Boris, Good for you! You have reached a new level of photographic maturity. The marketing hype of the next new camera isn't as important as your skills. Enjoy your pictures without 'looking over your shoulder' for something better. Regards, Bob S.
On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 6:07 AM, Boris Liberman <bori...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi! > > As I wrote earlier, my friends from DC (well, actually it is MD, but I like > to think of this as DC) came for a visit and left. Among other things I did > back up photos for my friend and I was given an opportunity to keep them for > my examination. He has Sony A850 and an assortment of lenses, notably the > famous Minolta Beer Can, Tamron 17-35/2.8-4.0 and Tamron 90/2.8 macro. > > I have looked and processed and examined and pixel peeped few dozen images > and compared some of them side by side given that we were shooting at the > same time on the same location. > > Few ideas crossed my mind: > > 1. Under bright day light Sony wins hands down. The exposure latitude and > color fidelity are ahead of those of K-7. The dynamic range difference is > evident once you start to play with curves and look into shadow-to-light > transitions. > > 2. Under low light both cameras struggle, though my friend does not shoot > above ISO 1600, while I shoot at ISO 3200. Given pixel count advantage, I > think it might be possible to downsize Sony images to take care of some of > the noise. > > So, on the surface it looks like naturally one might want to upgrade to > either full frame or another Pentax camera with better sensor. > > On the other hand, I had to look at 1:1 or even 3:1 (300% magnification) and > really side by side to see those differences. Of course playing with > exposure slider makes different impression immediately, but beside that I > really don't think that Pentax is so much behind. Let's say that the > difference is 10-15% although I do admit and do realize that these > percentage points are meaningless. What I am trying to say is that the > difference is relatively small. > > I have some reservations about the aforementioned lenses' performance in > some of the situations, but that's a different matter. > > Thankfully, I don't feel like I should or even must update from K-7 to K-5 > or to Canon 5DMk2 or whatever. I kind of used to feel that way having seen > Paul's comparison shots from his basement. > > I also think that to say that camera A offers revolutionary improvements in > IQ dept over camera B (*) would be a serious overstatement or simply a > market speak. > > Well, at least I had my chance to vent. > > Boris > > (*) As long as both A and B are of similar general class. It stands to > reason that 16x24 and 24x36 cameras are closer than it might have seemed > initially. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
