As DSLRs are mighty heavy, and arguably overkill for those leisurely strolls along the Thames with the other half, I recently decided to treat myself to a point-and-shoot.
Chief among my considerations was image quality; I was aware of a number of cameras that could near the quality of a professional DSLR, albeit with a considerably more limited feature set, so I already knew I wanted one of them. I also knew I wasn’t particularly fussed about wi-fi, fancy viewfinders, 4k movie modes, huge zoom ranges etc, I just wanted a device that could capture excellent quality RAW stills which I could then play around with in post-production to create my ‘masterpieces’.
So, with that in mind, I took a trip to nuts-and-bolts comparison site DXOmark to compare the sensors’ merits – this shows which cameras will produce the best quality image files by gauging their sensors’ performances in low light, and assessing how much highlight and shadow information they are able to capture – a factor called ‘dynamic range’. It swiftly became apparent that the large-sensored compacts on the market were very much the way to go – from the latest Lumix LX series all the way up to Sony’s full-frame behemoth, the RX1.
I was particularly keen to get a camera that I could have with me at all times, which meant that it had to be small and light. This meant foregoing a heavy zoom lens for a fixed focal-length. I tend to shoot on ‘prime’ lenses so this was in no way daunting for me. So, I whittled list down to four: Ricoh GR, Nikon Coolpix A, Fuji x100s, Sony RX1. The last two were ruled out quickly as they were slightly larger and heavier than the former (nothing to do with their respective £1k and £2k price tags, honest).
It was at this point that I discovered just how many people on the internet have been mulling over the Ricoh GR vs Nikon Coolpix A decision. There are reams of discussions about their respective merits, and I know I’m risking adding to the surfeit of information on that by posting this blog.
It turns out that the two cameras are near-identical in terms of features. Both use sensors that are the same size as those in all but the best DSLRs, and both have fixed wide-angle lenses. Reviews generally favour the Ricoh on account of it’s user-friendliness and better JPEGs out of the camera. However, given that I own Nikon flashes as part of my DSLR set-up, that I’m entirely used to the idiosyncrasies of the Nikon menus, and that I intended to shoot only in RAW format (negating any in-camera JPEG processing), my final decision was an easy one – the Nikon Coolpix A.
As chance had it, one of my favourite used camera shops – London Camera Exchange – had an mint condition, used Coolpix A in stock which I was able to snap up.
When I finally got my hands on the camera I was overjoyed by what I held. Terrific build quality, excellent ergonomics, diminutive size, excellent screen. A couple of hours later, after a photo safari of the area around my Kennington office, came the proof of the pudding – viewing the RAW files on my wide-gamut monitor. After a swift mental adjustment to remind myself that these weren’t the 36 megapixel, full-frame files from my D800, I was very pleasantly surprised. The images are actually a lot closer to those from my main camera than the size and budget of the Coolpix A would suggest. Highlights and shadows could be reigned in by huge amounts (the sign of a quality image sensor), it had abundant detail due to the omission of a low-pass filter (google it), and as it’s a compact, the lens and sensor could be precisely matched up for optimum results.
Over the past couple of months I have taken the little marvel on holiday, to family get-togethers and even to a wedding for some guest-tography. On each occasion it has been an absolute joy to use.I actually wouldn’t hesitate to use it in a professional environment, as a second body to my main camera (think wedding group shots when you want to get a quick wide-angle snap). Some samples….
