Point 4 is excellent. There are some CCDs that are good at low-light
photography. I have used some for astrophotography, but they can be
horrifically expensive. The one I have used (borrowed) is made by SBIG, an
STV. Check it out at www.sbig.com
-Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Chip Stratton [mailto:cstrat@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 10:04 AM
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [OM] Digital P&S vs. OM
It is quite possible that some pictures from his P&S digital, when printed
at no more than 5"x7" or possibly even 8"x10" , will be just about
indistinguishable from the same picture taken by your OM. That will only
happen if you constrain the conditions to suit the digicam, however:
1. Low contrast scene - digital cameras often blow out the highlights and
have too much noise in the shadows, i.e. much poorer exposure latitude than
color negative film.
2. No need to isolate the subject using shallow depth of field - hard to do
since even f2.0 on digital cameras gives more like a 35mm camera's f4.0
3. Super-wide angle of view not needed - almost no digicams are available
with a coverage wider than 28mm equivalent. You can add wide angle adapters
to them to get wider, but more glass=more flare/distortion/loss of contrast
etc. not to mention how cumbersome they get.
4. Extreme low light capability not necessary - digicams do poorly here
because the CCD is 'slower' than fast film, and when exposures are longer
than about 1 second, 'dark noise' becomes prominent particularly in the
shadows - unless you can supercool your digicam. Then your battery may not
be up to the task....
5. Critical focus not necessary - when using shallow depth of field, it is
very hard to know if your digicam is best focused on the critical component
of your picture - the LCD display doesn't have enough resolution to tell you
this, even in 'magnify' modes.
So he may not be 'wrong' if he chooses the field of battle properly, but it
sounds like he may not be that 'smart'.
Having said that, I use my Olympus C-3030 for almost all of my 'Point and
Shoot' photography, and only pull out the OM gear when I have a specific
purpose in mind, like 'pleasure photography', or quality portraits etc. They
each have a role in my universe.
Chip Stratton
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