madmaxmedia
Veteran
- Location
- Los Angeles
Via service mode I can take RAW photos with my Casio EX-Z1080, which I picked up for a song ($50) on EBay. What do you think of these (full-sized) samples? ISO 400, 800, and 1600 with both RAW and out-of-cam JPEG:
Casio EX Z1080 RAW ISO Comparisons: madmaxmedia: Galleries: Digital Photography Review
(after you click on an image, scroll down a bit and click on 'original' to view original full size image.)
I personally care a lot more about detail than noise- obviously noise obscures detail, but excessive NR further obscures noise- so my processing tilts towards that. Chroma noise is easily removed at even ISO 1600, remaining luminance noise is not bad IMO, especially ISO 800 (this is at 100% viewing.) I didn't do too much work on these, so they don't completely match on exposure and color, and could be further improved with more time/better skills than I. I would say the ISO 800 RAW looks nice even at full-size, the ISO 1600 RAW looks very good at 1600x 1200, probably even better in B&W.
I am on a tight budget and we already have a Canon Digital Rebel, so no GRD III or anything like that for me for the time being. But the Z1080 is pretty usable-
Here is a gallery of typical converted snaps, I re-sized to 1600 x 1200 and did some sharpening afterwards. Most are at low ISO, a couple at ISO 800:
Z1080 Samples: madmaxmedia: Galleries: Digital Photography Review
Would love to hear what you guys think. I think considering the age/size/class of camera, these are great results. I'm not sure I could find a current cam for 3x the price that could deliver these results given my image preferences (hate most in-cam JPEG.) Only other candidate is Canon with CHDK, but most of their compacts now use smaller sensors. 1 funny observation- looking at DPReview specs, I am pretty sure this camera uses the exact same sensor as the Ricoh GRD II.
Casio EX Z1080 RAW ISO Comparisons: madmaxmedia: Galleries: Digital Photography Review
(after you click on an image, scroll down a bit and click on 'original' to view original full size image.)
I personally care a lot more about detail than noise- obviously noise obscures detail, but excessive NR further obscures noise- so my processing tilts towards that. Chroma noise is easily removed at even ISO 1600, remaining luminance noise is not bad IMO, especially ISO 800 (this is at 100% viewing.) I didn't do too much work on these, so they don't completely match on exposure and color, and could be further improved with more time/better skills than I. I would say the ISO 800 RAW looks nice even at full-size, the ISO 1600 RAW looks very good at 1600x 1200, probably even better in B&W.
I am on a tight budget and we already have a Canon Digital Rebel, so no GRD III or anything like that for me for the time being. But the Z1080 is pretty usable-
- 10 MP 1/1.75" sensor for reasonable pixel density
- f/2.8 lens at 38mm with surprisingly fast AF, I prefer 28mm but that's okay for now
- No RAW buffer or anything like that, but very usable RAW cycle time of 3.5 seconds with a SDHC card
- You have to press a couple of buttons on startup to enable RAW, but pretty easy
- Immediately click to adjust exposure compensation, no need to drill through menus
- Good auto ISO which selects from 80 to 800
- No PASM but I don't really care with small sensor (there is sports/portrait/kitty/etc. modes which will tweak the program if you want)
- Lens seems reasonably sharp (with RAW) to me for a compact consumer cam, corners are not as good but what do you expect for a consumer zoom?
- Surprisingly usable MF mode! You can set the camera to remember MF distance which makes it kinda like Ricoh snap mode.
- Pretty good video mode- 848 x 480 H.264 for occasional use
Here is a gallery of typical converted snaps, I re-sized to 1600 x 1200 and did some sharpening afterwards. Most are at low ISO, a couple at ISO 800:
Z1080 Samples: madmaxmedia: Galleries: Digital Photography Review
Would love to hear what you guys think. I think considering the age/size/class of camera, these are great results. I'm not sure I could find a current cam for 3x the price that could deliver these results given my image preferences (hate most in-cam JPEG.) Only other candidate is Canon with CHDK, but most of their compacts now use smaller sensors. 1 funny observation- looking at DPReview specs, I am pretty sure this camera uses the exact same sensor as the Ricoh GRD II.