It’s all too easy to become caught up in the numbers. With digital cameras, we fixate on the highest ISO numbers, largest megapixel numbers, and widest zoom numbers. The problem is these specifications don’t exist in a vacuum.
As you increase the ISO and megapixels, you also boost the amount of noise in the image. And as you increase the range of the zoom, the sharpness can suffer, as well as the ability of the camera to perform well in low light. Camera manufacturers have developed impressive workarounds for the accompanying drawbacks, but my point is you can’t just go by the numbers and assume that better specs are the end-all and be-all when choosing a product.
Case is point is Sigma’s DP1 and DP2 cameras. On paper, they seem very limited. In fact, they are limited — because they aren’t trying to be versatile cameras that take good, though unexceptional pictures in a wide variety of settings. The DP1 and DP2 don’t have a zoom lens, and you shouldn’t expect stellar performance from them at higher ISO settings.
Their strengths? They have a large DSLR-size sensor in a small point-and-shoot-size body, an extremely sharp fixed lens (a 28mm equivalent with the DP1, and a 41mm equivalent with the DP2), and a Foveon sensor that gives your photos a different look from the Bayer sensor found in almost every other digital camera.
I could go on and on about the situations where the DP1 and DP2 wouldn’t be the best choice. In those situations, you would probably be better off with a camera that’s more versatile, because it makes various compromises to even out its strengths. All I know is that during the year I’ve owned a DP1 (and more recently, a DP2), I’ve used it to snap some of my best photos. Yet if I had gone purely by industry specifications, I might never have considered it.
Keeping in mind that the DP1 measures just 4.5 inches by 2.3 inches by 2.0 inches, if I had been carrying a similar-sized, more-versatile camera instead of a DP1, would I have been able to capture this, this, or this?
What sold me on the DP1 was the quality of the images I saw posted just after it became available. It was a potent reminder that specifications have to take a back seat to the actual results you receive from a product. The specifications are guidelines that too often give you an imperfect, narrow view of the product’s performance.
Sometimes you have to go with your gut instinct and support those manufacturers who are willing to buck the trend and create a product that isn’t focused simply on gaming the specs or appealing to as wide an audience as possible. With cameras, as well as many other products, it may make sense to choose a more specialized model, as long as you understand the limitations and trade-offs.