCD histogram display, ruining your chances of getting that perfect
shot when it happens.

15. P&S cameras can and do focus in lower-light (which is common in natural
settings) than any DSLRs in existence, due to electronic viewfinders and sensors
that can be increased in gain for framing and focusing purposes as light-levels
drop. Some P&S cameras can even take images (AND videos) in total darkness by
using IR illumination alone. (See: Sony) No other multi-purpose cameras are
capable of taking still-frame and videos of nocturnal wildlife as easily nor as
well. Shooting videos and still-frames of nocturnal animals in the total-dark,
without disturbing their natural behavior by the use of flash, from 90 ft. away
with a 549mm f/2.4 lens is not only possible, it's been done, many times, by
myself. (An interesting and true story: one wildlife photographer was nearly
stomped to death by an irate moose that attacked where it saw his camera's flash
come from.)

16. Without the need to use flash in all situations, and a P&S's nearly 100%
silent operation, you are not disturbing your wildlife, neither scaring it away
nor changing their natural behavior with your existence. Nor, as previously
mentioned, drawing its defensive behavior in your direction. You are recording
nature as it is, and should be, not some artificial human-changed distortion of
reality and nature.

17. Nature photography requires that the image be captured with the greatest
degree of accuracy possible. NO focal-plane shutter in existence, with its
inherent focal-plane-shutter distortions imparted on any moving subject will
EVER capture any moving subject in nature 100% accurately. A leaf-shutter or
electronic shutter, as is found in ALL P&S cameras, will capture your moving
subject in nature with 100% accuracy. Your P&S photography will no longer lead a
biologist nor other scientist down another DSLR-distorted path of non-reality.

18. Some P&S cameras have shutter-lag times that are even shorter than all the
popular DSLRs, due to the fact that they don't have to move those agonizingly
slow and loud mirrors and shutter curtains in time before the shot is recorded.
In the hands of an experienced photographer that will always rely on prefocusing
their camera, there is no hit & miss auto-focusing that happens on all
auto-focus systems, DSLRs included. This allows you to take advantage of the
faster shutter response times of P&S cameras. Any pro worth his salt knows that
if you really want to get every shot, you don't depend on automatic anything in
any camera.

19. An electronic viewfinder, as exists in all P&S cameras, can accurately relay
the camera's shutter-speed in real-time. Giving you a 100% accurate preview of
what your final subject is going to look like when shot at 3 seconds or
1/20,000th of a second. Your soft waterfall effects, or the crisp sharp outlines
of your stopped-motion hummingbird wings will be 100% accurately depicted in
your viewfinder before you even record the shot. What you see in a P&S camera is
truly what you get. You won't have to guess in advance at what shutter speed to
use to obtain those artistic effects or those scientifically accurate nature
studies that you require or that your client requires. When testing CHDK P&S
cameras that could have shutter speeds as fast as 1/40,000th of a second, I was
amazed that I could half-depress the shutter and watch in the viewfinder as a
Dremel-Drill's 30,000 rpm rotating disk was stopped in crisp detail in real
time, without ever having taken an example shot yet. Similarly true when
lowering shutter speeds for milky-water effects when shooting rapids and falls,
instantly seeing the effect in your viewfinder. Poor DSLR-trolls will never
realize what they are missing with their anciently slow focal-plane shutters and
wholly inaccurate optical viewfinders.

20. P&S cameras can obtain the very same bokeh (out of focus foreground and
background) as any DSLR by just increasing your focal length, through use of its
own built-in super-zoom lens or attaching a high-quality telextender on the
front. Just back up from your subject more than you usually would with a DSLR.
Framing and the included background is relative to the subject at the time and
has nothing at all to do with the kind of camera and lens in use. Your f/ratio
(which determines your depth-of-field), is a computation of focal-length divided
by aperture diameter. Increase the focal-length and you make your DOF shallower.
No different than opening up the aperture to accomplish the same. The two
methods are identically related where DOF is concerned.

21. P&S cameras will have perfectly fine noise-free images at lower ISOs with
just as much resolution as any DSLR camera. Experienced Pros grew up on ISO25
and ISO64 film all their lives. They won't even care if their P&S camera can't
go above ISO400 without noise. An added bonus is that the P&S camera can have
larger apertures at longer focal-lengths than any DSLR in existence. The time
when you really need a fast lens to prevent camera-shake that gets amplified at
those focal-lengths. Even at low ISOs you can take perfectly fine hand-held
images at super-zoom settings. Whereas the DSLR, with its very small apertures
at long focal lengths require ISOs above 3200 to obtain the same results. They
need high ISOs, you don't. If you really require low-noise high ISOs, there are
some excellent models of Fuji P&S cameras that do have noise-free images up to
ISO1600 and more.

22. Don't for one minute think that the price of your camera will in any way
determine the quality of your photography. Any of the newer cameras of around
$100 or more are plenty good for nearly any talented photographer today. IF they
have talent to begin with. A REAL pro can take an award winning photograph with
a cardboard Brownie Box camera made a century ago. If you can't take excellent
photos on a P&S camera then you won't be able to get good photos on a DSLR
either. Never blame your inability to obtain a good photograph on the kind of
camera that you own. Those who claim they NEED a DSLR are only fooling
themselves and all others. These are the same people that buy a new camera every
year, each time thinking, "Oh, if I only had the right camera, a better camera,
better lenses, faster lenses, then I will be a great photographer!" Camera
company's love these people. They'll never be able to get a camera that will
make their photography better, because they never were a good photographer to
begin with. The irony is that by them thinking that they only need to throw
money at the problem, they'll never look in the mirror to see what the real
problem is. They'll NEVER become good photographers. Perhaps this is why these
self-proclaimed "pros" hate P&S cameras so much. P&S cameras instantly reveal to
them their ****-poor photography skills.

23. Have you ever had the fun of showing some of your exceptional P&S
photography to some self-proclaimed "Pro" who uses $30,000 worth of camera gear.
They are so impressed that they must know how you did it. You smile and tell
them, "Oh, I just use a $150 P&S camera." Don't you just love the look on their
face? A half-life of self-doubt, the realization of all that lost money, and a
sadness just courses through every fiber of their being. Wondering why they
can't get photographs as good after they spent all that time and money. Get good
on your P&S camera and you too can enjoy this fun experience.

24. Did we mention portability yet? I think we did, but it is worth mentioning
the importance of this a few times. A camera in your pocket that is instantly
ready to get any shot during any part of the day will get more award-winning
photographs than that DSLR gear that's sitting back at home, collecting dust,
and waiting to be loaded up into that expensive back-pack or camera bag, hoping
that you'll lug it around again some day.

25. A good P&S camera is a good theft deterrent. When traveling you are not
advertising to the world that you are carrying $20,000 around with you. That's
like having a sign on your back saying, "PLEASE MUG ME! I'M THIS STUPID AND I
DESERVE IT!" Keep a small P&S camera in your pocket and only take it out when
needed. You'll have a better chance of returning home with all your photos. And
should you accidentally lose your P&S camera you're not out $20,000. They are
inexpensive to replace.

There are many more reasons to add to this list but this should be more than
enough for even the most unaware person to realize that P&S cameras are just
better, all around. No doubt about it.

The phenomenon of everyone yelling "You NEED a DSLR!" can be summed up in just
one short phrase:

"If even 5 billion people are saying and doing a foolish thing, it remains a
foolish thing."

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
Leo Lichtman wrote:
Reason 26: The lens diameter of the usual point-and-shoot will fit
within the openings of a cyclone fence. This saved me a trip home
for a ladder, and also provided a more advantageous angle.

Reason 27: I can reach in my pocket, come out with the camera and
get the shot before it is gone. The big camera in my gadget bag, if
I have it with me, takes much longer to get into action.

Reason Minus 1: The viewing screen on the back of most
point-and-shoots is hard to see in bright light, and hard to use for
careful composition in all cases.

Reason 28--if someone nicks the point and shoot, good riddance.

Reason 29--you can get a cheap drop resistant waterproof point and
shoot, and after you take a little sandpaper and brown rust-oleum to
it nobody's going to _want_ to nick it.

Reason 30--if you drop your motorycle and land on the point-and-shoot
it hurts a _lot_ less.

Drop the bike? Damn. Now that's just wrong.

Toby wrote:
"B?wser" wrote in message
...
"Carl_Devonston" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 5 Nov 2008 07:26:30 -0500, "B?wser" wrote:

Wow. Thanks to this post, I expect to see all those big white and black
lenses at the football games, PJ events, etc start to disappear and soon!
Now that they know that a simple P&S will do a better job at capturing
pro
football than their silly SLRs, why would they keep them?
As they improve and as more people realize how much more efficient they
are for
all purposes, then yes you will see D/SLRs disappear. Just as you saw all
view-cameras disappear nearly a century ago at all major events.

Get it?
Yeah, sure. Call me when you see a Panasonic FZ28 show up on the sidelines
of a night football game. I shoot HS sports in weak lighting, and I need
to shoot at ISO 6400. Yeah. I get it.


You are obviously not a "Real Pro" like the OP. With a little more skill
perhaps he will soon be able to acquire his stunning images (none of which
has ever been seen) without a camera at all!

Toby


Waiting for the cranial retinal image tap, as soon as they decide where
to implant the USB port.

(I'd ask for suggestions, but we all know where that would go.)

(Besides, that space is reserved for the preview display.)

(Close one eye and look real close. Closer. Now wink rapidly.)

--
"Nothing has any value unless you know you can do without it."

Gerald Clough wrote:
Toby wrote:
"B?wser" wrote in message
...
"Carl_Devonston" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 5 Nov 2008 07:26:30 -0500, "B?wser" wrote:

Wow. Thanks to this post, I expect to see all those big white and
black
lenses at the football games, PJ events, etc start to disappear and
soon!
Now that they know that a simple P&S will do a better job at
capturing pro
football than their silly SLRs, why would they keep them?
As they improve and as more people realize how much more efficient
they are for
all purposes, then yes you will see D/SLRs disappear. Just as you
saw all
view-cameras disappear nearly a century ago at all major events.

Get it?
Yeah, sure. Call me when you see a Panasonic FZ28 show up on the
sidelines of a night football game. I shoot HS sports in weak
lighting, and I need to shoot at ISO 6400. Yeah. I get it.


You are obviously not a "Real Pro" like the OP. With a little more
skill perhaps he will soon be able to acquire his stunning images
(none of which has ever been seen) without a camera at all!

Toby

Waiting for the cranial retinal image tap, as soon as they decide where
to implant the USB port.

Firewire much faster and more reliable.

(I'd ask for suggestions, but we all know where that would go.)

(Besides, that space is reserved for the preview display.)

(Close one eye and look real close. Closer. Now wink rapidly.)

snip


Blah, blah, blah........