camera with high dynamic range ??

minnesotti wrote:
I would like to buy a compact or pocketable P&S camera. It should have
a high sensitivity, so that I could shoot the night scenes in the city
with excellent quality. I heard that FujiFilm FinePix F10/F11/F30 has a
good CCD sensor allowing to shoot in dark... however, I never held it
in my hands and I read the reviews that its sensitivity is not really
that high, and the image has a "watercolor" quality in it. Besides, I
do not think that its lens is sharp enough as say Panasonic FZ30 or
LX1.

The F10 which I have experience with does have a tendency to blow out
highlights. ISO400 is very good, though, with very, very little
evidence of noise-reduction-induced smearing. The smearing (painterly)
quality is stronger at ISO800 but you'll likely never notice it in a
5x7 print.

As for sharpness, you need to take the sensor/image processor/lens
quality as a single package rather than choosing based on lens or
sensor alone. In other words, you need to look at the final results.
The Panasonics have comparatively bad noise issues at ISO100+ and if
you're shooting in JPG mode, you don't have the same option of cleaning
the noise as you do with cleaning noise in a RAW file. In other words,
I don't think a PC-based noise reduction program working on a JPG file
will necessarily be just as good or better than a camera's built-in
noise reduction program working with the RAW file.

I just went through the whole what-P&S-should-I-buy rigamarole and what
I did was d/l full-size JPG images from the candidate cameras and apply
noise reduction to them to see what final results I could expect to get
at the highest ISO speed that I required (ISO400). For MY needs the
Canon A610 provided the right combination of features and image
quality. The F10 was lacking in features and hampered by the
ridiculous charging dongle it used. My ideal would be the F10 sensor
and image processor in the A610 body. Whether or not Fuji'll ever make
something like that remains to be seen.

[snip]
If there is no such camera, then I want a camera with a high dynamic
range. I want to shoot both bright sun-lit sceneces and to resolve
details in shadows, in the same picture. Again... I am not aware of
such a camera. Can you advise any ? Thanks.

Wait 5 years. ;-)


GeoBC

OK, guys, in another thread I learnt about the camera Epson R-D1. It is
small (pocketable) yet it has a large dSLR-like CCD sensor, 16 mm x 24
mm,
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec.../epson_rd1.asp

The large sensor has large pixels which can fit more photons. This
means it has more dynamic range.

This toy is what I need. But it has an un-toy price of US$3k...

...

minnesotti wrote:

OK, guys, in another thread I learnt about the camera Epson R-D1. It is
small (pocketable) yet it has a large dSLR-like CCD sensor, 16 mm x 24
mm,
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec.../epson_rd1.asp

The large sensor has large pixels which can fit more photons. This
means it has more dynamic range.

This toy is what I need. But it has an un-toy price of US$3k...

Whoa, _stop_. The RD-1 is not what you think it is. To call it
"pocketable" is at least a bit of a stretch. The dimensions dpreview shows
are for the body--put a lens on it and it gets thicker, how much thicker
depends on the lens--a collapsible Summicron won't add much thickness when
collapsed but it will add some. It won't really be a whole lot smaller
than a Pentax with the 40mm compact lens and for the price you can get a
_lot_ more capability out of the Pentax system.

Think "Leica Digital M" and you're pretty much in the niche the RD-1
occupies. If that's the place you want to be (and it's a good one, but
expensive and somewhat in the "different drummer" category) then the RD
would be a nice option, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they
had made a conscious choice to go the rangefinder route rather than the SLR
route and who fully understood the tradeoffs being made. If you're at the
level of considering an RD-1 as an alternative to a Fuji F30, I mean no
offense when I say this but unless your financial situation is such that
you can spend $3500 on an impulse buy you need to get a _lot_ more
experience before you're ready to make that decision.

If you want a _pocket_ camera for low light the F30 is probably your best
bet. If you are willing to forego pocketability any APS-C DSLR with an
f/1.4 lens will give you very, very good low light capability. And you can
get _both_ for the price of the RD-1 and have enough change left over for a
good tripod and good "walking around" zoom for the DSLR and maybe a good
flash.


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

What you want is a camera that uses an imaging sensor technology known as
"color negative film."
Interestingly this technology uses the irreversible effect of light on
chemical compounds made of silver. Who'd have thought?
Where electronic sensors have a dynamic rage estimated at between .1 and .5
f stops this "film" is said to have a dynamic range of over 5 f stops.
A curious benefit of this technology is that it uses lenses of a large
enough focal length that they can be stopped down below f8 without
refraction effects even in p&s form factor cameras.
Check it out.

"bmoag" wrote in message
.com...

What you want is a camera that uses an imaging sensor technology known as
"color negative film."


The folks at Carl Zeiss, who know a lot more about this subject than I do,
make the following statement in their Zeiss Ikon Camera System Brochure
(http://www.zeissikon.com/files/ZeissIkon_English.pdf):


WHY FILM AND NOT DIGITAL?

"Why introduce a film-based camera system when mainstream photography is
more digital than ever before? The answer is simple: our passion for the
highest possible image quality. We know photography inside and out--from
lens design to camera and sensor material performance. Simply put, a camera
system is only as strong as its weakest link . . . Yet for now, the new
Zeiss Ikon system with its rangefinder design and wide-angle, top-notch
lenses is based on the optimal sensor material for discerning 35mm
rangefinder photographers: film.

'When digital sensor technology takes another leap or two, accepting the
high incident angles of a wide-angle M-mount lens to the corners of a full
format sensor, you can count on us to come up with high performance digital
systems that will satisfy even the truly passionate."

"jeremy" wrote:
"bmoag" wrote in message
y.com...

What you want is a camera that uses an imaging sensor technology known as
"color negative film."


The folks at Carl Zeiss, who know a lot more about this subject than I do,
make the following statement in their Zeiss Ikon Camera System Brochure
(http://www.zeissikon.com/files/ZeissIkon_English.pdf):

WHY FILM AND NOT DIGITAL?

"Why introduce a film-based camera system when mainstream photography is
more digital than ever before? The answer is simple: our passion for the
highest possible image quality. We know photography inside and out--from
lens design to camera and sensor material performance. Simply put, a camera
system is only as strong as its weakest link . . . Yet for now, the new
Zeiss Ikon system with its rangefinder design and wide-angle, top-notch
lenses is based on the optimal sensor material for discerning 35mm
rangefinder photographers: film.

'When digital sensor technology takes another leap or two, accepting the
high incident angles of a wide-angle M-mount lens to the corners of a full
format sensor, you can count on us to come up with high performance digital
systems that will satisfy even the truly passionate."

Both Canon and Nikon have digital systems that out perform film.
(Granted the Canon may not quite meet the "accepting the high
incident angles, and Nikon does not do that with a "full format
sensor", but they do both out perform film.)

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)