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Extensive CP5000 vs. G2 comparison posted.

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Great comparison, good job. What I miss is only what has been described elsewhere: the cp5000 creats overexposed images (blown highlights) that appear dark if unprocessed (meaning "darkened" inside the camera after exposure). Initial impression might be that images have low dinamic range. To get the correct exposure you need to underexpose your images (to avoid blown highlights) and then leveling in photoshop corrects the darkness of image. The amount of detail pulled out of the fine jpeg file is quite amazing and reveals a very good dinamic range - many think its far above average. For reference please see DavidSL's posts. It would be interesting to see raw files of cp5000 - I am convinced it would reveal that default settings of the camera yield "darkened" overexposed images in jpeg format and to get the right exposure for the raw fie you would have to set exposure to about -1.0. But its theoretic since we dont have raw files in cp5000. Anyhow underexposure and postprocessing to lighten image works just fine for me!!!
Grablife said:
I just completed an extensive comparison between the G2 and CP5000.
Includes many side by side comparisons and galleries for both
cameras. The link can be found here:

http://www.igrablife.com/digitalphoto/
Click to expand...
 
Due to the high volume of traffic generated by these images (10,000 images/hour, and 600MB/hour), I have been forced to move these images. Please be patient during the update. You will not be able to see some images. In the mean time, check out the text and gallery.

Thanks for your patience.
 
Excellent job, but there are some aspects missing, I think.

I could not find a comparison of the macro capabilities. The G2 is isufficient in this respect, for my work.

Ruggedness. The G2 is to a larger extent made of plastic. Even the thread for the lens attachments is made of plastic. The Nikon feels much more solid.

You can wiggle the lens circa 1 mm sideways on the G2. Might not affect picture quality, but feels cheap.

Shape of the camera. The G2 has a boxy shape and feels a bit like brick to hold. In addition to that, the grip is made of slippery plastic. The CP5k, with its sculpted, rubber covered grip feels much better and secure to hold.

Jorgen

P.S. I use a G2 right now, but have ordered a CP5k.
 
Jorgen Bergfors said:
Excellent job, but there are some aspects missing, I think.

I could not find a comparison of the macro capabilities. The G2 is
isufficient in this respect, for my work.

Ruggedness. The G2 is to a larger extent made of plastic. Even the
thread for the lens attachments is made of plastic. The Nikon feels
much more solid.
You can wiggle the lens circa 1 mm sideways on the G2. Might not
affect picture quality, but feels cheap.

Shape of the camera. The G2 has a boxy shape and feels a bit like
brick to hold. In addition to that, the grip is made of slippery
plastic. The CP5k, with its sculpted, rubber covered grip feels
much better and secure to hold.

Jorgen

P.S. I use a G2 right now, but have ordered a CP5k.
Click to expand...
Agreed on all points except the shape of the camera. That's a very personal choice. I couldn't cover everything and the things you mentioned are covered well in Phil's review of the CP5K.
 
Thanks for all of your hard work on this. It is much faster now. Before, the pics wouldn't even come up! :-)

Teski
Grablife said:
After an agonizing 24 hours, I moved the web site to a higher speed
server. Things should be a lot faster now. If you visited before, I
would appreciate some feedback here regarding the new speed.

http://www.igrablife.com/digitalphoto/
Click to expand...
 
Grablife said:
I agree that there's probably a million things you can do to
improve any digital image. However, to be fair, I had to compare
each camera's default setting against each other.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I don't own either camera nor am I in the market for a new digital camera at the moment. However, isn't it a major advantage of the CoolPix that it has so many adjustments available (more than just about any other digital camera)? Limiting testing to the default settings would disregard this. For example, at least on the earlier CoolPix cameras, setting contrast to -1 and increasing exposure yielded an image much like the Canon when set to ISO 50.

Personally, I think that either camera would be a waste of money, as well as a source of at least some frustration, to the user who is only interested in taking pictures at the default settings and wants to have nothing to do with software manipulation of the images. There is nothing wrong with being a snapshooter (most people are) and I think they would be happier with one of the less expensive Kodak or other brands, and spending the remaining money on their family.

To get full benefit from cameras such as the Canon G-2 or Nikon CP5000, the user must be willing to spend the time to master all the controls available, and to explore the computer side of image-making (the virtual darkroom) in depth.

The problem is that the designers have included a rudimentary automatic configuration for these cameras, so as to appeal to the widest-possible market. However, the advanced user really doesn't care about the movie mode and is frustrated by the anemic built-in flash and the defaults, while the snapshooter is dumbfounded by all the controls.

Grumble, grumble. I'll stop now and go back to playing in Photoshop.

Cheers,

Tyler Monson
Seattle, Washington
 
Tyler Monson said:
Personally, I think that either camera would be a waste of money,
as well as a source of at least some frustration, to the user who
is only interested in taking pictures at the default settings and
wants to have nothing to do with software manipulation of the
images. There is nothing wrong with being a snapshooter (most
people are) and I think they would be happier with one of the less
expensive Kodak or other brands, and spending the remaining money
on their family.

To get full benefit from cameras such as the Canon G-2 or Nikon
CP5000, the user must be willing to spend the time to master all
the controls available, and to explore the computer side of
image-making (the virtual darkroom) in depth.

The problem is that the designers have included a rudimentary
automatic configuration for these cameras, so as to appeal to the
widest-possible market. However, the advanced user really doesn't
care about the movie mode and is frustrated by the anemic built-in
flash and the defaults, while the snapshooter is dumbfounded by all
the controls.
Click to expand...
That is not completely true, you can get great images from automatic setting, its just the persons who operates the camera wants to have a complete control and get the best images out of their cameras. Just like modern SLR, you can set it to automatic mode, but if you want to take control you switch it to manual mode.

Martin
 
Member said:
Hmm, I don't own either camera nor am I in the market for a new
digital camera at the moment. However, isn't it a major advantage
of the CoolPix that it has so many adjustments available (more than
just about any other digital camera)? Limiting testing to the
default settings would disregard this. For example, at least on the
earlier CoolPix cameras, setting contrast to -1 and increasing
exposure yielded an image much like the Canon when set to ISO 50.
Click to expand...
It would take the rest of my life to test every combination of setting on the Coolpix. There are probably over a million possible combinations if you include the fine tuning adjustments. If I am to pick a none default setting, which one should I pick (i.e. +1 or -1)?
Member said:
Personally, I think that either camera would be a waste of money,
as well as a source of at least some frustration, to the user who
is only interested in taking pictures at the default settings and
wants to have nothing to do with software manipulation of the
images. There is nothing wrong with being a snapshooter (most
people are) and I think they would be happier with one of the less
expensive Kodak or other brands, and spending the remaining money
on their family.
Click to expand...
I agree. That's why we have digital cameras ranging from $20 to $20,000 for a medium format digital back. Isn't capitalism great?
Member said:
To get full benefit from cameras such as the Canon G-2 or Nikon
CP5000, the user must be willing to spend the time to master all
the controls available, and to explore the computer side of
image-making (the virtual darkroom) in depth.
Click to expand...
Yes, but the same can be said of the computer you're typing on.
Member said:
The problem is that the designers have included a rudimentary
automatic configuration for these cameras, so as to appeal to the
widest-possible market. However, the advanced user really doesn't
care about the movie mode and is frustrated by the anemic built-in
flash and the defaults, while the snapshooter is dumbfounded by all
the controls.
Click to expand...
Well..ease of use and advance feature are not mutually exclusive. Most manufacturers have done a good job of appealing to both markets with the inclusion of auto settings and advance settings. Default settings are made for the average scene. You'll get a default photo if you shoot in defualt the setting. To get a great photo, you have to work.
Member said:
Grumble, grumble. I'll stop now and go back to playing in Photoshop.
Click to expand...
Photoshop? Too many settings. I want an editing program that has just one command: "FIX". This should automatically fix all my bad photos and make me look better looking too. :)
Member said:
Cheers,

Tyler Monson
Seattle, Washington
Click to expand...
Seattle..one of my favorite cities...in the summer.
 
Tyler Monson said:
Grablife said:
I agree that there's probably a million things you can do to
improve any digital image. However, to be fair, I had to compare
each camera's default setting against each other.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I don't own either camera nor am I in the market for a new
digital camera at the moment. However, isn't it a major advantage
of the CoolPix that it has so many adjustments available (more than
just about any other digital camera)? Limiting testing to the
Click to expand...
It is an advantage to have lots of adjustments available such that the camera suits the user's personal preference. However, in most cases, these adjustments don't reall affect the overall quality of the image.

Contrast, White Balance, Sharpening, Saturation as nice tweaks, but they all can be done/redone in post-processing. This is just my opinion, but digital darkroom is where tweaks to the photo should be made, not in-camera. Here, you can apply adjustments on a photo-by-photo basis with many more possible adjustments and settings than any camera could possible have. That's not to say that in-camera tweaks aren't nice, but they will always be subordinate to digital darkroom work, which any photo enthusiast will do anyway.

Personally, I care more about ranges of exposure settings (apeture/shutter time) and ranges in focal length (wide/zoom angle) and a good metering system (avoiding under/overexposure). Since these are harder to redo in photoshop.

It's only a small point... but I dislike the somewhat limited number of apeture/shutter settings the CP5k has. For instance, the CP5k only has 5 apeture settings at full telephoto (widest at 4.8) and and only 15 shutter selections total. This limits my ability to select my depth of field and avoid "motion blur" also with more controls on the shutter speed, I would be able manually "tweak" the overall exposure more easily.

--arvin
 
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