Small Sensored Cameras: More Viable Than Many Think

Biro said:
... Like you, I realized that while I loved the idea of the Q, it would never be my grab camera of choice. So back it went... and I sold my remaining Q gear within days.
Click to expand...

AHA! Thank you! Thats the thing that trips me up. The *idea* of a particular camera, rather than its actuality. Probably why I have not purchased an FZ200, or FZ70 (60x zoom? ohmy!) Sitting at my desk at the moment, the cameras I can grab and use? V1 with its 18.5mm lens, the GRDIII and the XZ-1. Probably says a lot.
 
Right now, my Oly E-PM2 and Fuji XF1 are probably my most-used, grab-and-go cameras. We'll see how much use my GX7 gets over the course of the year. Right now, I keep thinking I'll buy one of the Olympus OM-Ds - and maybe I will. But, you know what cameras I keep thinking about now? The Ricoh GR, Oly Stylus 1 and Fuji S1 (weather resistant, DSLR-style bridge superzoom). I'm insane, right? :eek:
 
It depends how small the sensor is. The smallest sensor I've ever been satisfied with is 1" in my Nikon V1. It is a great camera, and while I criticize many of its traits (design decisions and lacking features), sensor format is not one of them. IMO, with a serious Firmware update and a few faster and longer lenses (18mm f0.7, 13mm f1.2, 70-300mm f4-5.6, etc.) this system would be sufficient for over 90% of all photographers. Don't believe me? Look at my 18.5mm f1.8 review and tell me how these results could be vastly improved by a larger sensor.
 
Very viable!
At today's shoot, a couple of folks from my local photography group that I belong to were chatting about how handy their compacts were! :)
 
I'm pretty much convinced the better compact cameras do great in almost all situations, and even iPhones can perform very well in decent light. Even at most reasonable print sizes. However, as my tendency seems to be to print more and bigger (40 x 60 cm is almost a minimum size), I like the latitude the bigger sensor cameras give me. Especially when they're pretty small.

I will say that my RX100 'saved the day' in Ecuador, where I discovered my E-M5 charger wasn't working (eBay special base for the RX100 and the E-M5 looks the same, but the voltage is different), so only had a single battery charge to 'spend' on a two week trip. The RX100 performed admirably for landscapes, for people shots, for underwater (it's my scuba cam), with great exposure, great color, and impressive resolution. No, it's nowhere near the same ballpark as the A7r at base ISO, and the E-M5/E-M1 beats it in most conditions, particularly in resolving fine detail with the right lens, but it's a very, very impressive little pocket rocket.
 
Under the right circumstances, today's small sensor cameras can produce magnificent photographs. I've been increasingly impressed with my new Panasonic LX7; at first I was wary, as it 'only' had a small sensor. But it produces colours that are more to my liking than I ever thought a small sensor camera could create, and the sharpness of the lens is superb. If it was as ergonomically good and comfortable as the Ricoh GRD/GR, it would be as close to perfect as a small sensor cam could be for me.

Could I do professional work with it? Depends on the subject, the client, the situation and the output media. I'd happily use it for web sized images of brightly coloured, outdoor settings. With exposure bracketing and the Enfuse plugin for Lightroom, it could interiors, as long as the output was still for the web. Exhibition sized prints? Not so sure, but I'd certainly have a go.

As far as small sensor cameras go, I've stopped using everything else now that I've got the LX7. I've tested it against the Canon S90, Fuji X10 and Ricoh GRD III, and it comes out better than all of them, in terms of detail, colour, and even dynamic range. If I expose carefully and choose the right subjects and scenes, the LX7 is almost indistinguishable from the Canon 30D + 17-55mm f2.8. The giveaway factor is noise: the LX7 is visibly noisy at ISO 400 where the Canon 30D has almost none. But for general shooting, I can happily walk out with the LX7 and create images that I like.
 
Archiver said:
Could I do professional work with it? Depends on the subject, the client, the situation and the output media. I'd happily use it for web sized images of brightly coloured, outdoor settings. With exposure bracketing and the Enfuse plugin for Lightroom, it could interiors, as long as the output was still for the web. Exhibition sized prints? Not so sure, but I'd certainly have a go.
Click to expand...

I have a magazine cover done with the Leica D-Lux 5, but keep in mind a magazine cover doesn't really push any modern camera.

My belief on print sizes and megapixels is I don't subscribe to the generally repeated you need a giant file to print big. I think more depends on the people printing your images and if you have a 10mp image that is good, you find the right person (someone that prints for a living) to print it big and it's no problem. There is uprezzing far beyond photoshop that is used by professional printers and the software that makes the print is not just photoshop or similar, its a dedicated printing software. If you are doing your own printing and don't have experience printing large, then a larger file is probably easier than learning how to work with the small file.
 

Similar threads

Jock Elliott
    • Like
A couple of more attempts at "the grandeur of the skies" with small sensor cameras
Replies
1
Views
820
RT Panther
RT Panther
mnhoj
    • Like
More than...
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
mnhoj
mnhoj
tonyturley
    • Like
    • Wow
Small sensor challenge
6 7 8
Replies
151
Views
13K
melanie.ylang
melanie.ylang
Back
Top