I wasn’t sure where to post this as I have posted in a few places about my search for a new digital camera (well actually just 2 I think - GQ and MPSIMS). Any questions contained are not the purpose of the thread (and some [or most] would argue that this is completely mundane and pointless. Not me) so I posted here.
I was going to haggle for a second hand Minolta Dimage 7i which was for sale at £495. but after a day of thinking and a work-shift of internet browsing and ear-bashing from a coleague and the [completely irrational - but fellow males will understand] desire to have something new rather than something second hand… (phew)… I decided to buy a camera that I originally had my eye on.
I must say, having played around with it, that I am reasonably happy with it (especially its movie recording ability - very clear and vibrant 640x480 at 30fps with sound)
I am slightly disappointed to find that the 6MP is achieved simply using interpollation, which I can do on my computer. but it still produces much better pictures than my old camera… my old camera - a fuji finepix 2600 zoom, A camera I used to treasure as a prized possesion, is now just a worthless piece of plastic. I have given it to a relative.
I am also not over the moon about not being sure I am taking full advantage of the settings when taking pictures as there are so many of them. But that is to be expected of a ‘semi-professional’ camera I suppose. And I did expect it.
Now all I have to do is buy a good case for it. One with a very strong strap, so I have a fighting chance of keeping it if someone else decides they want it. And it has some cover when it rains (and rain is inevitable where I live. Just a few days ago the roads turned to rivers here)
One question: [for any experts reading this] - Is it safe to mix brands of Ni-MH batteries as long as they are the same power rating and have been recharged together? (I have 2 fuji batteries and 2 sony batteries - all 1700mh)
The Fuji interpolation method is considered to be quite good compared to standard bayer pattern CCDs so don’t knock it. The Fuji S2 is considered to be superior to the Nikon D100 even though they have similar numbers of real pixels.
Don’t mix your sets of NiMH batteries. Spend a few bucks and get a few fresh sets of four and mark them so they are grouped as a set. You’ll get better charge and life characteristics if they are all in sync.
FWIW I’ve been shooting with a Dimage 7 for almost a year and building up a decent studio light kit.
I ran out of the supplied alkaline batteries so I took the risk and mixed my fuji and sony batteries. I did make sure that both sets of batteries were in the same condition (I discharged them both as much as possible in my old 2-battery camera and then recharged all 4 individual batteries in the same charger) It seems to work fine, but as you say I may get a reduced battery life with mismatched batteries so…
I will buy a set of 4 of the same brand though at the earliest oportunity, just to feel safe. And I will also buy 2 more sonies, to make 4, and 2 more fujis to make 4, ending up with 12 batteries (or 3 camera ‘lifes’)
I went to look for a case for the camera today, but couldn’t find one the right shape or size. Instead I bought a squashy brush thing and a tiny little cheap tripod.
And in case this reply isn’t boring enough (I am falling asleep typing it) I took some very good pictures today. viewing the originals shows that the resolution is the same as my old camera, but the picture size is huge so if I reduce the pictures to the same size as my old camera’s then the resolution becomes quite impressive.
I can’t wait until my foot and back are better so I c…zzzzzzz ZZZ
Interpolation is interpolation. I still only realistically get 3.1, and could still interpolate on my computer if I wanted to.
That doesn’t matter though, I am still very happy with the camera - even more so now that I have seen PC - PRO’s digital camera labstest thingy in which my camera comes out right on top.
Not all interpolation is the same. The fact is all digicams apart from the Foveon sensor in the new Sigma DLSR must interpolate from the bayer filter pattern to an RGB bitmap. Fuji arranges the filtered pixels in it’s “super CCD” different than the standard bayer and it does have better performance than the raw number of pixels indicates. There are also third party solutions that interpolate better than in-camera methods or bundled RAW conversion software.
There are some digicam message boards you may take a look at Steves-digicams.com and dpreview.com are two I frequent. There is a lot of useful information available.
Sorry to argue this - But even if not all interpolation is the same, the basic principle is - use the data from a small picture, along with a bit of mathematics, to make a bigger picture. In other words there isn’t any extra ‘real’ data. and no matter how good an interpolation method is, it results in an ever so slightly blurred picture (only if the interpolation is being used to increase the size)
It’s that ‘fakeness’ of interpolation that I don’t like about it. I have half a mind to take all my pictures at 3mp because I reduce them on the computer anyway. I only still take them at 6mp because I have little faith in my own logic/common sense.
BTW - is the interpollation method in adobe photoshop better or worse than the one used by the fuji finepix s602zoom?
The point I’m making is that the picture doesn’t start out the same in the Fuji camera. I’m not saying all of Fuji’s hype is warranted but you aren’t starting with the same image in the camera.
Except for Foveon and 3 CCD video cameras all CCDs produce only one primary color per pixel. Your 3mp camera has a million and a half green pixels, 3/4 million red and 3/4 million blue. The bayer pattern is green, red, green, blue, etc. in a rectilinear grid. Fuji rotates that pattern 45º which means it has to interpolate the image in a different way. It’s hard to quantify but a lot of pros think the 6mp (before interpolation) Fuji S2 is superor to the 6m Nikon F100.
As for comparing to photoshop it’s a moot point as Photoshop can’t read Fuji’s raw file. It could only start with an RGB format file that has already been interpolated by the camera’s internal software.
Since the Dimage 7 I use has a standard bayer pattern there are alternative raw to RGB applicaions and many do a better job than the camera or Minolta’s own software can do.
I mention photoshop as a way to take a 3mp picture (not raw, but transfered as a jpeg from the camera) and interpolate it to 6, and comparing that with one of the fuji’s 6mp pictures (interpolated from the 3mp ccd). I think you are over-complicating the issue. I am just refering to the fact that the fuji isn’t physically 6mp.
This is getting rather confusing.
So you say it must interpolate to get the final jpeg. fine, but to get a 6mp jpeg from a 3mp ccd it MUST increase the size of the picture. and since it only has 3 million pixels with which to do this, it uses mathematics to fill in the gaps.
It is this increase in size to 6 million pixels from 3 million pixels that I am talking about. NOT the converting of raw data into the final format.
even if it must interpolate in all situations - if you set the camera into 3mp mode, and the ccd is 3mp then the final image will have the same number of pixels as the ccd was able to ‘get’ and no additional pixels will need to be ‘faked’ because the image is not a 6 million pixel image.
I think we’re bogged down in something that is a matter of degree. a 3mp CCD does not record as much information as a 3mp RGB bitmap. Your camera has to interpolate even to make a 3mp image but it does start out with a raw image from the CCD that is fundimentally different than other cameras because of the way the pixels are arranged. The fact is that interpolating from 3million “real” pixels to a 6mp image isn’t as huge an increase as you may think as the linear differenc is not 2x but the square root of two. This is commonly done to “upres” for printing to high resuolution printers that may show jaggies unless there are 200-300 pixels per output inch.
For a valid test you might shoot the same image in 3mp mode and 6mp mode in the camera. Make an additional copy by using Photoshop or genuine fractals to upres the 3mp to 6mp. Print all three as 11x14 and then compare.
At any rate it’s an excellent camera with a lot of capability. Get as much memory as you can afford. Consider the IBM 1gb microdrive as they are really dropping in price. I use one in my Dimage and it’s the only way to fly. I can typically record 420-500 fine quality JPG images or 107 raw imaegs at 5mp.
I only print my very best images, or ones that my mum wants to put in a frame. I like to view the rest on the comp. The other day I took a card full on a day out. They were at a place where I had previously taken my old (fuji 2600 zoom) camera. I got them home and batch reduced them all to half the original size (so they are now just a bit wider than my screen res of 1280x1024.
The resulting pictures were very sharp and detailed. judging from them (for me anyway) getting anything higher than 3mp or 6mp interpolated would be overkill.
I might just do the test you mentioned.
It is and excelent camera. before I got it I had a 128MB smartmedia card which I used to use in my other camera. In that camera 128mb was WAY more than enough (I could fit 300 2mb normal quality pictures on it) But in the new camera it is only just adequate (53 pictures - 6mp fine) If I set the picture to raw I can only fit 5. 5! 5 bloody pictures in 128 million bytes of space!! I think I’ll stick to ‘fine’ for now.
I would get a microdrive, but have you seen how much those buggers cost?! (well you must have). I may be enthusiastic, but not that enthusiastic.
Another thing - I heard that the 1gb microdrive can only fit 15 minutes of movie on it. That suggests to me that the format (codec or whatever) has a very low compression ratio. as the average 2 hour dvd movie can fit within 1gb.
seeing as you’ve got a dimage, I must ask…
Considering the price of the dimage (£495) and the price I got the fuji for (£550) and the fact that getting the fuji meant not having to but memory as I already had some, and the fact that I am only an enthusiast (so will rely on automatic modes at first)…