Observations on a modern P&S

[Deleted]

On our recent river cruise through Europe the only camera I took was a recently-acquired Fuji F600EXR point and shoot camera. Now that we're back and I have had time to look at the photo results I have the following observations.

I went with the Fuji because it was the first P&S camera I have ever handled that didn't have shutter lag. It did a admirable job. My only problem was I'm accustomed to shooting with DSLRs and the tiny Fuji was difficult for me to hold steady in low light. That led to some blurred photos but my technique improved as the trip progressed. It would have been nice to have a lenses faster than f/3.5 but digital sensors are sensitive enough nowadays to make up for several stops of lens speed.

The Fuji allegedly has a 16 megapixel sensor. But it is a very tiny sensor. It delivered knockout color but low light images tended to have considerable of noise if greatly enlarged. My several years old, 6.5 megapixel Nikon D50 DSLR produces images in low light with a lot less noise than the Fuji but the Fuji fits in my pocket and I didn't have to haul around a camera case.

If we were taking the same trip again, knowing what I know now, I would take the Fuji again without a second thought. I think I would use the P&S even if I needed some art for a travel article. If I was shooting stock scenics for a variety of possible commercial uses, I would use my Nikon D300, however.

On past trip when I took a DSLR I often found myself distracted from what we were seeing because I was dragging the camera in and out of a bag and/or changing lenses. It seemed like with the Fuji I had a lot more time to just enjoy the trip --- and still got photos if a quality comparable to even high end 35mm film carmeras I have used through the years. When we plan another trip I suspect I'll be leaving the DSLRs home again.

In each of the trips to various parts of the world we have taken since about 2002, I have seen fewer film cameras. On this year's trip I don't remember seeing any film cameras (although I suspect there were a few around). I love the mechanical models in my collection but for me they have become something to look at rather than to actually use on a regular basis.

W.

[nikonbob]

Wayne

I could not agree more with what you have said about modern small sensored P&S digi cams. I just picked up a Fuji X10 for the times I don't want to lug the Nikon stuff around. As good as the X10 is and it is good, I will continue to put up with the weight and size of the D700 and 24-120 f4 VR combo. At least for a few more years that is. That Nikon combo is just so much better in low light than the X10 as is to be expected. For convenience and good light shooting the X10 really has a place at the table.

On our last 3 week trip overseas some years ago I believe I only saw 2 people using film cameras. Like you I love my old film cameras but use them very little if at all now. To get some of that old time film camera feeling back I would gladly use a digital RF but the only one now available that I like is just far to expensive to even consider. At least my old friends are safe in a cupboard and not in a landfill.

Bob

[Berndt]

It's interesting, but I made the exactly reversed experience this summer.

I went back to Europe for the first time after being here in Japan for five years. A three weeks trip to Germany, Slovenia and Italy ... and of course I asked myself, which would be the suitable camera for that ( camera collectors do usually have choices ;D )

After using P&S type cameras for this purpose for years, I decided to give "film only" a chance and wanted to see, how it would work.

I finally decided to use an old Canonet ( first model from 1961 ), still excellent working selenium light meter, bright lens at 1.8 and I also took a quite small and simple external camera flash with me.

I have to say, that I didn't miss anything and most of the pictures turned out fantastic and much better than out of the P&S cameras, I have used before.

Film is forgiving ( regarding the exposure ) and especially the flash shots have been always quite crappy on a digital camera with inbuilt flash.

Okay, I have to say, that it hasn't been a "camera holiday", where I wanted too shoot rare birds or whatever. I just wanted to relax and take some pictures for a memory of this trip. So, I actually didn't miss the absense of advanced zoom capabilities or exchangeable lenses.

I mostly stayed in "auto mode", keeping the shutter speed at something like 1/300 sec. and let the camera do the rest. Manual focus, okay ... but its not really difficult on a rangefinder and I got used to it soon. Even better than aiming on a tiny screen, switching through menues and shooting modes ... and frankly speaking, my eyes became old and I need either glasses or I need to stretch my arm for seing at least something on the screen of a P&S

As a conclusion, using this old 35 mm film camera has been much more relaxing and the results came out surprisingly great without any special effort. I found it always stressful, using digital cameras. Too many choices and you can never perfectly guess, what the camera will really do in one of those hundred scenery modes. They try to sell you something like an (i)ntelligent AUTO ... but the camera is not intelligent and it can't read my mind as well It's all about "being in control" and that is pretty difficult on a camera designed as a modern P&S.

My personal experience from my holiday camera experiment has been: How easy things can be

Regarding the Fuji X10, I would consider this as the best P&S at the moment, already because of the super bright zoom lens. That's really something. However, the days of the P&S camera are basically gone, I think. In the field of really just "point and shoot", they got already and mostly replaced by cellphones. Those are doing a pretty good job meanwhile and people are having them in their pocket anyway.
My cellphone is probably more advanced than most of the P&Ss. 12.1 MP, HD Video and the weirdest functions like "pet face detection" or "smile detection shutter release", it can automatically scan business cards and put the data into your phonebook, it can even read japanese "Kanji" or you can just wildy pan the camera around and it calculates a picture from that ... incredible funny gadgets ... I can't imagine any function missing ... hahaha ... nice to play with it for a while ... but ... mmmmh ... I don't know, I think I still prefer a simple and old fashioned camera with just setting shutter time and aperture for taking a picture

[Deleted]

Berndt:

You probably have a point on cellphones replacing point and shoots in the near future. Our daughter has an I phone that takes very good photos, although I don't think it quite matches my Fuji. In addition, the cameras of the latest P&S generation are so small it's no problem to carry both a phone and a camera.

On our trip one woman had an I-Pad that she carried around to take pictures. It was rather weird watching her hold that in front of her face to take a photo

[nikonbob]

Berndt

Personal preferences play a good part in what people bring on holidays and what you intend to do. I can understand eye sight being a problem then again I have never had a P&S without a VF and they have adjustable diopters. I very rarely use a flash with anything, just to lazy to learn how to use it properly. I like a wide to medium tele zoom for convenience sake and you are right the faster the better especially including some form of image stabilization. When I holiday over seas I never carry a cell phone, laptop or any other device to stay connected. I am on holiday and want to just get lost in it. The last long overseas holiday that I took film on finished film for me. PIA to carry 20-30 rolls of film through multiple security checks and trying to get hand inspections of it. For all those reason I have found digital less stressful when holidaying personally. Everyone is different though.

As for being in control, I shot the majority of the time in aperture preferred mode and rarely have to go into the menus once the camera is set to my preferences. I am content with auto focus but I tell it what I want it to focus on usually by focus and recompose or moving the focus point to what I want it to focus on. I get all the control I want or as little as I want too.

Granted film has more latitude than digital but shooting RAW and with modern metering close is enough and post can bring it the rest of the way. When I was using C41 colour film I was at the mercy of whom ever did the printing. Over riding the meter is easy too if you think it will flub the exposure.

As you and I prove, there are different workable solutions for the same situations. You gotta love having a choice.

Bob

[Deleted]

If you shoot digital RAW I believe you have more latitude to work with that you would with film.

[nikonbob]

Wayne

I would not argue that point with you as I don't really know. I do like to shot using RAW and find it pretty flexible in pp. I don't shoot Raw with the Fuji because the RAW converter supplied with the camera is a PIA to use. It is going to take some getting used to.

Bob

[Berndt]

There is no "like-button" here like on Facebook for showing agreement in a simple way ? So, Wayne, Bob, you are of course right as well !!!

It's mostly about personal workflows and preferences ... and they mostly even change. We try to do experiments, making experiences. That's the wonderful thing about the fact, that there is no universal camera or solution for taking good pictures.

The reason, why I ( just personally ) returned to film was actually the fact, that I took too many pictures The blessing of using huge memory cards turned into a curse. Always at the end of the year, I mess up my harddisk and found, that I took nearly 10.000 pictures and the same amount of movie clips last year.

I haven't even reviewed the most of them nor edited. They basically disappear in the depths of the digital universe in my computer. So I thought, there must be something wrong. Since mostly using film again, that changed. I think more before taking a picture, put more effort in its design and get less but better pictures in the end. When I spent the whole day in a park with a friend recently for taking pictures of the colored leafs, he took about 800 pictures on his Sony Alpha and I used two 120 films. Lucky, that he is not reading that here ... but I would say, I got the better pics that day.

So, if it is not a holiday, where we are really taking a lot of pictures, I mostly take my TLR with me meanwhile. Takes a while, until I can fill the film with pictures, really worth being taken

The good thing also, that we are not so much at the mercy of print labs anymore. If I get my films developed at a decent lab ( Kodak films at Kodak for example ) and scanned later, the results are actually pretty good and medium format has a huge resolution. So if I really need a zoom, I simply crop it out later.

But really ... those are just personally experiences and workflows. There is no "best way" in general. And yes ... iPhone, iPads and Co do have another advantage: The instant upload into the web. Sitting at the beach, enjoying a cocktail in our hand while watching the sunset ... and we can make our friends all over the world envy us just a few seconds later

[nikonbob]

berndt

There certainly are no universal truths/best way when dealing with cameras and photography. Personally I don't tend to take more photos with digital than I did with film, of course that could also mean I took too many with film.

Bob