[Camera]: The GRAND comparison and rant entry XD
Hello! 
Finally it's time for the entry that some of you have been waiting for (me, too XD). The ultimate CCE (camera comparison entry XD) <~ sorry it's the medicine, I swear!
As you know I took 2 cameras with me while travelling this time. My old compact camera (a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5) and my new DSLR camera (a Pentax K-x).
Today, I want to compare several photos and rant about my new camera some more.
As I took both cameras with me, I naturally took photos with both cameras of most scenes which gave me a great chance to compare the possibilities and disadvantages of both cameras.
Well, compare as far as my knowledge about photography allows me, of course. I'm still a noob :/
Anyway, here we go (this entry is also a preview of upcoming travel photos XD .... maybe I should have posted this comparison later after finishing my travel posts, now I'm spoiling you, but I guess that's alright XD)
Explanation
The photos on the left are the ones taken with my old compact camera, they are a little bit higher than the DSLR photos.
Also, you should click on the photos to see them in full size. It's easier to compare them in full size.
I didn't do anything to the pictures, no modification at all.
With both cameras I used the "full-automatic mode" ONLY (very few exceptions).
As you can see the colors are quite different. The DSLR photos seem to be darker.
Also, the DSLR photo is clearly sharper.
Colors are stronger, more vivid with the DSLR, photo is sharper again.
Again the brightness and colors are different. The DSLR photos are sometimes too dark (you can fix that manually, but as I only used the automatic mode, that's what the camera decided to do ..)
With the compact camera, everything is sharp, with the DSLR not.
Colors are a little bit different again. The DSLR one seems darker, but if you look closely everything is much sharper.
Moving on to photos in "normal" daylight - the DSLR suddenly gives the brighter pictures. Again, the DSLR photo is sharper.
Here you can clearly see that the DSLR gives richer / more natural colors and more details in normal daylight (good weather conditions).
Again, with the compact camera everything is sharp whereas the DSLR only focuses the main motive.
The zoom of the compact camera is stronger, but you can't see it in this picture. The DSLR could have a better zoom with another lense, but I only brought one with me when I went travelling.
DSLR => natural colors // compact cam => the sakura blossoms seem oversharpened and not as natural
Well, here you can clearly see where my compact camera comes in handy: ZOOM!!! It has a 10x optical zoom which is not bad for a compact camera, my DSLR can't compete with the 18-55mm lense, I'd need a different lense for situations like that, but I don't wanna carry so much stuff around. Furthermore .. until I'd have changed the lenses the animal would have escaped ... maybe! XD
Especially if the light is very good, there are sometimes really only TINY differences!!
The exposure is better in the compact cam photo. The automatic mode of the DSLR often is not so good in "bad light" situations (e.g. back light) - here you could get very good results if you change settings yourself - which I'm not really capable of yet ...)
Here, the DSLR gives clearly the better and more natural colors!
Here another example where the compact camera is superior - at least in auto mode! Very difficult lighting conditions.
The compact camera was able to get the beautiful colors of the sky and still show the statues properly. The DSLR I had to set lighter so that the statues were not completely black .... but that destroyed the colors of the sky. In non-automatic mode, there would have been a possibility to get a good shot, I think.
In bad lighting conditions the automatic mode of the DSLR is really often at a disadvantage! Here the photo got way too blueish. I prolly could have fixed that with the white balance, but I have yet to learn how to use it correctly :/
As for night shots, the DSLR is CLEARLY the winner - only if you don't have a stand/tripod - the compact camera could give you sharper images. I don't have a stand, but used walls or whatever I could find. Freehand photography doesn't work with the DSLR at night unless you can hold ABSOLUTELY still for a few seconds - I can't XD (some more night shots later)
Both pictures are not bad, but I personally think that the colors in the DSLR picture look better/ more natural?!
Super dark. Although the compact camera has the better zoom, all you can see is some light dots whereas the DSLR gives us quite a nice night shot (not perfect, had to put the camera on a not so straight stone wall ...)
Very, very difficult low light situation with many different light sources. Too much of a challenge for a noob like me. This was still one of the easier shots. The clear winner is the DSLR.
Really difficult. Both cameras failed. The compact camera couldn't get any sharp photo anyways and the noise was too strong - the DSLR could, but the colors were too weird, because all I did was set up the ISO number (x_X') .....
Well, at least the DSLR produces somehow usable photos, the compact camera does not.
Both freehand, not completely dark yet. DSLR is the winner!
DSLR => colors are nicer/more natural, sharper photo
Same as above.
Same situation, same position. Just that I used the max. zoom of both cameras and if you zoom a lot you shouldn't move an inch. In the end the DSLR was able to provide the better and a sharp photo in this situation.
Again, the colors of the DSLR seem to be more natural and everything is richer in detail / sharper.
And here you can see the true power of the DSLR! Imagine how much better the photo would be if I acutally had a stand/tripod!!! Guess, I have to buy one sooner or later, but good ones are heavy ;o; .... heavy = not good!! :/
So all in all I'm really happy about my new camera.
In most situations it's superior to my old compact camera - and that's only in full-auto mode. Once I learn more about how to use it properly I should be able to get really great photos out of it.
Of course, I also learned about situations where my old compact cam might be better: superzoom, some low light situations when there is no stand or wall available, back light situations and beautiful sky colors during sunset time.
What do you think?
As I'm still sick I used the time yesterday and today to read about the functions of DSLRs in general.
I think I understood some things (about apeture // shutter speed // light exposure), but it's still a long way to go.
I also played around with my cam to try out if I got things right:
This is pretty cool. If you choose quite a long exposure time and you move something (or take a photo of something that is moving) you have this kind of effect.
Water drops experiment XD
Slow/long exposure time also can provide this milky effect on water. Not a perfect photo, but I don't have a river or lake in my apartment, so I didn't have a choice XD
(please especially focus on the left side of the cup where the water if overflowing - see the milky touch?)
I still have a lot of problems. Sometimes pictures are too dark or black if I choose a long exposure time, or too bright! Which is strange, because the camera chooses the aperture settings. Hmmmmm.
Seems like there's still a long way to go.
Btw. if you know of any good online photo tutorials (esp. for DSLRs), please let me know! I already read through a bunch of them (mostly in German), but what I need now, after reading about the basics would be a website that maybe explains things like "oh, so you want this effect? then that's what you have to do" or "so in this light situation your settings should be like that".
Can anyone help?
Thanks for reading!
(=⌒ー⌒=)ノ~☆・゜:*:゜バイバイ゜:*:゜
Finally it's time for the entry that some of you have been waiting for (me, too XD). The ultimate CCE (camera comparison entry XD) <~ sorry it's the medicine, I swear!
As you know I took 2 cameras with me while travelling this time. My old compact camera (a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5) and my new DSLR camera (a Pentax K-x).
Today, I want to compare several photos and rant about my new camera some more.
As I took both cameras with me, I naturally took photos with both cameras of most scenes which gave me a great chance to compare the possibilities and disadvantages of both cameras.
Well, compare as far as my knowledge about photography allows me, of course. I'm still a noob :/
Anyway, here we go (this entry is also a preview of upcoming travel photos XD .... maybe I should have posted this comparison later after finishing my travel posts, now I'm spoiling you, but I guess that's alright XD)
Explanation
The photos on the left are the ones taken with my old compact camera, they are a little bit higher than the DSLR photos.
Also, you should click on the photos to see them in full size. It's easier to compare them in full size.
I didn't do anything to the pictures, no modification at all.
With both cameras I used the "full-automatic mode" ONLY (very few exceptions).
As you can see the colors are quite different. The DSLR photos seem to be darker.
Also, the DSLR photo is clearly sharper.
Colors are stronger, more vivid with the DSLR, photo is sharper again.
Again the brightness and colors are different. The DSLR photos are sometimes too dark (you can fix that manually, but as I only used the automatic mode, that's what the camera decided to do ..)
With the compact camera, everything is sharp, with the DSLR not.
Colors are a little bit different again. The DSLR one seems darker, but if you look closely everything is much sharper.
Moving on to photos in "normal" daylight - the DSLR suddenly gives the brighter pictures. Again, the DSLR photo is sharper.
Here you can clearly see that the DSLR gives richer / more natural colors and more details in normal daylight (good weather conditions).
Again, with the compact camera everything is sharp whereas the DSLR only focuses the main motive.
The zoom of the compact camera is stronger, but you can't see it in this picture. The DSLR could have a better zoom with another lense, but I only brought one with me when I went travelling.
DSLR => natural colors // compact cam => the sakura blossoms seem oversharpened and not as natural
Well, here you can clearly see where my compact camera comes in handy: ZOOM!!! It has a 10x optical zoom which is not bad for a compact camera, my DSLR can't compete with the 18-55mm lense, I'd need a different lense for situations like that, but I don't wanna carry so much stuff around. Furthermore .. until I'd have changed the lenses the animal would have escaped ... maybe! XD
Especially if the light is very good, there are sometimes really only TINY differences!!
The exposure is better in the compact cam photo. The automatic mode of the DSLR often is not so good in "bad light" situations (e.g. back light) - here you could get very good results if you change settings yourself - which I'm not really capable of yet ...)
Here, the DSLR gives clearly the better and more natural colors!
Here another example where the compact camera is superior - at least in auto mode! Very difficult lighting conditions.
The compact camera was able to get the beautiful colors of the sky and still show the statues properly. The DSLR I had to set lighter so that the statues were not completely black .... but that destroyed the colors of the sky. In non-automatic mode, there would have been a possibility to get a good shot, I think.
In bad lighting conditions the automatic mode of the DSLR is really often at a disadvantage! Here the photo got way too blueish. I prolly could have fixed that with the white balance, but I have yet to learn how to use it correctly :/
As for night shots, the DSLR is CLEARLY the winner - only if you don't have a stand/tripod - the compact camera could give you sharper images. I don't have a stand, but used walls or whatever I could find. Freehand photography doesn't work with the DSLR at night unless you can hold ABSOLUTELY still for a few seconds - I can't XD (some more night shots later)
Both pictures are not bad, but I personally think that the colors in the DSLR picture look better/ more natural?!
Super dark. Although the compact camera has the better zoom, all you can see is some light dots whereas the DSLR gives us quite a nice night shot (not perfect, had to put the camera on a not so straight stone wall ...)
Very, very difficult low light situation with many different light sources. Too much of a challenge for a noob like me. This was still one of the easier shots. The clear winner is the DSLR.
Really difficult. Both cameras failed. The compact camera couldn't get any sharp photo anyways and the noise was too strong - the DSLR could, but the colors were too weird, because all I did was set up the ISO number (x_X') .....
Well, at least the DSLR produces somehow usable photos, the compact camera does not.
Both freehand, not completely dark yet. DSLR is the winner!
DSLR => colors are nicer/more natural, sharper photo
Same as above.
Same situation, same position. Just that I used the max. zoom of both cameras and if you zoom a lot you shouldn't move an inch. In the end the DSLR was able to provide the better and a sharp photo in this situation.
Again, the colors of the DSLR seem to be more natural and everything is richer in detail / sharper.
And here you can see the true power of the DSLR! Imagine how much better the photo would be if I acutally had a stand/tripod!!! Guess, I have to buy one sooner or later, but good ones are heavy ;o; .... heavy = not good!! :/
So all in all I'm really happy about my new camera.
In most situations it's superior to my old compact camera - and that's only in full-auto mode. Once I learn more about how to use it properly I should be able to get really great photos out of it.
Of course, I also learned about situations where my old compact cam might be better: superzoom, some low light situations when there is no stand or wall available, back light situations and beautiful sky colors during sunset time.
What do you think?
As I'm still sick I used the time yesterday and today to read about the functions of DSLRs in general.
I think I understood some things (about apeture // shutter speed // light exposure), but it's still a long way to go.
I also played around with my cam to try out if I got things right:
This is pretty cool. If you choose quite a long exposure time and you move something (or take a photo of something that is moving) you have this kind of effect.
Water drops experiment XD
Slow/long exposure time also can provide this milky effect on water. Not a perfect photo, but I don't have a river or lake in my apartment, so I didn't have a choice XD
(please especially focus on the left side of the cup where the water if overflowing - see the milky touch?)
I still have a lot of problems. Sometimes pictures are too dark or black if I choose a long exposure time, or too bright! Which is strange, because the camera chooses the aperture settings. Hmmmmm.
Seems like there's still a long way to go.
Btw. if you know of any good online photo tutorials (esp. for DSLRs), please let me know! I already read through a bunch of them (mostly in German), but what I need now, after reading about the basics would be a website that maybe explains things like "oh, so you want this effect? then that's what you have to do" or "so in this light situation your settings should be like that".
Can anyone help?
Thanks for reading!
(=⌒ー⌒=)ノ~☆・゜:*:゜バイバイ゜:*:゜