Since the S50 hit the market a few months ago I have been looking long and hard at how I could justify getting one. I figured, Wow! 2 more megapixels! that would be just awesome!
Well, in my little impromptu test at Best Buy today, I have decided that, for me at least, its not worth the money. I just happened to be in the store to purchase some photo paper, and stepped over to take another look at the S50. As I was checking it out I realized that I had my camera in my pocket, so I asked the salesman if he had any objections to my popping in my own compact flash card and snapping a few shots with it. He was cool with that. So I snapped a rather hasty couple of pics (the control layout is identical, except for the Func feature, but the menu systems are not quite the same).
I did manage to get the camera set to RAW mode (since I shoot in RAW) but neglected to check the sharpness, contrast, and saturation values... exif data shows they were set to NORMAL. (I always keep mine turned LOW). Also, I keep my exposure compensation set to -1/3, the S50 appears to have been set to Normal. So these are some of the reasons for the different color in the two pics. Both were shot at iso 50. Only RAW converson and cropping at 1:1 has been done. No other modifications were made.
S30 crop //www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=20425
S50 crop //www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=20426
As you can see, there is a nice increase in file size, and the colors are obviously not the same (see details on exposure above) but overall, to my eye anyway, they are about the same in the resolution department.
At first I was surprised... but then I thought, well, it IS the same lens. Why should another 2 megapixels make it jump up and do the Fandango? Obviously it shouldn't, and it doesn't. Granted there are some really nice new features, like focus bracketing, but for image quality you might want to consider saving your dough for something else. |
