davesurrey wrote:
Yes I guess that if one hasn't been into Digital photography since the early days and/or doesn't own any of the older cameras it may be a surprise that something as "geriatric" as 6 years old is still capable of making a decent image in favourable conditions.
My oldest camera is the Canon S3IS. It is still the record holder for the best squirrel shot.
I say favourable conditions as there is no doubt in my mind that recent improvements in sensors and lenses have made a positive contribution to low light and high speed photography.
The best examples are quite remarkable; unfortunately, not all models share that goodness.
Sadly as manufacturers are squeezed out of the low end of the market by smartphones they need to push larger sensors and with that comes increased cost, size and some compromises.
What I don't appreciate however is the ever growing number of "features" that these electronic devices (which is effectively what they have become) offer. I've recently read through the manuals for the Panasonic FZ1000, Nikon Coolpix A and Canon G7X and am amazed how configurable and capable they are. But do I really want to be able to change the direction of the zebra stripes, for example?
To be honest I would be happy to live with far fewer of these "features" and have a simpler to operate camera. I believe that the inclusion of video to these still cameras has not helped in this regard. So I usually end up setting most things once only and then it's usually to the default.
I'm with you on the video as a negative influence. In some cases, the advancements in video have actually set back the image quality in stills.
I guess no one here is going to say that my Kodak DC210 can make as good an image as my FZ1000 but I still have my Canon SX260 as it makes totally acceptable images (at least to me) for general round-and-about/travel in sunny climes when I don't want to lug a larger camera about.To my mind the replacements of the SX260 had more features but poorer IQ.
I certainly can't match the DC210; but my pocket walking around camera is an SX230HS, and given decent light, it does very well. It has a number of ideosyncracies that Canon fixed in the SX260HS; but I'm resigned to live with them as I think the SX230 has the better lens, a victim of the need to go wider and longer.
The good news is that we have never had so much choice and the best choice we have is whether to keep what we have or replace it with something that pleases us more.