I'm still trying to make up my mind whether to upgrade my Canon S3 (with 1.7x TC) to an E-520 with 70-300mm lens. I know it will give me vastly better controls, but will it give me better pictures?
After many trips (I think about 7 now) to camera shops to try to get some decent comparison shots, I thought I finally had some this morning, but no, they had left the Olympus in Normal compression mode, despite me asking them to check it. (And they only had an E-620.)
Would anyone like to look at the comparisons, and comment? They're at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fw6LtCmcyx1VLWAZn8WfxQ
I took shots of a car number plate 100m away at various ISOs, then cropped them and put them all in the one file for easy comparison.
My impression is that at ISO 100, while the Olympus images are less "blotchy", the compact S3 beats the Olympus for readability of the smaller lettering. A disappointing result, but is it due to the extra focal length of the Canon/TC combination, or the crappy compression the Olympus was set to?
Any opinions? Could changing the Olympus from Normal to Superfine make that much difference? I think I'm going to have to go back and do more tests, but I suspect that the two cameras are pretty much equivalent in terms of "identification power". Any volunteers to take their Olympus/70-300mm out and photograph a number plate from 100m in Normal and Superfine compression so I don't have to do yet more tests?
In terms of noise, it looks like the S3's ISO 100 is equivalent to the E-620's ISO 800, or maybe a little worse, so that's a very good thing. I'd lose 1.5 stops due to the slower lens, but gain 3 and a bit.
After many trips (I think about 7 now) to camera shops to try to get some decent comparison shots, I thought I finally had some this morning, but no, they had left the Olympus in Normal compression mode, despite me asking them to check it. (And they only had an E-620.)
Would anyone like to look at the comparisons, and comment? They're at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fw6LtCmcyx1VLWAZn8WfxQ
I took shots of a car number plate 100m away at various ISOs, then cropped them and put them all in the one file for easy comparison.
My impression is that at ISO 100, while the Olympus images are less "blotchy", the compact S3 beats the Olympus for readability of the smaller lettering. A disappointing result, but is it due to the extra focal length of the Canon/TC combination, or the crappy compression the Olympus was set to?
Any opinions? Could changing the Olympus from Normal to Superfine make that much difference? I think I'm going to have to go back and do more tests, but I suspect that the two cameras are pretty much equivalent in terms of "identification power". Any volunteers to take their Olympus/70-300mm out and photograph a number plate from 100m in Normal and Superfine compression so I don't have to do yet more tests?
In terms of noise, it looks like the S3's ISO 100 is equivalent to the E-620's ISO 800, or maybe a little worse, so that's a very good thing. I'd lose 1.5 stops due to the slower lens, but gain 3 and a bit.