Saturday, February 20, 2010
New Camera time
After 4 years of stirling work, I decided this autumn to upgrade my Casio EX- P600. Not an easy decision given the fact that it continues to be so reliable, but the world of digital has moved on and so a few aspects have made me reach for my wallet. Firstly, the Casio's high ISO performance is awful, only iso50 and 100 are good quality. This is very limiting in poor light, where you need a mini tripod and very still subjects..!! In good light it captures clean and noise free images, its 6mp sensor is not overclogged with pixels which keeps noise down and stops blooming. However colour sensitivity and dynamic range is not great, so in strong sunshine the images look flat - so post processing is required to beef up the contrast.
What to buy instead was quickly limited to 4 options:
Canon's G11, Canon's S90, Panasonic LX3 (with 24-60 lens at f2.0-2.8), Panasonic GF1 (with much larger 4/3 sensor and fixed 40mm f1.7 lens). The GF1 is clearly the quality choice, but it's large and quite heavy, though much smaller than a DSLR. The LX3 is smaller but I think if I'm having a zoom then I'd find the 60mm long end a bit short. Canon have made a bold move with the G11, bucking the trend for greater pixel counts in order to reduce noise and improve high iso results. The G9 was 12mp, the G10 was 14.7mp, so the move to create a 10mp G11 was a change in direction, and one I've been hoping will come. The same sensor has gone into the Canon S90 too, and in a smaller body...about half the weight of the G11, and with a f2.0 lens as well.
So after much review reading the S90 seemed to be the choice for me. Not cheap at £350, but after a month's use I'm pleased with the results which rarely need any post processing. With acceptable image quality at iso 800 and an f2 optic, I'm about 3-4 stops more flexible than with the Casio, and colour sensitivity and dynamic range are much improved. It's a bit fiddly in the hand, but very comfortable in the pocket, at just under 200g. I hope it lasts as well as the Casio, which I'm pleased to say Sophie has now started using.
