Point & Shoots: Compensating For Our Small Sensors (Buy the S110/RX100/X20)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Point & Shoots: Compensating For Our Small Sensors (Buy the S110/RX100/X20)

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

Aatrek posted:

Is the Canon software the only way to work with the S95's RAW files? I can't get 'em to open in Photoshop CS4.

You should be able to use Adobe's free DNG converter and then open the DNG files in CS4.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2010 20:29

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 06:24

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

I am shopping for a cheap, small, most likely used P&S to take with me on random outings and errands that fits the following (as best as possible):

Necessities:

Equivalent to 35mm or wider on a full frame camera at widest zoom angle
Small enough to fit into a coat pocket / shirt pocket
Can be no more then $100 including everything needed to actually use the thing (Tax, Shipping, Batteries, Charger, SD Card...)
A shooting mode where, no matter what the camera thinks, it will take a picture every time I hit the shutter
Files can make a respectable 6" print with a moderate amount of post work
Manual control over exposure of some sort (I suppose scene modes with exposure compensation could satisfy this depending on the implementation)

Preferences:

Will fit into a pants pocket
Reasonably durable
Aperture priority with exposure compensation
A Histogram
RAW mode
Lens is faster then 2.8 at some point in the zoom range
Files can make a respectable 10" print with a moderate amount of post work

I have been reading reviews of older Canon SD and A series cameras as CHDK seems like it may help me to meet more of the above criteria and the SD630 / SD700IS look pretty reasonable. I am by no means restricted to a canon though. Does anyone have any suggestions or perhaps remember what P&S people were drooling over 4-6 years ago?

edit - fixed the bullets

jsmith114 fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Feb 4, 2011

# ¿ Feb 4, 2011 07:30

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. Perhaps I should have written 'Would be great if it had' instead of 'Preferences'.

Vomit - The A570 looks like it will fit my needs as well as can be expected. How well did CHDK work for you?

# ¿ Feb 4, 2011 17:46

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

HPL posted:

EDIT: Oh wait, you wanted FASTER than f/2.8? Haha.

I don't expect to find something that has everything I listed - the preferences section is just stuff that would be nice. Since my now broken Canon G1 opened up to 2.0 I figured there might be something with a lens faster then 2.8

# ¿ Feb 5, 2011 04:27

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

One of the problems with DNG files that CHDK makes is that even though lightroom or photoshop can read the dng it doesn't have a color profile associated with the camera. It also isn't going to have a lens profile to fix things like distortion and CA that the camera may do when making the JPG. I use CHDK on an SD1100 and really like it when I am shooting at a high ISO because lightroom / noise ninja can do a much better job of removing noise then the camera. The downside is that I have had to make some presets for shooting under tungsten light. Under sunlight, lightroom does a pretty good job of getting reasonable colors from the DNG file however under tungsten it has problems. If you have a color checker chart you can make a profile for lightroom, otherwise you will have to do what I did and make a 'kida-sorta-pretty close sometimes profile' by eye.

In short, a better raw converter may solve a lot of your problems but may not solve all of them.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2011 02:26

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

Adobe has a free tool to make lens profiles that you can get here. It isn't too tricky to use but does take a bit of a time investment. I haven't made a profile for my SD1100, only a couple of primes - zoom lenses look like a bit of a pain. I usually just use the profile for the s90 if the distortion is bothering me and it gets me in the ballpark.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2011 15:13

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 06:24

jsmith114: Mar 31, 2005

Well, a refurbished S90 is $279. It is not $200 but fits under your hard cap of $300. It is also not new and isn't at B&H.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2011 13:32

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