16MP camera being used in 8MP mode

[Vikas]

Does the noise go down and quality of pictures go up? Or do I have to go down to 4MP mode for pixel averaging to cancel out the noise?

The Sony TX5 has finally turned in to full time vibrator and I need another splash proof camera. I picked up Fuji XP70 from Costco. It is ugly as sin and my playing with it for a day shows that picture quality is less than stellar. I liked Sony picture quality but its warranty or lack of it has left a very sour test in my mouth and I can't bring myself to pick up another Sony. Surprisingly, even their flagship RX100 has been reported to turn in to permanent vibrator.

Unfortunately, digital cameras have now become disposable items and have a life time of year or two. Build quality has gone way down along with the sensor size. In real life, (or on the internet) every single make and model has problems.

Any personal recommendation for water resistant travel camera with acceptable low light performance?

 

[bepperb]

The splash proof requirement is going to leave you with disposable cameras. There are plenty of MFT or similar (like Nikon 1) cameras that would take great pictures and last longer for only a little more money, but none that would handle water well.

Personally, I'd shoot at full and reduce noise on a pc afterwards. The actual answer would depend on the particular camera, and I'm sorry I don't know much about yours. But if you take them in full you can touch the 1 percenters up later. The pictures that make it to the web or 4x6's the noise doesn't really matter unless it's horrible.

 

[Wolf359]

The best low light performance is going to be with an dSLR, they have the biggest sensor. Not sure why you need a water resistant camera. Nikon's higher end SLR's are weather resistant, not so much their low end, but a little drizzle shouldn't affect them that much. These days it seems the little P&S market is pretty much gone, most have gone to a phone camera or have stayed with a dSLR.

 

[dparm]

Digital point-and-shoot cameras under $400 are basically throw-away, that's right. They're good for 2-3 years of normal use and then the reliability falls way off.

Micro-4/3, SLR, etc are typically built way better. My "cheap" T4i has withstood a lot of abuse, and I have two friends with Sony Alphas that have survived some pretty horrendous usage. I don't think it's fair to characterize all Sony SLRs as garbage.

 

[Quattro Pete]

For good high ISO / low light performance, you want a big sensor. Here's a round up of waterproof cameras:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/3436829...mp;ref=mainmenu

Out of these, the Nikon has the biggest sensor, but it's also the most expensive.

 

[NateDN10]

I'm not sure, internally, what the camera does when you're shooting at less than full resolution. It's possible that it just discards half or 3/4 of the pixels.

You could do some experimentation - take some pictures at 16MP in a low-light situation, then at 8MP, then at 4MP. Compare the 8MP and 4MP pictures produced by the camera to those produced when you downsample using bicubic or some other high-quality method that essentially averages neighbor pixels to reduce noise.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: bepperb
The pictures that make it to the web or 4x6's the noise doesn't really matter unless it's horrible.

Great point. Resizing from 16 MP down to 800x600 (0.5 MP) to post on facebook or to email to someone, you'll get rid of all the noise, regardless how bad it was to begin with.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: NateDN10
I'm not sure, internally, what the camera does when you're shooting at less than full resolution. It's possible that it just discards half or 3/4 of the pixels.

You could do some experimentation - take some pictures at 16MP in a low-light situation, then at 8MP, then at 4MP. Compare the 8MP and 4MP pictures produced by the camera to those produced when you downsample using bicubic or some other high-quality method that essentially averages neighbor pixels to reduce noise.


My understanding is they go into a signal processor that convert from impulse samples (pixels) to frequency samples (waves), then filter and either stored as frequency samples (i.e. JPEG) or raw pixel output files.