On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 4:31 AM, Anthony Farr <[email protected]> wrote: > But I don't see that it's about obsession with speed, it's about > defining a camera's limits of performance. It's not like the > "good ole days" when we could throw a faster film into a camera > on spec, if a digital camera doesn't have good high sensitivity > performance out of the box it never will have.
There were never any 35mm films with ISO 800 or above that were as grainless as most people obsessed with ultra high ISO sensitivity seem to want to see these days. Nearly any DSLR class sensor camera made since 2004 outperforms all ISO 800 35mm films on sensitivity and noise. >> Easy to obtain higher ISOs: set the highest and underexpose by the >> number of stops required. Boost in processing. >> > > If only it was always that simple. Like you, I find it a simple > matter to clean up noise when I need to, weighing up the pros and cons > of detail losses versus smoothness gains on an ad hoc basis. The > problem that isn't so easy to fix is the shadow banding that > frequently occurs at iso1600 especially at 3200K white balance, which > utterly spoils many otherwise good shots even when grain/noise is > acceptable. ... I've never seen this "shadow banding" stuff, or at least I don't recognize what you mean. Can you provide an example? > ... The E-1 as you know uses a 5MP Kodak CCD. Those low megapixel sensors > like that one and the 6MP Sony, with their big fat photosites, were > famously good at minimising noise. ... That's so funny. The E-1 was often slammed (inappropriately, IMO) for its 'noisiness' back in the day when it was a current model camera. > What my complaint goes back to is that Olympus kept flogging that > generation of sensor, the 10MP Panasonic, for too long. Long after > their competitors moved on to better sensors. Long after Panasonic > itself left it behind, 2007's DMC L-10 was their only camera with the > 10MP sensor. It was short lived and was their last DSLR. Two to three years is "too long"? Do you want to buy a new camera every six months? Panasonic only produced two DSLRs, the 2006 L1 and 2007 L10. They were headed to the mirrorless cameras by the time the L10 shipped ... You make it sound as if they were in the business for decades and this sensor killed their DSLR business. >> The E-5 produces very clean results at ISO 6400 >> almost without any processing at all. >> > > That's very nice, but I already noted the better processor that the > E-single digit cameras use, and the price premium that is required to > get one. I wonder how many school lunches my son would need to > sacrifice for me to get one? An E-5 is MSRP at $1699 and currently sells for $1499. A Pentax K5 sells for $1199 including a $300 discount at B&H. If a school lunch costs $2, your son will need to miss 150 of them so you can shoot with an Olympus E-5. > ... If I was still working for payment I wouldn't call it nonsence to > worry my cameras' performance. And if I was making and selling > cameras I would worry about what the potential buyers worry about, > rightly or wrongly. ... Since the manufacturers and marketeers are the ones who incited the dual obsessions of megapixels and sensitivity, they have to deal with what they've created. I could care less ... I make photographs with the equipment I evaluate to suit my purposes and don't worry about what manufacturers or salesmen worry about. "... Equipment often gets in the way of Photography. ..." -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
