Comparison

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Sony NEX 5N, 18-55mm at 55mm, f/6.3, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100, auto WB
Olympus E-PL2, M.Zuiko 45mm, f/4, 1/4000 sec, ISO 200, sunny WB
I was at RDV for my second weekly physical training session (I run three per week). As I was leaving I happened to spy the dramatic clouds over the complex. I had both my Sony NEX and one of my Pens with me, so I took a few very unscientific photos just to see how they would compare photographing the same general subject matter. Both photographs were taken straight from their respective cameras and put directly into this post. Both photos are at the largest JPEG size from each camera. Both cameras were configured to use natural color, and the natural setting was further tweaked so that contrast and saturation were set to -1 on both cameras, and sharpness set to 0 (the default).

They are definitely different, but I'll be damned if I'll say which is better than the other. The Olympus seems grayer, more neutral, because I forgot to set it to AWB. The Sony appears to have a bluer cast, but not so that I would complain all that much.

Both show reasonable details in the shadows and in the highlights. Both show more than adequate accutance and resolution. And unless I had known in advance what camera produced which photo, I couldn't have told you. And unless I go to extreme measures, I can't tell the Olympus' 12MP resolution from the Sony's 16MP.

I also discovered something else. I spend way too much time in Lightroom and add way too much contrast and saturation.

Comments

  1. Wolfgang LonienDecember 06, 2012

    Right on Bill. Difficult to say which one would be "better". And I've made the same experience with both contrast and saturation - sometimes, for products or things, you want that "pop", but for people and/or anything organic, I often find that even with both settings at "-1" in the camera I still have way too much to still keep those subtle tonal transitions.

    Maybe with more bits (14 instead of 12), and with bigger pixels...

    ReplyDelete

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