Cameras, Microphones and other audio/video equipment circa 2022

 Cameras  Comments Off on Cameras, Microphones and other audio/video equipment circa 2022
Jan 292022
 

My original plan when I started this website was to also start doing camera reviews, but there is only so much time in a day.  I ended up focusing more on sporting optics.  I still follow what is happening in the camera world for professional reasons, so I’ll be happy to offer some suggestions on a case-by-case basis if you want.

In the meantime, rather than work through a broad range of recommendations, I figured it makes more sense to tell you what I use, why, and how it changed from last year.  Last year’s post on this subject is here.

Since I wrote that, I sold my Fuji X-T4 together with all the lenses and accessories I had for it.  Despite that, if someone were just looking to get a proper camera to do both photo and video, Fuji X-T4 would be at the top of my list.  It provides good image quality and film simulation modes for both photo and video really help you cut down on post processing.  Why did I not stick with it? Several reasons, but the largest is that I went and bought Leica Q2. It is an expensive camera and I had to sell the Fuji stuff to fund it.

More importantly, with the Q2 here, I really have no need for the X-T4.  Combination of a full frame compact camera (Leica Q2) and interchangeable lens Micro-4/3 ecosystem (albeit with very old camera bodies for now), works better for my specific purposes.

Before I get into the why of that, I want to note a few peculiarities of Japanese camera designs.  Their user interfaces suck.  Royally.  Almost all of them essentially combine a large number of mostly useless buttons with DOS-era layered menu system that was not created with English speaking people in mind.  The only reason they persist with this lunacy is that there is no competition from other countries where all the capable UI designers work for cell phone and drone companies.

Fuji’s menu system is just as insane as the rest of them, but the presence of the external rotary control dials keeps from having to fight with the rest of the UI most of the time.

At this stage in the game, I will only buy a Japanese camera with the traditional user interface when I have no choice.  I have tried them all.  The worst is Sony, but they are all god-awful.  In an interesting way, the sheer idiocy of camera user interfaces is probably what prevents many people from switching systems.  Once you go through the mental yoga of contorting you brain into being able to use one of these, the prospect of having to do it all over is truly daunting.  I am sure some people enjoy it, but that requires a rare combination of OCD and masochism that I do not possess.

Theoretically, cell phone apps to control these cameras wirelessly could help alleviate this problem, but that would only be true if they outsourced those apps to some Google rejects.  Unfortunately, camera companies appear to prefer to develop these apps internally with predictable results: they work half the time at best and the UI is just as nuts.

Because of that and because of a really remarkable lens it comes with, the bulk of the photos and videos I take come from Leica Q2.  It has a refreshingly simple user interface, superb image quality and preset 35mm, 50mm and 75mm crop modes in addition to the full FOV 28mm mode.  Combination of a truly superb 28mm Summilux lens and a 47MP image sensor covers 90% of all of my photo and video recording needs.

Obviously, it does not cover telephoto use and that is where I usually use on of my older micro-4/3 cameras.  Eventually, they will fall apart and I will upgrade.  The reason I stick with micro-4/3 for this is that long telephoto lenses for it are significantly more compact than for systems with larger image sensors.  Essentially, it is a 2x crop sensor, which means that a 300mm lens on a micro-4/3 gives me the same FOV as a 600mm lens on a full frame system.  Since the image sensor is smaller, same focal length 300mm lens is generally going to be smaller than a 300mm lens for a full frame camera and MUCH smaller than a 600mm full frame lens.

In practical terms, instead of buying a new fancy telephoto micro-4/3 lens, I do two thing for telephoto, depending on the situation:

-I have an old Nikon 300mm f/4.5 lens.  It is a lot smaller than modern complicated telephoto lenses from Nikon.  It is a fully manual lens which fits my preferences better anyway.  It gets me 600mm equivalent FOV with a simple adapter or about 430mm equivalent, but one stop brighter image if I use a speedbooster.

-Set up a modern cellphone behind a spotting scope.  You can get really good image that way.  I use adapters from PhoneSkope for that, but there are plenty of options.  With a large high magnification spotter, you can get a LOT of magnification.

I used to worry about telephoto a lot more until I took a careful look and realized I use a telephoto lens about five times per year: for the Balloon Fiesta in October, full moon sitting right on top of Sandia in late of November and an occasional short video of a steel plate being shot at.  That’s when I stopped worrying about it, but should I be so inclined there are several good quality telephoto options for the Micro-4/3 mount.

Micro-4/3 is really a very respectable option for hybrid photo/video use, but it suffers from the same problem as the rest of the Japanese cameras out there: the user interfaces are made by Japanese UI designers, i.e. they come with 26 re-programmable buttons that you press all at once every time you grab the camera and a menu system that requires a 600 page hyperlinked user manual.

Thankfully, with Micro-4/3, when it comes to video, there are a few options from Blackmagic that have modern user interfaces.  Z-Cam and Panasonic also make very usable box-type cameras with the same mount.  https://adorama.rfvk.net/do3aM3

I would have picked up something like Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera by now if it wasn’t for an interesting crowdfunding campaign I stumbled onto.

I need an additional camera for two reasons.  The first one really zeros in on the only downside of Leica Q2: it does not have any connectors.  Literally none.  When Leica decided to provide this camera with a minimalist user interface, they were not joking around.  There is no external power, no video out and no microphone in.

When I record my videos, I record sound separately using Zoom F2 floating point audio recorder.

My old Panasonic GX-1 camera that I use for telephoto photography does not have those functions either.

The two cameras I use for my home livecasting setup are Z-Cam E1 (which is beginning to glitch, so it is likely on its last breath) and Sony Rx0 Mark 2.  Sony user interface is stunningly bad and the cell phone app is even worse.  However, it is ruggedized and waterproof, so that I can take it into inclement conditions and it does have external power, mic in and HDMI out if I open up the cover plate.  I use it as a webcam when I travel and as a backup camera for livecasting.  With a 1″ sensor and 24mm equivalent F/4 lens, it does not give me any background separation, so it really has very limited use, but it is a perfectly viable back up and bad weather camera.

That’s where that crowdfunded camera project I mentioned comes in: Alice Camera.  I stumbled onto it on Indiegogo and, despite crowdfunded camera projects usually being abject failures, decided to back it.  It is essentially another attempt to take a normal camera body and couple it with a cellphone for a user interface.  A cellphone being the user interface offers a ton of advantages for me.  For general purpose photography, it gives me a lot of freedom in terms of setting up different angles and perspectives.  I can set up the camera in any way I want with seamless control from the cell phone in my hand.  It comes in really usefuls for gun photography and content creation.  For recording videos without anyone’s help, it makes all the difference in the world and the Alice camera does run off of external power and does have microphone input.  If it ends up being a flop, I’ll go with one of the options I mentioned above, but in the meantime, I am very hopeful.  It should be here around April, so there is a little more waiting to do.

As far as lenses go, I sold most of my micro-4/3 lenses a while back, but as I keep on trying to organize my office I discover more lenses that I forgot I had.  Still, I use two lenses more than all the others together: Lumix 15mm F/1.7 and Zuiko 45mm F/1.8.  For telephoto I use that old Nikon 300mm prime I mentioned above.

Generally, with all this content creation business, one of the more important lessons I had to learn was to have two of everything: two means to record video and two means to record high quality audio.  It took me a long time to learn this lesson, since I am stubborn, but I learned it.  Batteries die and recharging them takes time.  If I made the effort to guy somewhere and set up to record a scope video, I better have backup A/V equipment or I am wasting my time.  Having back-up video is the simpler thing, of course, since my cell phone is always on me and it is capable of really decent photo and video quality.  If I have a dedicated camera, a cell phone and appropriate tripod adapter to use either, I am in good shape.

Audio problems have been plaguing me for years, but I think I finally got the handle on it.  It sure wasn’t cheap.  I ended up with a ton of microphones and recording devices that do not do what I need.  I have all sorts of personal recorders, A-B mics, X-Y mics, shotgun mics, etc.  All of that is collecting dust.  For the things that I do, I need two things:

-a portable recorder (Zoom F2 I mentioned above) with a cardioid lavalier microphone from Audio-Technica

-a dual channel wireless microphone with local recording and wireless transmission.  This one is still coming, since I preordered the new DJI Dual-channel microphone.

If you ever see a new video from me that has terrible sound, I have nothing to blame but my own incompetence.

With all that, the nerdy camera-geek side of me is reasonably satisfied.  The next frontier is learning how to properly do video editing and I do not think I can buy my way out of this one.  It will take time and effort.

 

e

 Posted by at 9:05 pm

Camera Recommendations

 Cameras  Comments Off on Camera Recommendations
Jan 242021
 

January, 2021

Recommending a camera to people in the age of ever improving cellphones is kinda rough, especially since it really depends on what you are looking to do.  This is more of an explanation of what I use and why.

Before I begin:

1) do not buy a DSLR.  Their day is done. If you are looking for a system camera, mirrorless is the way to go

2) except for a few very specialized circumstances (underwater or action cam or ultralight travel or you are a crazy camera geek like me), do not buy an all-in-one camera or point and shoot camera

For general purpose picture and video taking, your best bet is to get a smartphone with the best camera available.  For years, I used Google Pixel phones, but a few months ago, after Google screwed up with Pixel5  I said screw it and got the new iPhone 12 Pro Max.  I despise everything about iOS, but it takes excellent picture an videos.  It also has good battery life and a superb screen.  I care more about that then about the rest of this phone put together.  It is expensive, but it is still cheaper than a camera that would give you appreciably better image and video quality.

I happened to have one of those too, so let’s go over that next.  For years, I stuck with the Micro-4/3 mount since it have me a good compromise of image quality and portability.  I was willing to sacrifice some low light performance to get that.  Well, after years of gross mismanagement by Olympus, I finally called it quits (for the most part) and switched systems.

I still have a couple of Micro-4/3 cameras, both are now discontinued, so I will not go into any detail on them.  One is a Z-cam E1 that I have set up to take “through the scope” videos.  Another is an old Panasonic GX-1 that I am using to teach my daughter to take pictures.  I sold off all of my lenses, keeping only four of the more compact ones:

Panasonic Lumix 15mm F/1.7 (excellent image quality and color)

Panasonic 14mm F/2.5 pancake (super compact and unfortunately discontinued)

Panasonic Lumix 12-32mm F/3.5-5.6 (strangely good collapsible kit lens)

Olympus Zuiko 45mm F/1.8 (90mm equivalent fast prime for portraits and telephoto use)

In terms of stills image quality, I do not think Micro-4/3 system is overall viable any more.  High end cell phones got too close and offer much better workflow.  One exception to that is telephoto.  You can get really impressive telephoto reach with a much smaller optic than you would otherwise be able to do with a larger sensor camera system.  I do not do a ton of telephoto, so I switched to a different system in order to get something that is more of a step up from my cell phone.

Micro-4/3 is a perfectly viable video system, however, and Panasonic makes a couple of excellent video-centric mirrorless cameras.

Once you go to larger image sensor size, there are three categories to choose from: APS-C, FullFrame (same size as old 35mm film) and medium frame.  The larger the image sensor, the larger the lenses.  Also, the larger the image sensor the more heat the sensor generates when filming video.

For me, both stills an video are important and, having used larger systems before, I was not comfortable with hernia inducing lenses.  Also, I do not have unlimited budget.  If I wanted ultimate image quality, I would probably just bite the bullet and ump to medium frame.  However, my camera has to be a general purpose system that does everything well.

I ended up going with an APS-C sensor system from Fuji.  More specifically, Fuji X-T4 that is probably the best hybrid still/video camera at the moment.  My brother has a few Fuji lenses including the 100-400mm telephoto that I occasionally use to look for bullet holes or to take pictures of the moon.  That saved me a ton of money.

The lenses I use the most are the 16-80mm F/4 that is my general purpose lens and 23mm F/2.  Both have very respectable optical quality and are weather resistant, just like the camera body.  I plan to acquire a 90mm F/2 at some point for portraits and low light telephoto, but that is largely it.  I try to keep the number of lenses I own to a minimum.  I want them to be reasonably compact AND weather resistant.

Finally, the camera I really wanted is a fixed lens Leica Q2.  I used to own the original Q and I took the best pictures of my life with that camera.  I finally sold it because it was not weather proof and with a fixed 28mm lens I needed a few more pixels to crop.  Q2 resolves nearly every complaint I had with the original Q, while keeping that spectacular lens and user interface.  I worked hard to convince myself to pony up the cash for a Q2, but could not make the leap.  I’ve played with it and it is glorious.  Maybe some day.

If you have some more exotic camera requirements, something else might be a better fit.  I used to develop image sensors and cameras, so this is sort of my field of expertise.  If you have specific requirements, let me know and I will do what I can to help.

 

 Posted by at 4:25 pm

Leica Customer Service: I like what I am seeing

 binoculars, Cameras, Rifle Scopes, Spotting Scope  Comments Off on Leica Customer Service: I like what I am seeing
Nov 232017
 

I usually do not talk about customer service very much since it has generally been getting better for most brands even the ones that were not known for this in the past.

For example, in years past Burris was not famous for great customer service, but they have really stepped up in that department (and my personal experience with them last year was excellent).




 

As far as Leica goes, I was never aware of anything being wrong with their customer service, partly since Leica riflescopes and binoculars I used never needed any.  I did have a Leica camera that needed to be repaired and Leica took care of that quickly and with more courtesy than I expected (or deserved).  It broke right before a trip I needed to go to and after sending it I called an begged for them to move it up the line.  I really did not expect anything, but they stepped up, replaced the lens on my Leica Q and got it back to me in time.

With this as background, I was talking to a friend of mine a little while back and he said he would not buy a Leica scope because of customer service concerns.  Rather than do forensic analysis on the history of their customer service, I reached out to my contact at Leica and politely inquired how they are going to go about fixing that reputation.

Frankly, I liked their response.  They did not offer any excuses and did not spend any time admitting or denying anything or discussing whether that reputation was deserved or not..  Their basic response boiled down to a very simple acknowledgment that they pay attention to the market and they recently made an investment in beefing up their service department both in terms of personnel and resources.

It takes very little effort to get bad publicity and a lot of hard work to regain your good reputation.  I will keep an eye on how Leica does moving forward, but I like what I am seeing from them so far.

 Posted by at 2:48 am

Thinking about cameras. Again.

 Cameras  Comments Off on Thinking about cameras. Again.
Nov 162017
 

I glanced at the photography announcements and noticed that Leica has introduced a silver version of Leica Q.   It is just a styling change.  Aside from the cosmetics, the camera is the same.

As some of you may recall, I used Leica Q for about a year and took some of the best pictures I have ever taken with it.  More importantly, from the standpoint of user interfaces, Leica Q is the best camera I have ever used.  It also came with the best lens I have ever used.  The optical quality of that lens was just stunning.  The image sensor was a step behind the best of Sony, but very serviceable.  The lens, however, was beyond reproach.

Still, after using it for a year, I sold it.  Primary reason for that was that with my kids doing more sports, I need some more telephoto reach.  I do not need a whole lot, but I do need some.  Hence, the Q with its spectacular 28mm F/1.7 lens headed toward Ebay.

Since then, I have been looking at getting another camera, this time with an interchangeable lens and a full frame sensor.  I am picky about image quality, so the cameras I am considering are the new Nikon D850 and Sony A7R III.  Nikon has decent handling.  Sony still has ways to go.  However, the user interface on both of them is, to me, just atrocious.   It is full of long nested menus and a veritable army of re-programmable external buttons that are only used when I press them by accident.  Leica Q gave me all the control I needed with a couple of dials and a couple of buttons.   The only camera company that does something similar to Leica Q in terms of user interfaces is Fuji, so I am always keeping my eye on them as well.

While I am experiencing this “paralysis by analysis”, I decided to step back and hypothesize a little: “if I could go to a camera manufacturer and ask them for the ideal camera for my purposes, what would I ask for?”

The answer is not as obvious as it would seem up front, especially if I try to put my usual techno-snobbery aside.  While I find cameras interesting from a technology standpoint, from a photography standpoint, what I care about are image quality, responsiveness, user interface and portability.

In terms of image quality, while it can get tricky in some challenging conditions, I have to admit that I my standards are getting a little relaxed.  However, if I am dropping some serious coin for a standalone camera, it better be able to take high quality images in any lighting condition.  If I can see it with the naked eye, the camera has to be able to capture it with good detail and natural tones no mater how dark it is.

Responsiveness is quite good on most modern cameras, so it is difficult to make a choice based on this.  I consider autofocus speed and accuracy a part of the responsiveness which complicates things a bit.  However, for the range of cameras I am looking at, it is likely a wash.

User interface is where things start getting tricky since I consider most traditional camera user interfaces sub-optimal.  We are spoiled by how good the UI is on our phones and tablets.  Traditional camera companies have sorta figured out where to put the dials and buttons, but the rest of the UI is difficult for them (and it seems that Japanese camera companies are really behind the curve as far as software is concerned).  Weirdly, Leica is the only one that is embracing modern user interfaces for cameras.  Outside of that, I like how Olympus, Nikon and Pentax position their dials and shape their grips.  Canon does it a bit differently and it does not work with my hands.  Newer Panasonic cameras seem to be mimicking the way Canon does this, so they do not work for me either.  Fuji embraces the classic approach with several rotary dials and it is the most natural user interface for me outside of what Leica offers.

Portability is where things get even trickier.  I am really spoiled by always having my  phone with me and by how good, comparatively speaking, the camera in my Pixel phone is.  Since I sold my Leica Q, I have been experimenting with using an external lenses from Moment and I have to admit that in decent lighting you can get very reasonable image quality at a couple of additional focal lengths.  I mostly use the telephoto lens for portraits,

,

but I am generally very impressed with what can be done with the tiny camera module in the cellphone and a couple of easily pocketable Moment lenses.  I will freely admit, that the image quality is nowhere near a proper full frame camera, but my cell phone is always with me and add-on lenses help with composition.

With that in mind, what kind of a camera would I want to have in an ideal world?  Well, I would like to have the image quality of a full frame DSLR in my cell phone, but it does not look like I am going to get it just yet.

If we ever get there, computational imaging will be how it happens and the first harbinger of that is a camera called Light L16.  It has a cellphone form factor and it takes pictures via 16 cell phone style camera modules of varying focal lengths, from 28mm to 150mm.  Those images are fused together in software.  I will not go into too much detail, but fundamentally, they get to have a cellphone formfactor by using a bunch of small imagers instead of one large one.  Stitching all this data together is not straightforward, but the results are promising.  It took all my willpower to abstain from pre-ordering one, but I am still on the fence.  On one hand, I do not like to be an early adopter.  On the other hand, it is already lookign kinda decent and will likely get much better with firmware.  Most critically, carrying this device with you is kinda like having a second smartphone.  That means I can have it with me almost all the time.

As far as traditional cameras go, I would really like to see something like “Leica Q Duo” with a more modern image sensor and dual focal length lens.  With the amount of cropping you can do with today’s 40+ megapixel sensors, I am do not really need a continuous zoom lens with all its complexity.  A lens with a built in doubler would be perfectly sufficient and would probably be much easier to optimize, since there are only two focal lengths to worry about.  For example, if I could get a camera with the user interface and overall image quality of Leica Q, except with a lens that switches between 28mm f/1.7 and 56mm f/2.5, I would be overjoyed and it would be sufficient for almost everything I do.

I do not think I am going to see something like that out any time soon, so I will occupy myself with keeping tabs on how Light L16 does in the field.  Perhaps, computational imaging has truly arrived.

 Posted by at 12:19 am

Camera Suggestions – August 2017

 Cameras  Comments Off on Camera Suggestions – August 2017
Jul 312017
 

Written by ILya Koshkin in August, 2017

General disclaimer: you will see a lot of links to Adorama.  I have an affiliate program with them.  I do not use it a whole lot, but if you decide to follow one of my recommendations and Adorama price is competitive, I would appreciate it if you could click on one of my links and buy it that way.  I try to to keep advertising on this website to a minimum, but I do have bills to pay.

It has been a few months since I talked about cameras and, honestly, while there were a lot of camera introductions, my recommendations have not changed a whole lot.

As far as cameras go, I am not an early adopter.  We live in a world where basic camera capabilities are so good across the board that except for some rather specific use cases, it makes almost no difference which camera within each segment you go with.

Ultimately, the photographer makes the most difference.  Between a camera and a lens, in the modern world, the camera bodies are so good, that they almost do not matter.  Get the best lens you can afford and make sure you have some quality primes for when it really matters.  As good as the modern zoom lenses are, for ultimate image quality, you should still go with primes.  If you want some more specific reading on the subject, the best discussion I have seen lately was in the Lens Rentals blog.  I do not agree with everything they say there, but they have a lot of experience and their arguments are well reasoned and well thought out.  Definitely worth considering.

Since I wrote my previous pieces on camera suggestions, I have divested most of my cameras as I look for deals on the stuff I want to get.  The most painful part of that process was selling my Leica Q (compact camera with a FF sensor and 28mm F/1.7 Leica lens).  That camera had an absolutely stunning lens, but my photography needs changed and a fixed 28mm was simply not enough.  If Leica ever makes a “Q Duo” that gives me 28mm and 50mm in one camera, I’ll buy one again.

The only camera I currently have left is a rather beat up Panasonic GX-1 that I have had for a few years.  I retained most of my Micro-4/3 lenses, although in normal use, I only use a few of them.

Before I go through my reasoning and specific recommendations on interchangeable lens cameras, here is a brief rundown of other categories.




Cell phones

If you are planning to buy a cellphone and image quality is a consideration, last several months have changed absolutely nothing for you.  A bunch of new tech is coming out with dual camera phones and all that.  All of that is interesting and none of that is ready for prime time.  Most implementations I have seen are a bit gimmicky.  I would wait.  In terms of basic image quality, My Google Pixel is still at or near the top of the list.

Compact Point-and-Shoot Cameras

If you are looking to get an inexpensive point and shoot camera… don’t.  Just don’t.  There are a couple of exceptions to that.  If you need something that is rugged and go underwater, skiing, etc, get Olympus TG-5 or one of the excellent action cams from Go Pro or YI, depending on what exactly you like doing.  If you are serious about underwater, SeaLife DC2000 is interesting.  I will likely get something along the lines of the DC2000 before I go on my next vacation.

Aside from rugged cameras, the only other viable use case for a point-and-shoot is a situation where you want the most image quality possible in a pocketable camera.  There, your options are either a compact camera with a zoom lens and a 1″ sensor or a camera with a primer lens and a larger APS-C size sensor.  For the former, I like Panasonic LX10 and for the latter the aging Ricoh GR II is still the way to go.

Bridge Style Point-and-Shoot Cameras

The landscape there has also remained largely constant.  I think the aging Panasonic FZ-1000 is a good deal.  Sony RX-10 Mark III is still a technological tour-de-force and I still do not like the user interface.

Generally, with the advent of high zoom ratio DSLR lenses, the need for bridge style point and shoot cameras is going the way of the dodo.

Now, let’s move onto Interchangeable Lens Cameras.

I have spent the last few months trying different cameras My photography needs are as follows:  I take pictures when I travel and I take pictures of my kids.  With my daughter becoming more involved in gymnastics, I am looking for something pretty fast in terms of operation and that I can put a long and bright lens on for indoor sports.  On the other hand, the system has to have excellent quality compact lenses for when I travel.  At the moment, I travel with a Panasonic GX-1 Micro 4/3 body, 14-140mm F/3.5-5.6, SLR Magic 25mm F/0.95 manual focus prime and 14mm F/2.5 pancake lens.  If I think I will need something a touch longer, I also take the absolutely diminutive (and optically excellent) 45mm F/1.8 lens with me.  This basic kit covers almost everything I may need during my travels except for extreme telephoto.

Moving forward, I fully intend to add Olympus E-M1 Mark II which also uses Micro-4/3 mount.  While not ideal for low light, E-M1 Mark II excels in high speed stuff and in terms of image quality the lens assortment is extremely well fleshed out.  One thing that is important is that Olympus makes pretty much the only superzoom lens on the market (for any system) that truly delivers top notch image quality: 12-100mm F/4.  It is not a small lens by Micro 4/3 standards, but it is optically excellent, superbly stabilized, and weather-sealed.  Going forward, I expect my travel kit to consist of E-M1 Mark II, 12-100mm F/4 zoom lens and 15mm F/1.7 prime.  Together with the Olympus’ stunning image stabilization, the 12-100mm can satisfy most of what I need and the brighter 15mm prime would work well for indoor and street photography.

That is not an inexpensive combination, but my requirements are fairly specific.  I can not get anywhere near this capability in a package of remotely similar size with any other camera system on the market right now.

However, in principle, if your requirements are a little different, you can get better image quality for similar money.  Some other requirements that I have will not be met, but those may not be important to you.

First step up in image quality, is to go up to an APS-C image sensor size and there, the system I like the most is Fuji’s X-mount.  It will not do well for sports, but it does everything else very nicely and if I did not need to photograph indoor sports and did not need the focal length range for travel, I would likely go for this one.  Both X-T2 and X-Pro2 are excellent cameras with low light performance almost a full stop better than the best of Micro 4/3 bodies.  More importantly, Fuji has a pretty good set of excellent prime lenses and an inexpensive, but compact and optically good 18-55 zoom that you can get as a kit with the camera.  For street photography, architectural, portrait, etc, the Fuji system works beautifully.  Autofocus has gotten much better as well, so for anything other than sports it works well.

If you are after even more image quality at the expense of compactness (but this gets you back into the world class autofocus capability) you should be looking at a full frame camera and it looks like Nikon is on the verge of introducing some new designs.  That means that existing cameras are steadily going down in price.  At the moment, in terms of what you get for your money, Nikon D750 is probably the best option going, ispecially in a kit with Nikon’s very respectable 24-120mm lens.

That is a very respectable zoom range for a travel camera and, naturally, Nikon system is not lacking good primes.  These lenses are appreciably larger than Micro-4/3 and Fuji X, but that is the price to pay.

 Posted by at 3:57 pm

Camera suggestions – December 2016

 Cameras  Comments Off on Camera suggestions – December 2016
Dec 162016
 

In the modern market, most cameras introduced are pretty decent.  There is a major paradigm shift going on, where traditional fixed lens digital still cameras have been effectively displaced by new categories of photographic devices, most notably cell phones.  All the different compact digital cameras that use fairly small sensors are effectively obsolete, with a couple of exceptions.  The only non-interchangeable lens market segment that is doing all right is the so-called “enthusiast compact camera” that use a pretty large (1″ format) image sensor and as such offer significantly better image quality that any currently available cell phone.

I wrote about these camera fairly extensively earlier this year and while there are a few new entrants to this market, the situation has not changed much.

Here, I will offer some brief recommendations and a little bit of my decision making process for a variety of imaging devices:

 

Cell phones

For all practical purposes, if image quality is important, you need a flagship smartphone.  We are down to two operating systems: Apple and Android.  In terms of pure image quality, top end Android phones are a little better, but the iPhone is not far behind and is excellent in terms of usability.  I use Android and I have recently switched to Google Pixel.  Prior to that, I was using Google Nexus 6P.  However, I have had my hands on just about every flagship smartphone out there.  Google Pixel is pretty much the only option with a top notch smartphone camera in a not supersized body.  It also has the best autofocus I have seen on a phone to date.  Samsung phones do well in online reviews.  I have had a bunch of them and I swear Samsung must be buying those reviews.  In terms of pure image quality, Samsung Galaxy phones are good, but in terms of usability, Google Pixel runs circles around them.

 

Compact Point and Shoot Cameras

First, let’s get it out there: traditional inexpensive point and shoot cameras are simply not worth buying unless for some reason you can not use a smartphone.  The exceptions are:

  1. You need something waterproof/shockproof for swimming, skiing, etc.  In terms of image quality, you are better off putting a proper camera into a waterproof case, but that gets bulky.  If you need a small camera that does this consider Olympus Tough series.  Honestly, if it were me, I would be more likely to look at one of the action cams because for this type of use, video is important.  GoPro effectively created the action cam category, and the new Hero5 Black is pretty impressive.  That is the way I would go, since for this kind of a camera telephoto lens is not necessary (for my use).
  2. You are looking for significantly better image quality that you cell phone in a form factor that is still reasonably pocketable.  Then, you need one of the enthusiast compact cameras I mentioned earlier.  Sony is up to the fifth generation of their RX100 (Mark V), and if you can swing the price tag, it is not a bad way to go.  I think Sony has royally crewed up the interface though, so if super fast video modes do not tickle you, save some money and get the Panasonic LX10.  Its UI has its own gremlins, but it is much better that Sony’s.  Also, while Sony’s autofocus looks awesome  on paper and does great in reviews, every time I use it, I get fewer keepers than with Panasonic.  Basic image quality for still between the two is about the same.  Sony has slightly better 4K video, but both are good.  Now, if all you do is street photography and you never do video, I strongly recommend you take a look at Ricoh GR II with its much larger APS-C sensor and fixed 28mm equivalent lens.  In blows all the 1″ sensor cameras out of the water in terms of image quality in an almost as compact body.  It is a more limiting configuration though, but an excellent UI for photographers.

 

Bridge style non-interchangeable lens camera

The market is full of fancy looking cameras with what looks like incredibly long zoom lenses (83x, etc).  Ignore them.  I am talking about models like Nikon P900 and similar.  They look nice on paper.  When you first get it, you will have a lot of fun playing with that crazy zoom range.  Then, as you look at the pictures you will put the camera away and barely ever use it again.  In order to get that crazy zoom range, they use small image sensors, similar to what is in your cell phone,  but with complicated and not very bright lenses.  Stick with bridge cameras that are built around a much larger 1″ sensor.  Canon, Sony and Panasonic make such cameras.  Nikon announced a few, but can’t quite get them to market.  Canon, in my opinion, bungled this category up a bit in terms of video, so that leaves us with Sony and Panasonic.  For the money, Panasonic FZ1000 is the one to go.  If you are really interested in pro quality video, consider Panasonic FZ2500.  If the longest possible zoom is a big deal for you, spend the extra cash for Sony RX1o Mark III.

 

System Cameras

This includes both mirrorless and DSLR cameras.  Anything with interchangeable lenses qualifies.   Before I delve into it a bit more, you have to decide what is important for you.  If video is important, you should forget about DSLRs.  All DSLRs right now have video features and the way they are implemented is almost looks like they were trying to make sure noone uses them.

Honestly, in the modern camera market DSLRs have two things going for them: long battery life and target tracking (i.e. sports photography).  They will continue having a notable edge in battery life for a while, but target tracking gap is going to be negligible within a generation.

There is, however, a quirk in the market.  Before I get to it, let’s talk about sensor size.  There are three sensor sizes in use for cameras that most of us can sorta afford (I am staying from the medium frame discussion for now):

  • Full frame or 35mm or FX (in Nikon-speak) is the largest and the best for low light and high ISO performance
  • APS-C or DX is about half the area and low light performance is about a stop worse
  • Micro 4/3 is a bit smaller than APS-C and low light performance is about 3/4 of  stop worse than APS-C

High ISO image quality is important for very low light situations and for action photography where you often need to bump up the ISO in order to use very fast shutter speeds.  The only mirrorless system that uses a full frame sensor is Sony A7.  It has great technology and excellent image quality.  Unfortunately, it also has pretty terrible user experience.  Best I can tell, their UI is not designed for humans.  Performance is generally sluggish and battery life is about 60% of what Sony claims.  If you are a landscape photographer, Sony A7R II should be on your shortlist.  Outside of that, if you need a full frame sensor, a DSLR is probably still a better way to go for at least a couple more years.  For allround performance for the money, Nikon D750 is worth looking at.  It is not a new design, so you can find a good deal on it and the AF system is surprisingly competent.  If you do not have legacy lenses from a competing system, and you do not do action photography much, consider Pentax K-1.  This is the most image quality for the money you will get.  Personally, for the things I do, there is an advantage to Canon lenses (I will explain why later), so I would take a long hard look at the new Canon 5D Mark IV.  It is, however, a lot more money.  Also, since Canon seems hell bent on protecting their video camera business, 4K video implementation in the new 5D is fundamentally idiotic (I am being rather mild here; you should hear what real videographers have to say about it).

If you are not compelled to get a full frame sensor, for the most part I would suggest you stay away from DSLRs and stick with a mirrorless camera system.

The only reason to get a DSLR with a crop sensor is if you are looking for good tracking autofocus (i.e. sports) and the best one for the is Nikon D500.  It is not cheap, but it has an absolutely spectacular AF system.  It is also waterproof and, importantly for me, it shoots 4K video.  That is pretty much the only crop sensor DSLR out there that I might consider buying.  If you do not do sports, go mirrorless.

Honestly, with the introduction of Olympus E-M1 Mark II, even sports photography is not really out of reach, but I need to play with that camera a little more to see.  For indoor sports, D500 is still better owing to better high ISO performance.  There are some outstanding issues with D500, but they are mostly peripheral to taking pictures and videos and I hope Nikon will fix them with firmware updates.

Olympus E-M1 Mark II uses a Micro 4/3 size sensor which is a bit smaller than Canon’s APS-C or Nikon’s DX.  All of the Olympus and Panasonic interchangeable lens cameras use Micro-4/3 sensors.

Other mirrorless cameras use APS-C or DX sensors: Fuji X system, Sony A6300 and A6500, Canon EOS M5.

Weirdly, Nikon is not doing anything memorable in the mirrorless space.

All of these are competent cameras.  Sony is the most full featured of them and the one I like the least.  It looks awesome on paper, but it has all of the same Sony problems: sluggish operation, heat issues and battery life issues.  On top of that, Sony decided to not offer lossless raw on their crop sensor cameras, claiming we do not need it.  For those of us who do some postprocessing (and if you do not, system cameras are not for you) this can be an absolute show stopper, since it effects how well you can pull up shadows and generally fix exposure.  I get lossless raw images from my cellphone, but I can’t get them from a Sony A6500.  Basically, if you want to buy a very full featured camera for bragging rights, but do not plan to use any of the features, Sony A6500 is your best choice.  For the rest of us, there are other options.

If you already have a bunch of Canon lenses from your old DSLR, the mirrorless EOS M5 is a pretty good choice.  Canon finally upgraded their sensor fab, so basic image quality from their newest sensors is quite good.  EOS M5 is the only mirrorless camera from Canon with the new sensor.  It does not offer 4K video, but aside from that, I like what I see and it integrates well with all Canon lenses via an adapter.

Fuji X system is now pretty well fleshed out and if you want a mirrorless camera with APS-C sensor, this is a pretty good way to go.  X-T2 now offers competent 4K video and is the best general purpose camera in Fuji’s line-up, while X-Pro2 leans a bit more toward stills.  It sorta comes down to whether you need video and what form factor you like.  X-Pro2 is a rangefinder style camera, while X-T2 is more of a traditional SLR style.  Both are good cameras and they use more or less the same Sony sensor that is in the A6500.  Except, Fuji gets more out of it.

Lastly, we get to Micro-4/3.  This is easily the best fleshed out system in the mirrorless world.  Since it is based on a slightly smaller sensor, its lenses are also a bit smaller, so the overall system is smaller.  The converse is that there is a penalty in low light, although not a huge one.  Traditionally, Panasonic Micro-4/s cameras did better with video and Olympus did better with stills.  The lines are blurring though as far as flagships are concerned.  Newly introduced Olympus E-M1 Mark II is a superb stills camera and a competent video camera.  The upcoming Panasonic GH5 is still likely to be better with video, but stills will be no slouch either.

If you are on a budget, Panasonic generally offers what I believe to be the best price to performance ration in the camera world: G80 for those who like DSLR-style bodeis and GX80 for those who prefer rangefinder style bodies.  Both have excellent stills features and very respectable video options including 4K.  In this price range, I do not like the Olympus offerings, so stick with Panasonic.

As you go a bit higher in price, we have Panasonic GX8 and Olympus Pen-F.  GX8 looked so promising that I bought… and two weeks later returned it.  It is an extremely competent camera, but I could not grab it without inadvertently pressing a bunch of buttons.  Aside from that, I thought it was a very nice design.  I know a lot of people love it and it clearly works for them.  To me, it is a mess of a UI.  Panasonic was trying to make sure there is enough adjustability, so they put in 14 customizable controls instead of leaving some gripping space.

Olympus Pen-F uses the same sensor as GX8 and seems to be a touch better for still image quality, but it is close.  Video features, however, are rather limited.  If you do anything more than a casual video clip occasionally, this is not the camera for you.  Stills performance, however, is excellent as is build quality.  If Olympus made the Pen-F weather resistant, I would already own one warts and all, and I still might buy it.

The flagships of the Panasonic and Olympus lines are GH5 and E-M1 Mark II respectively.  GH5 is coming out next year.  E-M1 Mark II just came out.  I’ll talk about GH5 when it is here.  The E-M Mark II, however, is a superb camera with incredible speed and image stabilization.  If you are after a flagship, give it a look.

 

 Posted by at 4:33 pm

More on Camera Selection

 Cameras  Comments Off on More on Camera Selection
Jun 072016
 

So, I got a Leica Q.  It is a fixed lens camera with a a prime 28mm focal length lens, bright F/1.7 max aperture and a full frame 24 megapixel image sensor.

The camera is absolutely superb.  I posted a few pictures earlier and I will post a few more here and there, but it is a spectacular camera.  It is extremely responsive, with superb focus accuracy, intuitive controls and excellent image quality.  Most importantly, the lens quality is just stunning.

However, the Q, as good as it is, does not cover all bases.  It is a superb walkaround camera for street shooting, architecture, etc.  It does well with landscapes.  It does well indoors.  It does a lot of things well.  However, it is still a 28mm lens and for some things it  does not work all that great even if you are OK with a fair amount of cropping.

The Q covers about 65% of the photography I do very well, but there are a few things for which I need a different camera (or two since you can never have enough cameras):

-Portrait: you can do portraits with a 28mm when you want the background involved.  However, sometimes you want a lot of subject isolation and a 28mm lens is not ideal for that.

-Weather sealing: the Q is not weather sealed, for some odd reason.  It is not a huge deal for me, since I live in dry Southern California.  However, I felt a bit uncomfortable when taking pictures on the beach with both sand and water around.

-Telephoto: while I do not do telephoto a whole lot, I do need it occasionally.  For serious telephoto, I can use my spotting scopes, but that is best done from a stationary spot.  If I want to take a telephoto capable camera hiking with me, that does not work.  Another thing I found is that

-4K video: the Q has fairly decent video quality, but it is 1080p60 and it does not allow external mic input.  As my kids are growing I find myself using video more and more.  Naturally, I do not want to have a separate camcorder.

-I want a camera with a built in flash.  I find the built-in flash extremely useful for fill-in on sunny days.

-I want a camera that I can potentially take snorkeling, skiing, etc.

All jokes aside, I am trying to get all of this accomplished with as few cameras as possible.

Basically, a flexible outdoor walkaround lens with telephoto capability can not be the same lens that provides shallow depth of field for portraits.  Similarly, unless I want to get an underwater case, the snorkeling/skiing capable camera is a different piece as well.

Hence, what I am ending up with here is a potential assembly of four different cameras.

As I have mentioned earlier my primary interchangeable lens system has been Micro 4/3 and I am generally quite happy with it.  Now, that I have the Q, I put my previous primary camera up on Ebay: Olympus E-M1 with two F/2.8 Pro zooms that I have.  However, I have an older Micro 4/3 body (Pansonic GX-1) which takes rather good pictures.  I decided to hold onto the GX-1 and pair it with my 45mm F/1.8 Olympus lens to use for portraits.  With this combination, neither the lens nor the body are stabilized, but for portraits, I can’t get away with long exposure times anyway, so it should work fine.  Either way, I like the idea of keeping at least one interchangeable lens system camera around in case I need to add a new capability in a hurry.  Technically, I still have Nikon D90, so I can also use that, but there I would need to buy a new lens.

For telephoto and 4K video, I am leaning toward Sony RX 10 Mark II whenever it becomes available.  The sensor on it is a bit smaller at 1″, but it is large enough for general outdoor use and the F/2.4-F/4 lens with equivalent focal length range of 25-600mm is very appealing.  I know this camera has excellent video capabilities and it has some manner of weather sealing.  It is not as good as that on higher quality DSLRs, but it should be sufficient for me.  Most importantly, it gives me 600mm equivalent focal length with F/4 aperture.  That is better than any of the walkaround zoom lenses I am aware of.  Micro 4/3 lenses of this type go out to 280mm equivalent.  APS-C walkaround zoom lenses go out to 450mm equivalent at most (Sigma and Nikon make 18-300mm lenses, while Tamron has a 16-300mm model).

That leaves me with a big question mark on what to do for an underwater camera.  I quality underwater case is close to a thousand dollars and it adds bulk.

On the other hand, all the “tough” cameras like Olympus Tough series, etc have really mediocre image quality.

Leica X-U has good image quality, but is expensive.  I am not sure I can afford another Leica any time soon.

Perhaps, I will get a waterproof case for my cell phone in the meantime, and use that.

Generally, the whole camera selection I am ending up with is not cheap:

1) Leica Q is $4250 (if you can find one in stock)

2) ILC body with a prime lens for portraits (80-90mm equivalent) will run you a minimum of $1k (if you were buying one new)

3) Sony RX 10 Mark III will run around $1500 once it is available.

4) Leica X-U if you were to get one is close to $3k.

That adds up dangerously close to ten thousand dollars.  I think I will enjoy the Q for a while and concentrate on selling gear I do not need for the time being.  If I really find myself with an urge to get a walkaround lens, Nikkor 18-300mm to sit on my Nikon D90 should scratch the itch for a little bit.  My brother uses one and while the image quality is merely OK, it is a very flexible option.

In the meantime, I do enjoy the Q…

 

 Posted by at 7:45 pm

Leica Q

 Cameras  Comments Off on Leica Q
Jun 032016
 

I have written about enthusiast compact cameras a bit earlier on (here).

Since then, I got myself a Leica Q and took it on vacation to Israel.  I like it so far.  Here are a few images:

Montfort castle in Northern Israel

Rosh HaNiqra caves

Rosh HaNiqra caves

Sunset near Mikhmoret in central Israel

 

 Posted by at 6:08 pm

Cameras: The Age of Enthusiast Compact, continued

 Cameras  Comments Off on Cameras: The Age of Enthusiast Compact, continued
Apr 082016
 

In an earlier post I went over the available cameras with 1″ sensor (16mm diagonal) and opined that there is now enough variety of point and shoot cameras built around that sensor size to make it the best allround choice for just about anyone who wants high quality pictures, but is not really into cameras per se.  Naturally, enthusiast compact cameras are also a very interesting proposition for true camera geeks like your truly since they cover such a broad range of applications.  I suspect that originally this camera segment was created for us, once camera manufacturers figured out that we are willing to spend a fair amount of money on nice cameras.   With all that, most of the time I see such a camera in the hands of a serious hobbyist is as a backup piece when for whatever reason he could not have his system camera with him.

Aside from the cameras based around a 1″ sensor, there is a whole differen category of enthusiast point and shoot cameras that I briefly mentioned in my earlier article.

These cameras are llrgely based around larger image sensors (mostly APS-C and Full 35mm) and are equipped with prime lenses (although there are a couple of notable exceetions).

Naturally, there are a couple of designs that are in the no-man’s land with a 4/3″ type sensor which is half way between 1″ and APS-C.  The cameras are Panasonic LX100 and Canon G1X Mark II.  In terms of performance, they are closer to the 1″ crowd, so I am not going to pay too much attention to them here.  LX100 does deserve a special mention of sorts, but it has been out for a while now and is due for an update.  I am very curious to see if Panasonic will roll it in together with the 1″ models or keep it separate.

I messed a bit with the Adorama website to select only the cameras that are applicable to this category and here is the list:

Adorama Search Results

Size comparison courtesy of camerasize.com.

Some of the entries are different flavors of the same model, but ultimately there thirteen distinct models in there.

At top of the of this whole large sensor/prime lens segment sit two cameras: Leica Q Typ 116 and Sony RX1R Mark II.  Leica comes with a 24MP full 35mm frame sensor and 28mm F/1.7 lens, while Sony incorporates a class leading 42.5MP image sensor with a Zeiss-designed 35mm F/2 lens.  Leica costs around $4,250, while the Sony is about a thousand cheaper. Both of these are expensive and very niche cameras.  I have tried the Leica Q and the feel of it is stunning.  It also seems to have the best lens I have seen to date.

Sony RX1R Mark II is a technology tour-de-force  with stunning images and an excellent Zeiss lens.  However, I think the Leica lens on the Q has it beat hands down especially in terms of micro contrast and color rendering.  Now, it is hard to compare with different sensors, so take it for what it is.  Basically, the Sony will ultimately give you more detail, but Leica makes those details interesting.  To me the images out of the Sony require a lot more post processing work to make them look as good as those from Leica Q.

Notably, I think the RX1R is a better video camera, although both are really aimed at stills.  1080p60 video that both cameras produce is pretty respectable for short video clips of my kids that I routinely make.

A step down in price, bracketing $2k, are the various Leica X cameras.  Leica has gone through several iterations of the X, all using a 16MP APS-C sized imager (a bit less than half the area of full 35mm sensors in Leica Q and Sony RX1 models) which deliver beatiful color and overall good ergonomics.  I am not fully up to speed on the earlier X cameras, but currently there are three in production in I understand things correctly:

X Typ 113 offers a 23mm F/1.7 lens (35mm equivalent)

X-U is the X Typ113 packaged into a ruggedized and waterproof body (which makes it a bit more expensive at around $3K)

X Vario swaps the prime 35mm equivalent lens of the X for a much smaller aperture zoom 24-70mm f/3.5 – 6.4 optic

Overall, I think Leica is finally converging on a coherent strategy for its non-interchangeable lens cameras, and I am curious to see how it will develop further.  The ruggedized Leica X-U is a brilliant move in my opinion.  To get this sort of imaging performance out of any other camera in a challenging environment you have to shove it into a waterproof/rugged case which immediately adds $1k to $1.5k to the camera price and makes it seriously bulky.  All of a sudden Leica X-U price does not look too bad.  For scuba divers it does not replace a proper waterproof enclosure, but for everyone else, X-U is an interesting option.  It definitely peaked my interest.  X Vario produces beautiful images, but I think Leica needs to give it a larger aperture lens.  As is, it really suffers in low light.  The X Typ113 is a nice camera, but it is really being undercut by Fuji X100T that I will mention next.  I think box X Typ 113 and X Vario are hurt by the lack of a built-in EVF.

Basically, I think Leica Q is spectacular (so much so that I plan to buy one).  Interestingly, the Q offers three preset crop modes to simulate three classic focal lengths: 6000×4000 at 28mm, 4800×3200 at 35mm and 3360×2240 at 50mm.  In its 35mm crop mode, the Q has similar resolution to the X, but outperforms it handily.

Next step down from the Leica X series in price is the Fuji X100T.  It is the third iteration of the Fuji X100 series and is a very nice one.  It has an excellent feel, same basic 16MP image sensor as the Leica except in Fuji’s X-Trans form which uses a different color filter arrangement.  The lens is a 23mm F/2 (35mm equivalent), which is similar to the Leica X.  What makes a big difference is the presence of Fuji’s hybrid eye level viewfinder which works beautifully and does not make the camera much bigger unlike the add-on EVF of the X series.  Image quality is excellent and Fuji ergonomics are very good for most people.  I suppose what I am saying here is that unless you are willing to pony up the cash for Leica Q or Sony RX1R Mark II (and if you not looking for a waterproof body),  Fuji X100T should be at the top of your list.  I think Leica X lens is still a touch better, but Fuji is not far behind and that view finder  makes all the difference in the world.  At $1300 or so the Fuji is also a fair bit cheaper.

This year, Fuji added another fixed lens camera to its line-up, the X70.  It is the same basic imaging pipeline (sensor and processor) than the much more expensive X100T, but the composition is via the rear screen LCD only and the lens is a 28mm equivalent 18.5mm F/2.8.  The X70 is pretty new and is proving to be a pretty decent camera for $700, but I am not nearly as excited about it.  Autofocus is a little slow in low light and I am not sure what it offers me that the $100 cheaper Ricoh GR II does not.

Also, some early indications suggest that the 28mm equivalent lens of the GR II is a bit sharper  wide open (at F/2.8) than that on the Fuji and the GR II is slimmer.  There is another reason why I am so fond of the GR II and it may seem minor, but makes a big difference for me.  While most of the cameras I mentioned earlier are too large to be pocketable, the Fuji X70 and Ricoh GR II are if you have large pockets (and I do).  The GR II has a built in lens cover, while the X70 lens cover is removable.  That means that the cover is going to fall off in my pocket at some point and the lens will get covered with whatever else may be populating my pocket or scratched by an errant coin I forgot to remove.  Even a slim protective filter makes a difference in this case.  Also, a removable lens cap means I need two hands to deploy the camera.  With the GR II, I can quickly yank the camera out of my pocket and get a shot off with one hand if need be.

Lastly, there is the Sigma Quattro series.  These cameras look is plain weird (Earlier Sigma Merrill series cameras had conventional look, but with Quattro they went… unique), but they are surprisingly comfortable to use despite (or because of) that odd look:

In some ways, Sigma’s fixed lens camera strategy is the most coherent one of all.  They have four models that are identical except for lenses:

DP0 14mm f/4 (24mm equivalent)

DP1 19mm F/2.8 (28mm equivalent)

DP2 30mm f/2.8 (45mm equivalent)

DP3 50mm f/2.8 (75mm equivalent)

None of these have an eye level viewfinder and all of these utilize Sigma’s unique Foveon image sensor.  I am not going to get into details of how this image sensor works, but the end result is that in good light these cameras deliver superb images and as soon as the light gets low, the image quality becomes absolutely horrid.  When I say horrid, I mean that at ISO 800, cameras with image sensors oh laf the size of these behave similar or better and beyond that, they are markedly better.  For low light, any of the compact cameras with 1″ sensors (like Sony RX-100 and Nikon DL24-85 are better).

However, if all you do is daylight photography (Sigma DP cameras do not have video modes), these cameras can deliver stunning images.

Anyhow, at the end of this whole meandering write-up, it should be fairly clear which ones I like enough to recommend.  Still, I’ll offer a brief summary:

-If you are on a budget and enjoy street photography, get Ricoh GR II with its 28mm equivalent, sharp F/2.8 lens

-If you prefer the 35mm equivalent focal length, Fuji X100T has a lot to recommend itself.

-If you can afford it, Sony RX1R Mark II ultimately offers the best absolute image quality here with also with a 35mm lens, but I am just not a huge fan if its ergonomics

-I like street photography, so Leica Q Typ 116 is the most appealing camera here for my purposes (and I have it on order)

-Lastly, if you spend a lot of time hiking, biking, skiing and snorkeling Leica X-U should be at the top of your list

 

 Posted by at 6:31 pm

Cameras: The Age Of The Enthusiast Compact

 Cameras  Comments Off on Cameras: The Age Of The Enthusiast Compact
Mar 222016
 




March 21, 2016

My dayjob involves spending a lot of time with cameras, since the company I work for makes image sensors and our customers are camera makers.  I am extremely fortunate to have a job that crosses over so strongly with one of my major hobbies.  Now, this website is largely dedicated to one of my other major hobbies (guns and sporting optics), but I figured some occasional thoughts on cameras won’t hurt.

As a matter of background, like most reasonably serious hobbyists, I use a system camera (a few of them actually).  My primary set-up is built around the Micro 4/3 system, with two cameras and a considerable array of lenses.  While I have largely traded in my DSLRs in favor of mirrorless cameras, I do have an old Nikon D90 that I pilfered from my brother who is mostly a Nikon shooter.  Aside from the Micro 4/3 (i.e. Olympus and Panasonic) gear, I also have a Samsung NX500 mirrorless camera with a couple of lenses.  It is a surprisingly capable camera system, although I decided to stick with Micro 4/3 on the strength of its wider array of lenses.  Hence, the NX500 is about to head toward Ebay.

As far as cameras go, I am anything but an early adopter, since I tend to buy them toward the end of their product lifecycle,  However, I get to see a lot of cameras as a part of my job, so I tend to be very much up to speed on what is out there. If photography is a serious hobby for you and you like messing with different lenses, camera bodies, filters, flashes, etc, then a system camera is absolutely the way to go for you as it is for me.

For that, my primary camera is Olympus E-M1 and I could not be happier with it.  For me, Micro 4/3 is the “Goldilocks” system, with the image sensor large enough for very good allround performance and a broad range of excellent and reasonably compact lenses.  When I tried the Samsung NX system, I realized that to get the same range as I have with Micro 4/3, my overall kit ended up nearly twice larger and heavier  Now, the larger image sensor of the NX cameras would likely give me better low light performance, but there wasn’t enough of a difference to carry a twice larger pack on my photography excursions.  Now, it I was heavily into low light photography or indoor sports, I would be more willing to compromise on weight and size, but I am not.

A while back, I had a discussion with a coleague of mine about cameras and while he likes taking nice pictures, I think his interest in cameras is somewhat limited.  Now, he is a very technical guy, but he is definitely not a camera geek, like your truly.  For him, a system camera is a singularly inappropriate option.  However, simply taking pictures with a cellphone or a cheap point-and-shoot will not cut it either.  He wants better image quality. Just a few years ago, he would be stuck with buying a DSLR and some sort of a general purpose zoom lens.  That would make for a reasonably capable, but bulky camera.  On top of that, kit zoom lenses are notoriously mediocre in terms of image quality, so he would also end up paying a fair bit if he wanted a better lens.  In principle, that could be a gateway for him to get into photography and acquire more lenses.  However, I have seen this play out before in a very different way.  Most likely, this array of gear would be collecting dust somewhere on the shelf since to drag this whole paraphernalia with you to every family outing takes a fair amount of dedication. Here is where enthusiast compact cameras come in.  They are not a new invention, but due to advances in image sensors and image processors, they have really flourished in recent years.

It first started out with several Japanese manufacturers using slightly larger than typical image sensors and comparatively bright zoom lenses.  Technically, low F/# lenses are difficult to build on a budget and in a compact form factor, especially if you also want them to zoom. I believe the breaking point was the availability of image processors that could be optimized to do real time lens correction.  If you allow some fairly significant distortion to remain, the lens can be smaller and cheaper while maintaining good image quality.  There is some image quality loss toward the outside of the image, due to distortion correction, but it is not all that easy to see and in a small camera is not too significant.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Japanese companies are masters of optimization and optimize they did.  Multiple combinations of image sensors and lenses were tried by literally every camera maker (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic) until two separate paradigms emerged:

1) 1″ image sensor (16mm diagonal; image sensor sizes are written in an archaic form where 1 inch is not really one inch, but 16mm) with a zoom lens

2) 4/3″ (22.5mm diagonal), APS-C (28mm diagonal) or 35mm (43mm diagonal) with a prime lens

The second category has really become a staple for serious hobbyists who view photography as an art and are willing to put up with a non-zooming lens and, frequently, larger size in exchange for better depth of field control and low light performance of a larger sensor.  Rather than get into it here, I think I’ll do a separate post on these.

For everyone else, the multitude of cameras from the first category offer a significant step up in both image quality and flexibility from what they can get out of their cellphone (notably, modern cell phone cameras are so good that only enthusiast compact cameras described here and long zoom bridge cameras have any future whatsoever).

Here is a list of cameras with 1″ sensor available now that I can think of off the top of my head.  I’ll add links for these to Adorama if you want to look at more detailed specs.  Generally, all of these use some version of a Sony made image sensor with their own lenses and ISPs.  Within this category there is a further split into two distinct camera types based on the lens choice and form factor:

-Pocketable and nearly pocketable cameras with standard zoom lenses (some are only bright at wide angle, and some are bright through the whole range)

  • Sony RX100 is not on its 4th iteration (Mark IV).  This is the camer that started it all and is likely the best alround choice if you do a fair bit video in addition to photos.  There is even a collapsible EVF which works reasonably well, although it is not my favourite configuration. 24-70mm equivalent lens is not very long, but it is reasonable for allround photography.
  • Canon G7X is on its second iteration and it has the best lens (of the ones I have seen) for photography.  It is a little longer than most others of this type at 24-100m equivalent range and a little brighter as you transition toward telephoto.  However, the video feature set is weaker than that of Sony and some others
  • Canon G9X is probably the most compact camera here, but at the expense of low light performance at telephoto.  It is pretty bright wide open.  Video features are similar to G7X: OK, but nothing to write home about.
  • Panasonic ZS100 is an interesting beast that marches to the beat of a different drum.  It is about the same size as RX100 and GX7 above, but it integrtes a viewfinder in the top left corner of the camera that does not need to be collapsed anywhere and a 10x zoom lens (25-250mm equivalent).  The aperture is pretty small by the time you get to 2500m at F/5.9, but it is F/2.8 at wide angle.  While I generally prefer larger apertures, 10x zoom in a camera this size is both impressive and very useful.  For general purpose photography, this is a veyr good option and it does very respectable video as well (4K at 30p).  Pansonic invented the whole travelzoom category years ago and this latest entrant is an excellent alround camera for someone who wants a small camera to do it all.
  • Canon G5X is sorta like the G7X I mentioned above but on steroids.  It has the same sensor and lens, but in a slightly larger body that offers additional control and an electronic eye level viewfinder.  If you are not looking for anything pocketable, this configuration offers very good user experience.  Just like with G7X, I wish they added 4K video, but for photography I like this camera a lot
  • Nikon DL 18-50 has a unique lens for this category.  As the name suggests, the lens spans from freakishly wide 18mm equivalent to a “normal” 50mm equivalent. 18mm equivalent is 90 degrees horizontal.  I bet that this camera will be popular with street shooters and landscape photographers.  This camera is pretty new, but I will make sure I get my hands on it.  It really stands out from the crowd.  Like the other DL lenses, it has excellent hybrid autofocus that promises to be exceptionally snappy and 4K video. The lens offers F/1.8 at wide angle and F/1.8 at normal, so low light performance should be quite respectable
  • Nikon DL 24-85 is Nikon’s take on a general purpose enthusiast camera.  It is new, so I have not had a chance to get my hands on one yet, but I have a suspicion that it has a lot of commonality with the latest Nikon 1 cameras which I am well familiar with.  That might make it the one to beat.  Nikon hybrid autofocus that combines phase and contrast detect methods is superb, especially in good light and video features are well rounded out.  The 24-85mm F/1.8 – F/2.8 lens splits the difference between RX100 and GX7 in terms of zoom coverage and offers good video options.  It does not have a built-in viewfinder, like the GX7, but it comes with a hotshoe, so you can add external components to it

-Bridge cameras with the same image sensors and long zoom lenses

  • Sony RX10 is on its second iteration and comes with a very well designed 24-200mm equivalent lens that keeps its F/2.8 aperture at all focal lengths.  It is not a small camera and it gives you DSLR style handling with both LCD and eye level view finders. However, both photo and video quality are very good.  If someone came to me and said: “pick one camera for everything you do!”, this would be somewhere around the top of the list.  This is the most expensive camera in this list, but it is also the best rounded both int erms of stills and video
  • Canon G3X has a very broad zoom range (24-600mm equivalent) but the aperture drops to F/5.6 at telephoto (starts at F/2.8 wide angle) and it does not have an integrated eye level viewfinder.  This would not be my top choice, but if you do a lot of telephoto, you could do worse.  The one I played with did not have too snappy of an autofocus performance though, so keep that in mind.  Also, like the rest of the Canons here, 4K video is not available
  • Panasonic FZ1000 is the one camera among these brdige-style designs that can give the RX100 Mark II a run for its money, partially because it costs a lot less money.  The 25-400 equivalent lens is F/2.8 at wide angle and F/4 at telephoto.  F/4 is still pretty bright and 400mm telphoto is nothing to sneeze at.  The build is not as rock solid as RX10, but still pretty good.  Autofocus performance is very snappy and 4K video is quite good.  RX10 is better at slow motion and in low light, but it is almost twice more expensive
  • Nikon DL24-500 is also new like the other two DL lenses and it offers a long lens together with DSLR-style handling (and size).  Like the G3X, the aperture gets a bit small at telephoto (F/5.6), but autofocus promises to be quick and video capabilities are quite good.  It is still not my favourite design here, but I like it more than G3X and I can definitely see how for some it is a top choice

Here is a DPReview chart that shows how the equivalent depth of field compares:

If push comes to shove, you can pick two cameras from this list with a cumulative cost of somewhere between $1500 and $2000 and have every equivalent focal length from 18mm to 600mm covered.

With my micro 4/3 lenses, it takes a few lenses to cover that and they cost more if you go with higher end designs.  My two workforce lenses are Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 and 40-150mm F/2.8.  They are very nice designs, but they cost $2k together if you find a raging deal.  That is without a camera.  The E-M1 I use can be bought for around $1k now that it has been out for around three years.  That takes from equivalent 24mm to 300mm.  If I want to go beyond that, that will take more lenses and more hassle.  Ultimately, the whole system I have gives me a lot of capability and the lenses will work with many other camera bodies in the future, but had I been starting out now, I do not know if I would be able to resist the simplicity of getting a couple of cameras with integrated lenses.

Since, some of the cameras I mentioned here are very new, it is difficult to make concrete recommendations.  Still, based on what I know now, if I were looking for a general purpose compact camera, I would wait and see how the reviews on Nikon DL24-85 look.

For a larger camera, as good as the other offerings are, I think I would grudgingly pay extra for Sony RX10 Mark II with its remarkable video capabilities and constant F/2.8 lens.

Lastly, in the interest of full disclosure, I do not currently own any of these, but people I know well have purchased RX100, RX10 and G7X at my recommendation and have been extremely happy with them.

Why don’t I own one? Well, I have a fairly complete camera system already, and I am sufficiently dedicated to have a camera with me most of the time.  As far as what it would take to get me to buy one, that is fairly simple: if a company made one of these in a waterproof/rugged form factor (kinda like Olympus Tough on steroids), I would buy one in a heartbeat.  Leica X-U is sorta along those lines and I am considering picking one up, but it is expensive.

 

 Posted by at 7:14 pm