I'll begin with a big caveat - I know nothing about setting up proper tests, or professionally reviewing cameras. I'm also new to this forum (and photography forums in general), so perhaps there is also some form required for this and I am well wide of it. But in any case, I thought this might be interesting...
I posted last week that after much deliberation I had bought the Nikon Coolpix A. I have absolutely no regrets about that purchase. It is a wonderful camera. I also bought the Sony RX100 for its even more compact nature (I have now vowed to always carry a camera), video with camera shake function built it, and zoom (which I doubt I will use much except perhaps to take it up to "normal" 35/50mm, as the long end seems a bit compromised).
Anyway... things got a little complicated. The day I bought the Coolpix A, I actually put my name down in a different store for the Ricoh GR. They are still a "hot item" as retailers are fond of saying here in Hong Kong. The Store that sold me the Coolpix A actually had the Ricoh GR in store (frustratingly they don't let you try the cameras out in many of these stores because that would make them "not new" - you can't even put the battery in. They hand you the camera so you can look at it while they grimace, and when you hand it back they take a lens cloth and polish it back up to "new" again). Anyway the Coolpix A store had the GR for about 15% MORE than the Coolpix A, and while the Coolpix A came bundled with an SD card, spare battery, case, etc, the Ricoh was offered unadorned...
So, the other store was offering the normal retail price - no "hot item" mark up... but I had to join the waiting list (this is a city where people queue overnight to get the new iPhone each year). I was told I was third in the queue at that store, and that they expected stock in 3 or 4 weeks, maybe a month, but they might only get one copy, maybe two. Well... the next day I got a call to say someone had dropped off the waiting list and they got 2 cameras in (I don't think this was some elaborate scheme!)... Did I want to come in a buy the camera????.... ....... ...... ... .......... Umm, "yes please", I said, realising this was perhaps the dumbest and most indulgent thing I'd done in a while.
I rationalised it like this - after a few months I will either settle for one camera or the other, and I can sell one of them for maybe 25% to 30% less than the new price, if I sell it while it is still the latest version of the camera... or I will like both for different reasons and keep them both (that is quite possible!).
This also sets up a bit of fun, where in my own amateurish way I can compare the results, as I use the camera, and make my own mind up.
So, in similar light to the picture I took from my balcony the other day with the Coolpix A, this evening I took three shots - one with each camera, with as close to the same settings as I could get.
All three of these are at 100 ISO, f/7.1, 1/80 second, fine jpegs (the A and GR at 16.1mp and the Sony at 20mp), all auto white balance, all in manual with pattern metering agreeing across the three cameras. The A was at 6.19pm, the GR at 6.20pm, and the Sony at 6.24pm. Twilight is very quick in Hong Kong, so perhaps the Sony suffered a little from falling light.
Fairer still would have been to get all shots within a few seconds, and all in RAW, I guess. But for a number of reasons I often shoot in jpeg, so jpeg performance is relevant.
All three shots were dowloaded to Aperture 3. I then exported to Flickr, and also copied the images to a folder on my iMac, resized to post here.
The Flickr versions are -
Sony here: Sony RX100 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Ricoh GR here: Ricoh GR | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon Coolpix A here: Coolpix A | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Here are the three jpegs, reduced to 800 x 600:
Coolpix A
Ricoh GR
Sony RX100
I posted last week that after much deliberation I had bought the Nikon Coolpix A. I have absolutely no regrets about that purchase. It is a wonderful camera. I also bought the Sony RX100 for its even more compact nature (I have now vowed to always carry a camera), video with camera shake function built it, and zoom (which I doubt I will use much except perhaps to take it up to "normal" 35/50mm, as the long end seems a bit compromised).
Anyway... things got a little complicated. The day I bought the Coolpix A, I actually put my name down in a different store for the Ricoh GR. They are still a "hot item" as retailers are fond of saying here in Hong Kong. The Store that sold me the Coolpix A actually had the Ricoh GR in store (frustratingly they don't let you try the cameras out in many of these stores because that would make them "not new" - you can't even put the battery in. They hand you the camera so you can look at it while they grimace, and when you hand it back they take a lens cloth and polish it back up to "new" again). Anyway the Coolpix A store had the GR for about 15% MORE than the Coolpix A, and while the Coolpix A came bundled with an SD card, spare battery, case, etc, the Ricoh was offered unadorned...
So, the other store was offering the normal retail price - no "hot item" mark up... but I had to join the waiting list (this is a city where people queue overnight to get the new iPhone each year). I was told I was third in the queue at that store, and that they expected stock in 3 or 4 weeks, maybe a month, but they might only get one copy, maybe two. Well... the next day I got a call to say someone had dropped off the waiting list and they got 2 cameras in (I don't think this was some elaborate scheme!)... Did I want to come in a buy the camera????.... ....... ...... ... .......... Umm, "yes please", I said, realising this was perhaps the dumbest and most indulgent thing I'd done in a while.
I rationalised it like this - after a few months I will either settle for one camera or the other, and I can sell one of them for maybe 25% to 30% less than the new price, if I sell it while it is still the latest version of the camera... or I will like both for different reasons and keep them both (that is quite possible!).
This also sets up a bit of fun, where in my own amateurish way I can compare the results, as I use the camera, and make my own mind up.
So, in similar light to the picture I took from my balcony the other day with the Coolpix A, this evening I took three shots - one with each camera, with as close to the same settings as I could get.
All three of these are at 100 ISO, f/7.1, 1/80 second, fine jpegs (the A and GR at 16.1mp and the Sony at 20mp), all auto white balance, all in manual with pattern metering agreeing across the three cameras. The A was at 6.19pm, the GR at 6.20pm, and the Sony at 6.24pm. Twilight is very quick in Hong Kong, so perhaps the Sony suffered a little from falling light.
Fairer still would have been to get all shots within a few seconds, and all in RAW, I guess. But for a number of reasons I often shoot in jpeg, so jpeg performance is relevant.
All three shots were dowloaded to Aperture 3. I then exported to Flickr, and also copied the images to a folder on my iMac, resized to post here.
The Flickr versions are -
Sony here: Sony RX100 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Ricoh GR here: Ricoh GR | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Nikon Coolpix A here: Coolpix A | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Here are the three jpegs, reduced to 800 x 600:
Coolpix A
Ricoh GR
Sony RX100