I’ve noticed an increase in advertisements for point and shoot cameras in the photo trade journals. These ads are directed toward serious (or professional) photographers. Basically, the idea is that you probably don’t want to carry your heavy (expensive) DSLR with you when you’re just going to be taking pictures of your friends and family.
I understand the sentiment. I just can’t buy it though. If you’re shooting a full frame DSLR, you’re going to hate the reduction in image quality – even for family snapshots. If you’re shooting with an APS size sensor, you’re going to hate the reduced quality too!
I know, I know, you’re not going to make big prints of you family vacation.
But we’re ‘artists’! (At least we try to be…) Do you really want to show your friends (or clients) less than tack sharp images?
What if you encounter something that piques your artistic interest? Now you’re stuck! You have the vision, the opportunity, but not the technology.
For those of us old enough to remember the film days, did we carry an Instamatic with us on vacation, or did we take our 35mm (or 2 1/4) with us? We wouldn’t have been caught dead with an Instamatic!
Just for the sake of comparison, a full size sensor (FX in Nikon parlance) is 24mm x 36mm (the white area in the graphic below), an APS sensor (DX in Nikon-speak) is 15.8mm x 23.6mm (the blue area). We’re used to those sizes – that’s what most of us use all the time. The advanced point and shoot cameras that are being targeted at us ‘advanced’ shooters typically have sensor size of 5.7mm x 7.6mm (the red area!!). The graphic shows the relative size, not the actual size.
Don’t get me wrong. I think these cameras have terrific value. I just don’t think that serious photographers – amateur or pro – will be able to live with the results.
But that’s just me…