Very much in descending order but your mileage may vary:
Focal length:
The wide end is much more important than the long end. With so many pixels nowadays you can crop afterward to mimic long lens, so the long end is not important. You want at least 28mm at the wide end if not wider.
Aperture:
The larger (the smaller f number) the better because the huge depth of field of small DC you want a large aperture to have some control of the depth of field. It has to be at least f2.8 with f2.0 desirable. Any f number bigger than 2.8 is not acceptable.
Operability:
This is hard to pinpoint. The camera should be easy to operate. The two key operational items are 1) exposure compensation and 2) turning flash on/off. None does 1) well as far as I can tell.
Additional areas to consider: Buttons and controls are intuitive to use. Easy to go from picture taking mode to picture viewing mode. Retaining the setting if you turn off the camera and on again. Camera size not too small, or it will be difficult to operate.
I personally must have A (aperture priority) and M (manually set aperture and shutter speed) but P is perfectly capable of taking great pictures. It is the person, not the camera, who takes the picture.
Minimal shutter lag:
For landscape this is a non-issue. For posed shots (look here and say cheese!) this is also not critical. But for candid shots, street shots, and any spontaneous (creative) shots short shutter lag is very important.
Minimal focal distance:
How close you can get to the subject without evoking Macro mode? Small minimal focal distance gives you room for creativity. It is different than the Macro mode, which most DCs support quite decently. You want this to be under 30cm.
High ISO support:
I mean usable high ISO. At 800 the grain should be acceptable and at 1600 it should be tolerable if having the picture is important. You determine what is acceptable or tolerable.
Viewfinder:
If you use the LCD in the back of the DC to compose, you have two problems. First, you have to extend your arms and you will be composing with a small square with a lot of distraction surrounding it. Second, this is not a stable stance. That’s why most DCs now support anti-vibration. (Since none of the DCs support a viewfinder, I am afraid this is my problem. Some DCs claim to sport a viewfinder but it is only a hole with very imprecise framing.)
Hypes to be ignored:
Brand: All camera makers can make good DCa and they all make good ones and bad ones. It is the model that counts, not the brand. (For example, Canon is a brand, G9 is a model)
Sensor: All sensor types work. We don’t know enough to make that an issue.
Pixel count: All have more than enough.
Larger LCD: Larger LCD eats battery. Otherwise, why not.
Raw format support: Don’t bother.
Digital zoom: Do it with Photoshop.
Conversion lens kit to make it wider or longer: Very hard to use. If the DC itself is not wide or long enough for you, buying it is a dumb idea.
Face recognition: Focus and recompose is easier and more reliable. (I don’t understand why I should let the camera make decision for me when I take pictures.)
Scene modes: Learning to use aperture and shutter speed as the situation calls for is the fun of photography. Don’t do it the wrong way.
White balance: The DC’s auto white balance is very good. It only has problem handling some special types of lights. But if you have to read this, you most likely cannot set the white balance manually anyway.
Continuous shooting mode: If one shot is not good, letting the camera take more shots only gets you more bad shots.
Finally let me comment on my Ricoh GX100 – Don’t buy it unless you know what you are doing.
I bought it because I want 24mm, zero shutter lag, and a viewfinder. The camera delivers the first two perfectly and the third one with an external, optional viewfinder. I cannot complain because I didn’t have any other options.
What GX100 earns its negative vote from me is its very poor high ISO performance. Since I use ISO 1600 on my Canon 350D all the time, I consider myself very easy to please. But GX100 still fails me. I rarely use more than ISO 200. Since I shoot indoor a lot, I keep changing ISO between 80 and 200. This makes the camera’s operability rating very low.
Since I bought it already, I will put up with it. But if you have not made the purchase, reevaluate your requirements again because there is still no better alternative for this combination – 24mm, no shutter lag, and a view finder.
(The Panasonic LX3 receives raving review from the internet photographer community,
but so did GX100.)
又恨又愛的 GX100
2 comments:
I have three candidates: Ricoh's GX200, Canon's G10, and panasonic's LX3.
I like GX100's wide angle end and that used to be G9's weakness. But in G10, they shift down the zoom range so now it covers to about 28mm (if I am not mistaken). LX3 has a very good review and the price range is similar to G10. GX200 is more expensive among these three. G10 has a build optic viewfinder but many people say it's useless since it doesn't show any info during the shooting process. LX3, just like GX200, has an optional viewfinder that you need to spend more money.
For me, although LX3 and G10 are cheaper, they are still very expensive. I just can't make up my mind and buy it. At this moment, if I have "spare" money to spend, I think I will go with LX3.
Roy, I think any of these three will do for us. But they are heavily biased by my criteria. Many people don't care about the viewfinder, nor the wide lens.
The LX3 looks very attractive to me but I try not to look at it because I don't want to feel bad about the GX100.
I heard rumors that Panasonic also has poor high ISO performance.
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