Critique Wanted Comparison test....

Which looks "better"?


  • Total voters
    9
I’m in agreement with Bill on this. To determine which camera puts out the best jpg, both cameras need to be set to fully automatic. No input from the photographer. Also, equal effective focal lengths need to be used. Inputting any settings is already introducing variables. The settings Andy listed shows there are a lot variables present.
 
Gentlemen, for years I have had cameras from more than one manufacturer simultaneously. At the moment it's Ricoh and Fuji (jury still out on the Sony) In the past it's been Nikon, Panasonic, Leica, Epson, Olympus... I lose count.

I have wasted many hours trying to "match" SOOC jpgs so that when carrying the same camera and using the same lenses (or at least, lenses from the same lens range and era from the same manufacturer, to even out the coating variances) I could get outputs that, when put side by side, didn't look like they were taken thirty hours apart.

I gave it up as a bad job long ago.

Fact is that manufacturer jpgs are all produced with their own "secret sauce". "Velvia" is not the same as "vivid" and so on. I have NEVER been able to replicate the Ricoh HiBW setting in any other camera, let alone in post.

And do you know what - it doesn't matter. Not unless you are trying - as I was - to display the output from two different cameras side by side. Fact is, if you like the output from a particular camera - and remember, I use raw as a last resort these days because life is too short not to - then good for you. There's no right or wrong in aesthetics. There is no "better", there is simply what pleases you.

So yes, going back to the original question, neither looks "better" because neither is pleasing to my eye. One is blown out and the other is too contrasty; which is why I chose option 3 - the processing I would go for... using an in-camera raw converter. If you are happy with what the camera gives you without tweaking (which you have actually done anyway prior to capturing the image, according to the settings) - then I'm happy for you and my opinion is moot.
 
I agree completely, I've never been able to match camera jpeg output between different brands, or even models of the same brand.

Sometimes I actually prefer them having different outputs, just because some of them do something very cool that the other can't do. Like the HiBW, the cross process or the positive film for the Ricoh GR, they're special. Or the Classic Chrome on the Fujis. Or as an extreme example the illustration mode from the RX100, it just looks cool (but I prefer it on the RX100 and RX100m2 where you can apply it after the fact so you still get the normal image as well).
 
I’m in agreement with Bill on this. To determine which camera puts out the best jpg, both cameras need to be set to fully automatic. No input from the photographer. Also, equal effective focal lengths need to be used. Inputting any settings is already introducing variables. The settings Andy listed shows there are a lot variables present.
When the Oly is set to "automatic" the images can't hold a candle to what the Fuji produces; at least in my eyes. Even with a "pro" lens, which I quickly sold, the Oly just didn't give the "wow" factor. What the little E-PL7 does give is a very compact, easy to use camera with quite a few nice features.
 
This is very interesting discussion. I have a Masters level degree on Graphic Arts Technology and “know everything” of theory. Still I look these examples differently than rest of us, I’m until this moment onlyone preferring the first option.

I saw that clouds were burned through, I didn’t compare that to the other one, I didn’t compare the pictures technically, as I seldom do. I look aesthetics, and in this case more creamy hue of the first one pleased my eye. And not to forget, that we look these pictures through very different devices. We don’t see the same pictures, we see very different representations based on our devices. I doubt that too many of us has calibrated their whole system towards some industry standard, do we?

As Bill said it doesn’t matter, you do what pleases yourself and if there is someone who likes what you’re doing you are a lucky chap.

But as said, this is very interesting discussion.
 
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