Samsung EX2F - size does matter!

norman shearer wrote:

shademaster wrote:

norman shearer wrote:

Nice shots.

What I miss is the sheer simplicity of shooting with a sensor that has such a vast DOF.

What I miss is reasonable control over DOF. I have an LX100 and an EX2F. I haven't touched the EX2F once since I got the LX100. There is no downside to the extra DOF control. Step down if you want. Pleasant bokeh for portraits. Also, you can click-away in continuous RAW with several shots per second and the buffer never fills.

I should have been clearer. What I mean is that vast DOF available with the lens wide open. There is indeed a downside to bigger sensors in this respect. Try shooting street at ISO 80 with a FF sensor to see it. There's a saying 'F8 and be there' which comes from zone focusing with FF cameras. You need F8 in order to get a zone big enough to get a reasonable amount of keepers.

Again: "Step down if you want." There is no intrinsic disadvantage to going to a bigger sensor (with the same normalized SNR). I'm not a big-sensor zealot, but the main advantage of a smaller sensor is NOT wider DOF, since you can ALWAYS stop down the bigger sensor/lens without sacrificing any image quality. The main advantage of a smaller sensor SHOULD BE a smaller and cheaper lens/camera system. If you ALWAYS stop down your FF camera to shoot street, then you might as well get a smaller-sensor/lens/camera. But I certainly don't ALWAYS stop down and LIKE narrower DOF when called for.  Since LX100 is about the same size, the only disadvantage is price (and other ergonomics). There is no image quality penalty in stopping down, and only extra opportunity for when you want narrower DOF!

Here's a shot of my wife's father and a friend of his. (No lightroom work yet... I think I can recover the highlights in the back and lighten their faces a bit, and I cut off a hand, but...) No way could I have pulled this off without the extra 2-stops in effective aperture of LX100 over EX2F. I'm not knocking EX2F. I loved mine and had it with me for a summer month in Paris 2 summers ago. But, again money aside for the moment, it doesn't hold a candle to LX100. If you could get an EX2F for a couple hundred bucks and that was your budget, I'd say "go for it". But even the responsiveness (no waiting for buffer to clear) is worth it for me. (Sorry, I'm not an LX100 zealot either... it doesn't hold a candle to my NX300+30mm, but they are different tools for different scenarios)