From Sony NEX-5n to Sony RX100 and finally to Canon EOS - very suprised !

Hi,

I recently bought a Canon Rebel T2i (EOS 550D) mostly by accident. I am into small/pocketable enthusiast cameras mostly. Having sold my NEX-5n (because it was too big with any lens) and my RX100 (because the RX100II was coming) earlier, I had a Sony RX100II on preorder but my holiday was starting earlier so I cancelled the pre-order and bought a new Canon 550d that I have found locally in order to have a good camera for my vacation. I don't think I researched this Canon camera for more than 1 hour or so, but I needed a cheap and good camera badly for the trip so I gave up the size argument. The only thing I learned about the T2i was that it had mostly if not the same sensor as the latest Rebel cameras, so for me it was perfect because of the price (about $450 with the kit lens included).

Basically I was blown away by the difference in image quality comparing the 550D with the NEX-5n (with 18-55 kit lens and Sigma 30mm F2.8 lens) and the RX100.

Whereas with the Sony cameras the images always look flat, cold, underexposed, badly metered and basically as being shot "through a lens" (if you know what I mean), the Canon images are very close to what I saw in reality when I took the pictures. With the NEX-5n I could never get a sunny day picture look bright and sunny and close to the atmosphere at the site of the shooting regardless of how much post-processing in Lightroom, whereas the Canon seems to always give the best results possible which respond exceptionally well to light post-processing.

In low light I still feel the Canon is better than the NEX-5n, despite what "numbers" say. Quite simply in my experience, a RAW file shot with the Canon comes out better from Lightroom as a RAW file shot with the NEX-5n. The RX100 is not even close, but that is understandable.

As for the sharpness, the NEX kit lens is incredibly bad. The Sigma 30mm lens improves this somewhat, but the other color and metering problems still remain. The RX100 lens gives good sharpness to images, but the images look "flat" and uninspiring. However the Canon kit lens seems to be sufficiently sharp and high-quality in order not to need to buy another lens for sharpness purposes.

Another striking difference between the 550D and the NEX-5n is that at ISO3200 the Canon keeps almost the same vivid and true to reality colors, while the NEX-5n seems to be losing dynamic range and the colors are not as vivid and true to reality as on the lower ISO settings.

The last thing that surprised me is how good the optical stabilization on the Canon kit lens is. I can take pictures up the 1/3 seconds in exposure with very acceptable sharpness. I couldn't dream about this with the NEX-5n or the RX100. This was a huge surprise to me. But the fact that the camera is held fixed to the head via the viewfinder - thus increasing steadiness - may play a role here too.

And all these with a 3 year old Canon camera.

Basically I am now happy and sad at the same time. I (think) am now a Canon convert but I know that there isn't any good chance that they come up with a pocket-able camera with 1" or larger sensor. I am still thinking at the possible purchase of the RX100II but I really hate the color rendition and metering of the Sony cameras. Yes I like the RX1 pictures but that camera is very far out of my budget.

As a final note, here is an album shot with the 550D at the Automobile Museum in Turin, Italy. It has plenty of full-size, low-light pictures.

http://flickr.com/gp/78268882@N06/cv9b67/