De quem tem as duas, Canon XSI e Sony A350...
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=29052126The main thing is that when I am pp'ing I can process the whole of the picture, much
fewer blown highlights, better DR, better colour and equivalent sharpness. I've been
hiking on Etna several weekends now alternating between the two cameras;
for sheer
creativity and flexibility in good light the A350 wins out big time. It's just much
more forgiving, you can do any damn thing and get a result; the canon needs to be coaxed.
Some photos after the break; I am not doing a side by side, these are qualitative impressions
after real world use, but for me
the conclusion is very simple and clear; the combined DR, precise
exposure and high resolution of the a350 give a wee bit more than the 450D.http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=29056020The main point I am making here is that a good photograph has many components, the
most important of which tend to be:
i) composition
ii) lighting
iii) colour
iv) sharpness
v) noise
Now for the sort of photography I do when I'm hiking the first 3 are critically important.
Sharpness and noise tend to be under complete user control, because the lens can be stopped
down and low iso used. Practially ANY modern lens when stopped down to f/8 or f/11 can
produce excellent sharpness, IF that is what you want in your picture.
So what are the main features of a camera for this kind of job?
Dynamic range (capturing lots of information in shadows and in the highlights)
Metering (not blowing highlights, and not underexposing shadows)
Precise, fast, focussing
In a straight up comparison between the A350 and 450D the A350 has the edge in all of
these critical parameters, so it is the superior camera for the hiking landscape/portrait
work that I tend to do most of the time.
Obviously if low noise performance is required the 450D is better. If you need to be sharp
but wide open you need an expensive lens.
Bottom line: in good light, the A350's advantages in terms of DR and metering come to the fore,
and make it a superior camera to the 450D with any lens (and before you mock this, please read
what I wrote about stopping down).Here on DPR we tend to talk as if we are all sportshooters, needing low light, high fps performance.
This is utter rubbish; for the vast majority of us accurate exposure and good DR at low iso are
far more important. This obsession with low light sharpness leads to ridiculous discussions at times.
Unfortunately fps and sharpness are easy to measure in the lab, real world metering and DR in the
field seem harder to assess quantitatively.
My real-world testing with the 450D and A350 has clearly demonstrated to me that
the A350's superior
DR and exposure control allow the user to produce better IQ in good light, with almost any lens attached.