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[OM] Re: Oops - SP-550 UZ review at dpreview

Subject: [OM] Re: Oops - SP-550 UZ review at dpreview
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:11:25 -0700
Phil wrote:
>> Moose wrote:  I really want to find an Oly digicam that I can buy and enjoy 
>> using.
>> Time to plan trips to waterfalls and other wet places and look at the
>> 770 SW again.....
>>     
>
>
> Moose
>
> What is your selection criteria for a Digicam?
>   
Which category? I can sort of answer a couple indirectly without 
rambling on and on.

DLSR - 5D
Compact P&S - F30

There is nothing on the market now that would change either of those. 
Neither is perfect, both make me very happy.

Likely winner, rugged and waterproof - Oly 770 SW, pending test 
confirmation it's image qualities are no worse (a little better, 
please!) than the 730.

Winner in the category of the subject line, superzoom, none. Current 
leaders, S3 IS and H5. S6000fd would be a contender if it had IS. As it 
is, it's big enough that I might just as well buy an 18-200+ mm zoom for 
the 300D, which will have better image quality, too. Then if I am going 
to carry that, why not the 5D? New contenders not yet delivered, H7/9.

My first criterion is image quality. If it can't make a clean, noise 
free, artifact free image at base iso, there has to be some compelling 
feature(s) to justify it. The 770 SW might fall into this, with complete 
waterproofness to deeper than I can dive nowadays and drop and crush 
resistance.

Second is the ability to deliver good image quality over a wide range of 
shooting situations. For me, that will usually be some combo of low 
noise at higher isos and/or IS. It also includes how JPEGs are processed 
on cameras without RAW capability. For example, one of the changes from 
the F10 to F30, never mentioned in marketing features, is a change to 
compressing all shadow detail into the bottom of the histogram, rather 
than clipping some of it. Together with the low noise, that means 
effective dynamic range with post processing closer to a DSLR than most P&Ss

Third is probably creative control and how easily it may be accessed. So 
spot metering is good, a manual mode that requires dipping into menus to 
change settings is worth very little. So, for example a good LCD that is 
reasonably accurate in presenting the exposure together with spot 
metering is more practically useful than manual modes that are hard to 
use. A gazillion scene modes mean nothing to me. I don't have the time 
to learn what they all do as a practical matter, and I would not 
remember when I needed to anyway. Just capture a nice, clean image with 
wide dynamic range and I'm happy.

Or maybe third is speed of key operations.  This is one of the places 
where the 550 falls off the table. Start-up, focus, zoom and write times 
are just awful compared to say the S3.

Fuji just impressed me no end with the F30, adding even lower noise, 
putting EV compensation out of the menu onto its own button, adding Av, 
Sv and Manual and fixing the order of items in the F-Menu (which was an 
improvement over competitor button/menu designs already.) They even 
fixed the tendency of the battery to fall out when accessing the xD 
card. It's like someone in design actually used the F10 a lot and made a 
list of most needed improvements in order to catch the best images. And 
who's doing that these days?

I've been waiting to see if anybody can put together a superzoom for 
casual use that would meet the decent image quality criterion. The zoom 
range on the F30 is limited and the 5D is not all that small.  :-) The 
S3 is just about there, and I like the tilt and swivel LCD a lot, but 
it's only 2" and awfully small compared to what I'm used to, and the EVF 
is nothing to get excited about. Long end AF is less than as good as I 
would like, too, although not as bad as the 550 UZ appears to be. The H5 
is close too, but I want to see what they have done with the 
replacements for it.

Well, that's a few things. :-)

Moose

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