Članki
Problems of the digital technology / Compact cameras vs. DSLRs / page 4
By Matjaz Intihar; Translation: Gregor Borosa
Aug 2, 2000, 19:23

Motive

A crop from the original

Sony H1. A crop from the original above.

Canon S2 IS. A crop from the original above. Even compacts differentiate themselves.

Canon EOS 350D. A crop from the original above shows a different picture from those of compact cameras.

Basic processing

Sony H1.

Canon S2 IS.

Canon EOS 350D. After some manipulation, the image again looks better with this camera.

Additional manipulation

Sony H1. Differences become more apparent at higher magnifications.

Canon S2 IS. Compact cameras H1 and S2 IS produce a bit different photos.

Canon EOS 350D. With a DSLR camera there is a different kind of in-camera processing which gives us more freedom for optimizing images in our favorite software.

Original

Both cameras (compact above, DSLR beneath) had aperture set to 5.6. The difference in the depth-of-field is huge. With a compact camera like the S2 IS or the H1 at focal length of 72mm we get the same angle of view as with the EOS 350D at 270mm. That's why the depth-of-field is different. Note that huge dept-of-field can sometimes be disturbing, too.

The control over the depth-of-field is one of the main strengths of the DSLR cameras toward the compact ones.

Differences because of focal lengths

Another example of a compact camera making a better image. Shorter focal length of 72mm (photo above, S2 IS) gives us the same angle as a DSLR camera with 1.6x crop factor at 270mm (photo below, DSLR) and we can use longer exposure times while stile getting a sharp image. With a DSLR camera, set to ISO 400, I've only gotten 1/125s at maximum aperture of 5.6, the photo is blurry despite using IS (image stabilization).

EOS 350D at 270mm at exposure time 1/125s. With the S2 IS and the H1 we get the same angle at only 72mm because of the smaller sensor. That's why we can get sharp photos even at 1/125s.

Before post-processing

These are the original photos (from left to right) from the H1, the S2 IS and the 350D at ISO 400. We see that the H1 has high contrast out-of-the-box and no visible noise. The S2 IS preserved some details in the dark areas, but the noise is more apparent. On the other hand, we see no noise with the EOS 350D while still having a lot of details in the dark areas, but the shot is blurry.

Tonal correction of the photos above

Here are photos from the H1, the S2 IS and the 350D at ISO 400 after some heavy tonal adjustments. The H1 makes significant processing of the data right from the beginning. Photos are nice, but they don't give you much space for post-processing. The S2 IS processes somewhat differently. We get more details in the areas under the flash, but the noise is more visible. The 350D keeps uniform tonal values with little or no noise and a lot of details.

Corrected originals

Tonal and sharpness readjustments (from the left) of the H1, the S2 IS and the 350D at ISO 400. After manipulating till I got approximately the same tonal values, we see a great loss at the photos from the compacts (look at middle tonal values near the flash). There is noticeable noise on the photo from the 350D. That's because the shot was shaken and I need to sharpen it a lot. There is nose, but because of all the data available, I've managed to get the same sharpness as with the compact cameras. Here's another advantage of DSLR cameras. We've managed to get decent sharpness even from a blurry photo. The image is quite good despite heavy readjustments.

Tonal readjustments

Here's even higher contrast than on the photo above. Again we see much different images of both compacts. The shaken photo from the DSLR camera is just as sharp as other photos, but because of heavy sharpening the noise is more apparent. However, the photo is still uniform and details are visible.

page 5 / differences in pictures