• 10-01-2008, 03:51 PM
    adlerhn
    (ultra) compact with best IQ - october'08
    Hi,

    Until recently I had a Pentax Optio A10 camera, with provided a very good IQ for a 2 years old camera, even in low light, thanks to its 1/1.8" sensor and its IS. Video quality was great, and compressed in Mpeg4 (divx), although the sound quality was horrible.

    Recently that camera had an accident and ceased to exist, so I need to buy another one. I have searched reviews, posts in forums, etc, but nothing is clear, or updated.

    Also, most reviews compare IQ with the same ISO values, but doesn't take into account the shutter speed used. Instead, what should be compared is, for a certain degree of light (x lumens) and shutter time, how is the resulting image, regardless of the ISO used to capture it. I know that with most compact cameras this comparison is not straightforward, as they usually don't allow manual settings...


    What I am looking for is for a small compact or ultra compact camera, that:

    - Is pocket size (i.e. not Panasonic LX3, unfortunately)
    - Has a big sensor (1/72" to 1/6", the bigger the better) (is the noise level generated by sensors with same size from different manufacturers different?)
    - Supports a big aperture size (at least f/2.8): more light, best low light shots, and I love taking pictures without flash.
    - Wide angle support (28mm or less) could come handy.
    - Support high ISO, and specially interesting high usable ISO with low noise.
    - Manual control, priorities and/or bracketing can be useful and fun.
    - Megapixels... At least 8. More than that, is fine, but I think I will shoot around 8 anyway. Does more MP for the same sensor size mean less IQ? I don't think so... It should be better a 14MP sensor shooting at 8MP than a 8MP sensor of similar characteristics, right?
    - Video compressed in a good format would be a plus (MPEG4 or H264. Come on, manufacturers, we are in the 21st century, stop using MJPEG...)
    - No budget limit.


    The cameras that I am considering (8)

    - Fujifilm FinePix F100fd: I have read good reviews about its ISO performance (1/1.6" sensor), but it has the pink bar problem, and a max aperture of f/3.3... Is it that not bad for low light images?

    - Fujifilm FinePix F60fd: max aperture of f/2.8, but it is supposed to have a worse sensor than the F100fd, and no wide angle lens. How does it compare to the F100fd with the same degree of light (not necessarily with the same ISO, remember that the F100fd has a smaller max aperture than the F60fd).

    - Nikon Coolpix S710: Just released a few days ago. Specs are good (1/1.72", f/2.8, 28mm, supports high ISO, manual controls), but I have not seen sample images or in-depth reviews yet.

    - Panasonic Lumix DMC FX-150: Good specs (1/1.72", f/2.8, 28mm, manual controls), but I think the IQ is not very good.

    - Samsung SL310W: Good specs (1/1.72", f/2.8, 28mm, MPEG4 video, manual controls), but I have seen very bad quality in previous models. I haven't seen shots with this new camera yet.

    - Samsung TL34HD: I don't care about the touch screen, but for the rest is similar to the SL310W but with H264 video, and a bit slimmer.

    - Sony Cyber-shot W300: Good specs (1/1.7", f/2.8, manual controls), but not wide angle lens, and more noise at high ISO than the F100fd. In the real world, I don't know if for low light shots is better or worse (max aperture, etc).

    - Canon PowerShot SD990IS: Good specs (1/1.7", f/2.8, manual controls), but not wide angle lens, and I have not seen sample images (especially low light ones) yet. The custom FW is a plus (more options and bracketing).


    Thank you for your help.

    Jose.
  • 10-07-2008, 06:25 AM
    adlerhn
    Re: (ultra) compact with best IQ - october'08
    Ok, I think I will forget about the Samsung cameras... As far as I have read, it seems like the image quality is not very good, even in the latest models.
  • 10-08-2008, 11:07 AM
    Photo-John
    Re: (ultra) compact with best IQ - october'08
    In my experience, if image quality is your top priority, Canon is the way to go for compacts. I haven't had a chance to try the SD990 IS yet. But I own the SD950 IS and posted an extensive review on it in our pro reviews section. The SD950 IS image quality is excellent. I am with you on the wide-angle lens. That's the one thing the SD950 IS and SD990 IS are missing. I would have bought the SD990 IS in a second if it had a wider lens than my 950 IS. But if image quality is a high priority and you want the optical viewfinder, I think you can't go wrong with the SD990 IS. I do wonder if they really needed to increase the resolution, though. You might look around for an SD950 IS, instead. The 12-megapixel sensor is more than enough for most purposes. And I can vouch for the image quality on that camera.

    Canon PowerShot SD950 IS Pro Review >>

    I also did a review on the Panasonic Lumix FX35. I liked the camera a lot. The wide angle lens is great and it's very quick and compact for a pocket camera. However, I think Panasonic overdoes the JPEG processing on their compact cameras and the image quality really suffers.
  • 10-13-2008, 11:32 AM
    adlerhn
    Re: (ultra) compact with best IQ - october'08
    Thank you for your suggestions! :)

    Finally I have decided for the Nikon S710.

    I want the wide angle lens, I am afraid the maximum aperture of the f100fd (3.3) will be a handicap for low light shots (one of my top priorities), and I have read too many bad reviews about the noisy jpg compression in the Panasonic cameras.


    Regards,

    Jose - http://www.dreamcoder.org