Cameras

[forgotten_aria]

When my canon elph's switch started to break, I got a DSLR, thinking it might be the only camera I needed. Now, with us bloging about taiko a bunch, I'd like something small and inexpensive that I can have sitting around the wings of a stage that I can take pictures with when I'm not drumming. This means I need something that is good in low light. I poked around the net and found out that fujifilm's CCDs are different in a way that makes them very good in low light AND they have software blur and motion stablization. So I decided to get one and try it out. The problem is the general quality isn't that good. I'm targeting something that can make good blog pictures in low light on a stage where I can't use a flash, which I think this camera does perform that with as little motion blur as possible, but will the bad quality make me regret getting it. Is perhaps nothing better than a unitasker?

I used the canon elph sd300 as a benchmark since I loved it (until the switch started flaking.) I set them both to 1600x1200, since you don't care about high resolution for a blog picture and because the fujifilm has a 12800 ISO it might use if it's set below 3Mpixil. I set the bottle swinging and took the photo at the same time with both cameras.

100% crop

Canon	Fujifilm

You can see it does what it says, the bottle is almost blur free, however...
Here are the scaled full sized images:


you an really see the graininess. Now here's the kicker. Here I've forced it to ISO400 AND gave it a flash.


and the 100% crop:


I really can't decide if it's worth it. Am I completely spoiled by the quality of the canon (which, when new was a different price bracket entirely)? Or am I right to think that even though the lack of blur is great, the general quality lacking even under the best conditions?

Comments

[gorgo.livejournal.com]

Increased graininess is a problem with pretty much all digital cameras as you turn the speed up, sadly. Depending on what effect you're lookng for, you might take a look at some of the utilities for digital cameras, like Noise Ninja. Sometimes, adding a little blur effect can disguise grain and make the picture look a bit better.

It is a tough call between the two cameras. The Canon looks a good bit better, but the low speed seems like a killer for taiko photos.

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

Well it's more a question of returning the fuji or not. The canon is, sadly, not terribly usable, because it likes to fall into movie mode at random times.