ok anything wrong with a p/s?

[Groucho]

Well, I think there's a few things here... like someone said, us DSLR users certainly don't look down on PnS users, most of us were PnS users until fairly recently.

I don't agree that DSLRs only show improvement at "extreme" situations (especially as these situations are common at Disney parks, and this is a Disney board after all). What's more, not only can a DSLR produce a better photo nearly all the time, this gap is only increasing, not decreasing. My old 2mp Fuji PnS took very nice 2mp (1600x1200) photos - sharp, good color, etc. Yes, it choked at low light and such, but outdoor photos were generally very nice.

My replacement, a 5mp Minolta Z5 (12x zoom, IS), always frustrated me. Mainly it was the noise levels at even modest ISO levels, but it was also rarely very sharp. Now, I'm an admitted "pixel peeper" and I look at my photos at 100% and am disappointed when I see softness there. Worse, even when resized to 2mp levels, it generally took less pleasing photos than my Fuji - even though it was much faster, had more zoom, a good IS system, etc. (The movie mode was also generally terrific and much better than the Fuji's one.) Note that it generally got very good reviews for image quality at the time, it's not like it was a junky camera by any means, but that the whole crop of cameras were producing such photos.

Currently, both my wife and I had a 6mp digital camera - me, a 6mp DSLR and her a 6mp Canon SD600 (which is a 1/2.5" sensor - probably the same sensor as in the S3, but I'm not sure.) The SD600 generally produces decent photos, especially outdoors, but rarely do they look anywhere close to a good as the photos from the DSLR, no matter the conditions. (I have been toying with the idea of seeing what the SD600 will fetch on eBay and going with a Fuji F31fd for its superior image quality - if it took SD memory, I think I definitely would.)

Manufacturers are continuing to cram more megapixels into their compact digital cameras while sticking with woefully undersized sensors. 10mp compacts are becoming quite common. Now, if a sensor has a difficult time delivering sharp photos and respectable low-light performance with 6mp, how can we expect them to perform with 67% more pixels being squeezed out?

What I'd really like to see is more effort being put into the sensor - as far as I can see, Fuji is the only one that even makes an effort to market their sensor technology in the PnS arena. Let's see some real work being put into this. You don't need a full DSLR-size sensor (which is almost 15x bigger than most PnS sensors), let's see a PnS sensor that's, say, 2-3x larger than a 1/2.5" one. (Even the "big" 1/1.8" sensor is only about 50% bigger.) Fuji's cramming a 1/1.6" sensor into compact cameras. How about even bigger? Let the pocket cameras grow a few millimeters in exchange for image quality.

Then there's the price differential - which has been continuing to shrink. You can now pick up a very nice DSLR with lens for under $400. It is bigger and has less zoom than a "big zoom" PnS but the capabilities are much more, and for not much money over what you'll pay for some of these.

To sum up... we have that DSLRs will generally produce sharper, more pleasing photos across the board... they can take pictures in low light than the vast majority of PnS cameras can't even think about... PnS image quality is generallly getting worse, not better... and a DSLR doesn't cost much more than a high-end PnS any more.

For me, it's not a matter of "looking down" on PnS users, it's partially the urge to tell people about a good thing and demonstrate that for a little more money you get a lot more quality, and partially that I'm frustrated with the direction that the manufacturers have gone with compact digital cameras, with virtually no emphasis on image quality and nearly all on "tech specs" which are confusing and misleading to your average consumer who just wants to buy a nice small camera.

 

[boBQuincy]

I agree with Groucho, it's not any inherent characteristic of a P&S camera that I don't like, it's the tiny sensor size and the resultant noise in the image that keep me from using one much.
I use my SLR in "P" mode and with a zoom lens almost always, and at that point it's not much different from a big heavy P&S. But with a large sensor.

Walt Disney World presents some very difficult opportunities for photography and the small sensors make it difficult to get good images in those conditions. If someone (besides Leica at $$$$$) made a nice P&S with a large sensor and medium range zoom lens I would buy one and probably carry it most of the time at WDW.

 

[gokenin]

Ok so the jist that I am getting is that if you are looking for night photography or you are looking for something that requires a fast shutter speed then you want to look at a SLR but if you are are simply looking to take most of your pics in the daylight or inside with decent lighting then a P/S would be fine? Like I said i love my camera but even I admit getting frustrated with night shots have not taken many so still learning my cameras abilities there but thanks for all the hints and advice

 

[handicap18]

The only thing wrong with a PnS camera is what you think is wrong with it. PnS camera's, especially the newer one's, do a great job taking pictures. Though reality is, they aren't true PnS camera's. Back in the film days is where you found PnS camera's. Put in the film, point the camera and press the shutter. There was NOTHING else to do. With todays "PnS" digital camera's there is a lot more to it when you think about it. They have zoom's, they focus on different spots, you can change the "film speed", you can control shutter and/or aperture. There are various modes that will allow you to have some creativity unlike the true PnS film camera's of the past.

You can do so much with a compact digital camera. Many people don't even know 1/2 of what they can do. While they wont give you the kind of control an SLR camera will give, you do have a lot of control.

I still have a compact digital (Canon S30) and after using a dSLR for 15 months and frequenting this board, I have learned just as much about using the S30 as I have using the dSLR. While I used film SLR's for 15+ years I didn't really do a lot with it. Mostly used it as a PnS. Now I do more creative things with my S30 than I did with my old film SLR.

Like others have said, so long as your happy with your camera, what else matters.

 

[Groucho]

Like I said i love my camera but even I admit getting frustrated with night shots have not taken many so still learning my cameras abilities there but thanks for all the hints and advice

If you're frustrated with your night shots at the moment, you may have no choice but to either go to a big-sensor Fuji PnS or to a DSLR.

I was in the same boat when I bought my DSLR; my new fancy 12x IS PnS was very nice in most respects but I just couldn't handle the image quality. Everything but the image quality was just dandy with it. I hadn't had it for too terribly long before realizing that I was probably never going to be really happy with it, and I got my DSLR less than a year later. At the time, I hadn't done any DSLR research (they were either out of my price range, or I assumed that they were, though I'd always wanted one after using my film SLR for years), and I didn't know anything about sensors, or noise levels, or any of that. In retrospect, I'd pretty happy with how things turned out since I got an incredible deal on my DSLR when I bought it, but I may have kept my 2mp Fuji PnS for a big longer rather than going with the 5mp one.

Then again, I might not have. Another one of my general complaints is that review sites seem to be very soft on PnS cameras. The one I bought generally got very good image quality scores. I think they were likely comparing it to similar cameras, at the time the Panasonic 12x zoom was the main competition. I'd rather have read some more honest appraisals including that there were serious noise levels even at moderate ISOs, even if all the competition had them as well. I'd also like to see more "realistic" test shots in reviews, instead of nearly all shots being bright outdoor photos at low ISOs.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I didn't know anything about sensors

I'm shocked.