As we are about to leave on a motorcycle excursion, I was contemplating what camera (and lenses, etc.) to take. I decided it was perhaps time to invest in a point-and-shoot that would be compact and light. If I could put it in my pocket, better yet.
There seemed to be a few cameras that fit the bill. I’ve been watching Canon’s Gline for a while, the latest of which is the G11 which many photographers like. It provides a lot of control, shoots in RAW mode, and is relatively small. But, it really doesn’t fit into a pocket very well. This led me to the S90 which (if you can believe what you read on the net) shares the same 10 Mpixel sensor and provides a similar level of control in a slimmer package.
It has real M for manual and Av for aperture modes, and also shoots in RAW if you prefer that over JPEG. I do prefer. The G11 has a hot shoe which the S90 lacks. I contemplated that for a while but eventually decided when I need that much control, I’ll just use an SLR. This is supposed to fit the need for small and light. I briefly looked at the SX20 which was on sale for a seemingly good price at Best Buy. But it’s bigger and somehow doesn’t include RAW. As I looked at it, I had the impression I’d be better off buying one of the newer Rebels for only a slight increase in size and the ability to attach any of my Canon lenses.
This sort of purchase is tough. I want control. I want quality. Looking at comparisons between a good P&S versus a small camera with a sizable sensor, like the micro-four-thirds lineup, I wonder can I really make due with something like the S90. I had to decide what is the real motivation here? In the end, it’s small, light, and inexpensive (to not suck away money I’d like to spend on glass for 5D). The image is more the photographer than the technology, so accepting this, the S90 won.
I’ve taken only a few snaps so far, enough to try RAW mode in Lightroom, make sure my SD cards work, make sure I understand the basic handling of the controls and menus. The shot above was shot at 1/8s at f/5.0 using window light, and I’ve cropped it in pretty tightly. I have no complaints, and I have to say, I love adjusting white balance in Lightroom instead of relying on the camera’s AWB.
I thought I’d add a few words about Lightroom 3.0. I purchased the update as soon as it was made available. I wish Adobe priced Lightroom about $100 lower for new purchasers. The update price is not bad, but I think a lot of photographers, even strictly amateur or casual, would benefit.
Anyway, the huge feature for me with LR 3 is the new noise reduction updates. It’s miles above what was in versions 1 and 2. I use the Noiseware plug-in for Photoshop, but it’s frankly a pain to have to use this for a stack of photos which otherwise would be completely handled in Lightroom. Noiseware is still a more full-featured noise reduction system, but I’m sure that going forward, 90+% of my photos will have noise reduction using just Lightroom. It really is that good and the image above shows this. RAW images have no in-camera noise reduction, and even with the small S90 sensor, LR is able to produce a great looking result.
There are other features in version 3, some of which I’ve yet to explore. I’m sure I’ll use them, but this one feature was worth the upgrade. If you are fairly serious about photography, I think you could surely benefit from Lightroom. You just need to justify the initial price.
