A small reality check on the State of the digital camera (summer 2011)

Today, digital photography has evolved to a point where image quality from daylight to low light has been achieved and perfected. Lets take a look at the current trends and behaviors of the mid of 2011 camera users.


Nobody prints

Everybody publishes on facebook or the web. Some will print 4x6 because they cost 10 cents at the pharmacy store. Only commercial photographers or fine arts photo students print bigger than 8x10 and a bigger print is expensive as shit for consumers.


HD recording
Coolpix p300

Most cameras can record 720p HD video. Most of it ending up on vimeo, youtube or facebook video. The main difference will be in video quality, sound, optical zoom and continuous autofocus.


State of the affordable fullframe sensor dSLR (35mm equivalent)

5dmkII

D700

A game of specialty (moving vs. staged)
On one side, you get the extremely responsive time-freezing Nikon D700 that gives you a 12mp file that has infinite exposure latitude and color balance capabilities and on the other, you have the Canon 5dmkII that produces massive images of high resolution with the most beautiful bokeh ever. If you are reading this and planning to buy one of them, you are either rich or a working photographer. If you are buying of these to work, look at what you mostly shoot: moving (events, weddings, sports, high-dynamic range, low light) or staged (portraits, fashion, studio) subjects. Using only the middle focus points in the best to mildly good lighting conditions, the 5dmkII is a bitchy princess that needs to be shot slower (+1 EV) than the Nikon and used with L lenses to avoid its white balance failing on you, but if you manage to overcome all of these constrains, you will create the world’s most beautiful images (mainly because of the bokeh of its L prime lenses). The Nikon D700 is an image-snatching gazelle that shoots everything anywhere anytime as fast as you can move.


State of the cropped sensor dSLR (1.6x, 1.5x)

The useable ISO performance of a dSLR goes up to 12800 : The absolute death of the Fullframe dSLR for ISO performance.

While Canon’s 18mp camera sensor is lagging behind in the ISO range and exposure latitude, the new Sony 16.2mp sensor that powers the current generation cameras (Nikon D7000, Sony a55, Pentax K5) brings a revolution that removes the need of a Fullframe camera upgrade for image quality: a massive increase in exposure latitude (to the point of near HDR looking raw files) and ISO performance (two stops gain).

Massive increase in RAW file
14-bit RAW files now weight an average of near 20mb per RAW file at minimum. This fills up buffers, memory cards, external hard drives a lot quicker than before. It’s a nightmare for photographers who shoot a lot on a daily basis, as they need to buy faster and bigger cards (UHS-1 type SD cards) in order to manage the body transition.

Decent HD video quality achieved yet still very far from camcorder
for full HD video go here

Every dSLR of 2011 can produce jaw dropping HD video that fill the screens of HDTVs or 20+ inch computer monitors. Yet to be able to use the video mode, you’ll need to spend a few hundreds on a video rig in order to keep the footage stable and still manual focus your subject as the continuous autofocus engines are still globally retarded at this point. Audio recording is still mono so you’d need to invest in an external microphone to plug in the camera. All in all impractical and making you look like a boss if you ever plan to use this function properly…

Any lens, regardless of zoom or aperture, is sharp enough for most consumer purposes.
This also applies to image stabilized from 18-55mm up to 18-135mm kit lenses. When the proper photography technique is applied, they produce images that are clear enough to be uploaded in low-resolution on the web or printed at 4x6, 8x10, 12x18, etc… the extra things that other more expensive lenses will offer are
- Bigger practical range that go from 18-200mm up to 18-270mm (resulting in bringing less lenses for a daylight photo outing)
- F/2.8 apertures for low light shooting (resulting in smaller range pro-level zooms)
- Aperture of f/2.0 or lower for incredibly thin depth of field (resulting in prime lenses)

Death of the Entry-Level dSLR kit (18-55 + 55-200 lenses)
People that buy a cheap Entry-Level dSLR (Nikon D3100, Canon T2i) will surely gain access to half of whatever’s been written so far on such gear. The problem is the usage of them. From all the years I suggested friends on their fearful and hesitant 1000$ or more investment on a kit, only a small amount of them still frequently use their dSLR on a monthly basis. The other ones simply left the camera at home because they can’t afford the better dSLR lenses (especially for low light shooting, like the f/2.8 lenses that go for 500$ or more) until technology makes a leap or I start writing another State of the digital camera article. And remember folks, an investment becomes expensive only when it’s useless. Then again, some really love to feel like they are holding a big-looking 1000$ investment in their hands, the best they could come up with according to their reading of the reviews and the specifications, etc…, and they loooove to feel like they are shooting like a boss with cameras of big names and shit… once every year. It’s the biggest waste of money in 2011.

You can’t bring one to a concert

Yup, dSLR are prohibited at most paying concerts. So your 1000$ investment stays at home while your neighbor uses its compact camera or smartphone.

Don’t bring a dSLR in da club
Because everybody would think you’re the club photographer and request pictures from you. Also, clubs are so tight nowadays, alcohol will splash on your camera and people will bang on to it. Finally, the working club photographer would go WTF on you because you’re stealing his business… just get drunk and dance dammit!


State of the mirroless camera
In 2009, the Olympus EP1, very first mirrorless camera, made its appearance. Made by Olympus, it was obviously a laggy, slow, unpolished interface of a camera. The lenses were also badly made and ugly. While the camera completely sucked, it introduced an image quality that rivaled the entry-level dSLR cameras while still being able to fit in a woman’s handbag. The problem was just the responsiveness.

Today in 2011, Panasonic, Pentax and the giant Sony are all intensely competing in this format using various designs to achieve amazing image quality. It sells for about the same price as an entry level dSLR (800$) and delivers the same results.

Sony NEX cameras of this fall (NEX-C3, NEX-7) will be powered by the amazing 16.2mp sensor that makes the Nikon D7000 dominate the crop sensor market. It comes with the standard 18-55 kit lens and delivers as much goodness as the current entry-level dSLR. The lens selection is modest though the system is barely one year old. The amount of adapters you can have for the NEX is infinite though: adapters for Nikon F mount, Canon EF mount or the more popular FD mount, etc…

Olympus EP cameras are making a comeback this fall with 3 new bodies who apparently are instantly responsive so stay away from it for now.

Panasonic G series cameras are the one who offer the most hands on manual modes of all cameras. For photographers who want the most control for the buck, you better go for them. Panasonic also has the most vast lens library for the enthusiast photographer with great lenses like the 20mm f/1.7.

Pentax Q cameras seem to suggest the most compact mirrorless system ever created. Using the revolutionary Sony EXMOR R sensor, it will attempt to create the very first Sony EXMOR R raw shooting camera. It will be interesting to see where that leads in September.


State of the compact camera
LX3

Fuji F70EXR

FH20


Back in 2008, the Lumix LX3 dominated the market with its hypersharp leica lens and great CCD sensor. It was Panasonic domination over Canon, the age of the CCD. The competition was very far from the duo of Panasonic and Canon. The main drawbacks of the compact cameras were the ISO performance destroying the image quality after ISO 400 and the native jpg dynamic range being close to zero or ugly-grayish because of the “shadow enhancement”/”fake HDR” engine. Fujifilm tried to resolve the problems with its SUPERCCD sensor, but it failed because the sensor couldn’t drop down from ISO 400 without showing signs of image defects, took a lot of energy to run and recorded at half-resolution with defective white balance and horrible menu interface. HD recording was primitive and not very good. For 200$, you could get a sub 400 ISO full auto camera. You would need to get to 400$ to have the zoom range exceeding 10x with manual functions and pay the premium price of 500$ for a RAW shooting compact. RAW was a necessity because you could manually increase the dynamic range of your pictures and neutralize the noise. Lets look at what's cool today.

500$ High-end compact are only good for photos
The two only good CCD cameras are situated in the high-end 500$ cameras: Canon S95, Lumix LX5. Other equally priced cameras are either slower working or bulkier versions of those models offering nothing more or less. HD video recording on them is subpar. If you are buying one of them, you are looking to shoot and process RAW files. Their lens is quite limited in zoom and the technology that powers them is almost 4 years old. I expect CCD based high-end compacts to die in 2012, because it cannot outdo the image quality of the Sony EXMOR sensor.


Sony’s blessing: the EXMOR R sensor.
The Sony EXMOR R is a back-illuminated CMOS sensor dominates today’s current compact market. A BSI (back-illuminated sensor) basically means that the electronic circuits of an image sensor are placed at the back rather than in the front blocking light and noising up so that more space is dedicated to record incoming light.

Coolpix p300

First of all, it reaches a staggering useable ISO 1600 sensibility setting. That’s 3 stops higher than the useable ISO 200 of the CCD powered compact cameras.

Coolpix p300 (for full HD video go here)

Second, 1080p HD recording comes at standard. Most EXMOR R equipped cameras even have optical zoom enabled during video and stereo sound, perfect for youtube!

Coolpix p300

Third, because the sensor is sized at 1/2.33 inch, the zoom range can go from 18 times to a whooping 35 times zoom from a 24mm wide angle start or support a massive aperture of f/1.8 for extreme low light. The native focal length of 6mm gives the user the possibility to shoot at low as ¼ sharp.

High fps rate of 7fps and above made many things possible like the multishot HDR or multishot hi-ISO modes possible and sweep panorama functions that don’t require a panorama stitching software.

The Sony sensor can be found in any compact camera claiming they have a CMOS sensor built-in: Sony WX/HX/TX series, Nikon s9100/p300 series, Canon HS series and so on and so forth.

Current suggestions
If you are thinking of getting into photography with an entry-level dSLR kit don’t! Get an EXMOR R compact camera instead. Chances are you’ll be using this investment a lot more than your entry-level dSLR. If you have more money, get a mirrorless camera. dSLR today are only worth getting for the ones that can afford spending a lot of time on them and buying them with gear and lenses that either excel in lowlight (below f/2.8) or zoom range (18-105 or more with stabilization) while still being able to carry all this bulk everywhere you go and taking more than 3 seconds to get out of the bag and being spotted as a photographer etc…


A look to the future
Cameras will need to produce something that will give them a big advantage over the next generation of high-powered smartphone.

With low-light image quality nailed, the only remaining problems with compacts today are native dynamic range and DOF control. And yes, I do understand this limitation because of the sensor size. Yet Lytro claims to have cracked the virtual DOF emulation process while other brands like Sony and Fujifilm are offering their way of emulating background bokeh.

I do believe people will stop buying entry-level dSLRs in the future as current mirrorless or EXMOR R compacts remove the need for one.

Sony NEX better step their game up because of the massive variety of low aperture prime lenses available on the Panasonic and Olympus micro four-third side. The Nex-7 is said to be the enthusiast upcoming NEX camera with more hands on controls and a next generation sensor capable of useable ISO 102 400 images. Fujifilm is said to produce its own version of a micro four-third sensor.

The Pentax Q will probably make Nikon release a mirrorless camera with the same specs and Nikkor lenses. I would be very surprised to see Pentax and Nikon sharing the Q mount.

dSLR cameras will either become more like working tools for the photography or videography professionals, enthusiasts and students or be bought by value-seeking consumers and stay at home.

Anyhow the gap between casual photographer and enthusiast will widen a lot more than it is today.