Photography General - Sperging about taking pictures and shit

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Hey Josh be aware RAW photos look worse out the gate and need more editing to look better. they capture more contrast so you can make it look better later. better to stick with Jpeg
@Null

I think the best starting camera is the Sony A600. Used you can get a nice one with a lens for about $450
the fun part is since its a mirror-less camera, you can collect vintage lens, and use them with a adapter.
You don't need a big pricey camera you just need something you can trust.
 
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Ah, GCAM or whatever else it's called now. When i had my Galaxy Note 8 back in the day it was a good software help, but nothing major game changing wise (idk how different it might be on say the Galaxy S 24 Ultra).

Null, here are my incredibly short phone recommendations (i.e., my less autistic version) for phone-based cameras in no particular order.
1. Sony Xperia series (Xperia 1 V and Pro) - I hear they're good for those who want a phone with a microSD card, headphone jack, and technical camera. It's got one of the more technical cameras on it; imo they're good for taking technical photos/videos, but not the best for simple point and click.
2. iPhones - they're the best for point and click photos/videos, but then again you're getting into the Apple ecosystem and that's getting into the whole retarded Apple Cattle™ debate, plus newer ones (sold in the US and China) are ESIM only (I use a 15 PM). Also, the 14 series and older use lighting cables for connection/charging (instead of USB-C or Micro that Androids use).
3. Samsung - the S24 Ultra is probably the best for point and click photos/videos in the Android world (S25 Ultra comes out early next year). Can be somewhat annoying with the Samsung versions of various Google default apps, but think you can uninstall them now. Newer ones don't have expandable storage or headphone jacks (like most phones now).
4. Oneplus and other Chinese companies - can be mixed on how they are, idk entirely on how they perform for point and click photos/videos, but I know some of them are big on their lenses (some even have Lecia branded lenses and other high end lenses). Longevity wise is probably not going to be great.
5. Lecia - not on my list, but they do make their own phone and it looks promising (article about it here - Archive ), but it appears to only be sold in Asia and is like 2k USD.
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Also, feel free to ask any specific questions about them or smartphone cameras/stuff. I've researched them too much.
Alternatively, if anyone else here has a recommendation for a good standalone camera that you like Null, got for it ;)
 
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Adroc Thurston said:
Xperia 1 V and Pro
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Emphasis on that. Sony's naming scheme for the Xperia lineup is fairly simple despite what people say.
10 - midrange model
5 - high end model (I believe now discontinued)
1 - flagship model
Roman numeral - model generation, pronounced as "Mark X"

I own an Xperia 10 Mk.III and from my experience with it, don't buy the 10 series if you want to take good photos, you'll have to splurge out for the flagship if you want good sensors. From what I've seen people really like the Xperia 1 VI that released this year, though it's MSRP is 1400€, and again, not a point and shoot phone. Sony treats their flagship Xperias as a stopgap for their Alpha cameras users to have something capable but pocketable. If you want point and shoot, Apple is the undisputed king despite being Apple.

Despite Sony being the main manufacturer of camera sensors for all smartphones, they can't put a good one in their own midrange phone. Not only that, but Sony still sucks when it comes to software. Modern Xperias come with stock Android with some Sony additions, and you can immediately tell when something came from Sony by how badly it performs. The stock camera app on mine is laggy, has shitty photo processing, but it does have great video stabilization. In the end I use some GCam mod for photos and the stock app for videos. I remember how their divided view overlay lagged the phone out so hard it rebooted, but as long as you stick to the AOSP side it's fine. Nowadays it doesn't lag as much, perhaps due to the fact I've since rooted it, and also lowered the amount of apps installed on it. I also use it less so there's that.

Also worth noting, their flavor of AOSP is insanely barebones. You have no AOD despite it being an OLED, you have no tap to wake despite it being the standard in every other phone, the only camera gesture you get is the one on the power button double click, and the only worthwhile gesture that's included is the call answering by the proximity sensor. I make it usable by using 3rd part apps like KISS Launcher, Tasker and Edge Gestures. The upside is that once you root it, there's an app by the name of Iconify that lets you customize the AOSP overlays and do neat things like having 12 quick settings available to you in the notification shade instead of 4, force Material You colors to ones you want and not the ones Android decides you'd want from the wallpaper, especially handy when you have a monochrome wallpaper but want a different accent color, and other neat little options. But this is a pro: it's AOSP/con: it's AOSP type of thing, not exclusive to Sony.

It's a love/hate relationship. Sony's the only one still offering phones with a headphone jack, SD card slot, no screen notch and a 21:9 screen which makes them narrow and easy to use one handed, they let you unlock the bootloader with no strings attached and they have very neat battery management functions that should be in stock Android (mine lasts 3-4 days on idle), but at the same time they only have 2 years of system updates, Sony's software has issues, 10 III's had a batch of bad OLED's and mine has it as well where originally it had a green tint even on black pixels, a software update fixed that issue, but it still turns green and blotchy on low brightness because the screen itself is cooked, and frankly, for all the issues they have they cost way more than they should. I don't know how much better it is on the 1 series, but I'd be hesitant to get another Xperia. Especially a 1 Series given how you still only get 2 years of software support for that price.

I wish Sony would get their shit together at least in the smartphone segment, they have the potential to offer something really good no one else offers, they have capable designers and engineers, at least on the Japanese side of the biz, of which the Xperia division is a part of. Though to be fair, despite all it's flaws I still feel like it's been the best phone I've owned up to this point, perhaps the 21:9 form factor makes it so comfy. It spoiled me and I hate it.
 
Unconventional recommendation here (if it's for landscape and POV in general): GoPro Hero 12 or 13 + spare batteries /w charger for said model

It's super compact, good RAW quality (for the sensor size). point and shoot. I know people will seethe that I just recommended GoPro, the "Adobe of hardware". But, if you want a very compact camera that is still better than a phone. GoPro is still the best option. Just learn the settings so it doesn't fuck up the color balance, then it should be a point and shoot device.

Processing RAW images:
Lightroom or DxO PhotoLab (if you can afford it or get it "for free")
Rawtherapee or Darktable (if you are a FOSS enjoyer)

If you got file support issues (the RAW file is an unusually one), Adobe DNG converter supports almost every single format out there.

Processing video
Gyroflow (for stabilization & lens correction) --> DaVinci Resolve (free version got you covered, paid version is mostly only for major studios IMO)

Handbrake (it's ffmpeg with a GUI) for converting files in batches (like a whole folder), good for Odysee uploads since you have to encode it yourself.

Kdenlive, Shotcut, Premiere Pro are a meme. DaVinci Resolve is the best editor out there, stop being retarded with the FOSS larp on video editing.

Just keep in mind that 5.3K 10bit video takes up A LOT of hard drive space. Also, get reliable microSD cards.
 
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Null said:
The Ricoh GR III and Samsung S24 Ultra have a similar price point, with considerations that the S24 is a phone and you will never forget to bring it. Genuinely, how different exactly are the two are producing images? That's my main thing about buying a camera that's not a super fancy camera.
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I'm not sure about the S24, but a Samsung Galaxy I previously used had the same issue with the preview image looking way different than the saved image. I think it probably has to do with using a high shutter speed in the preview (it is basically just video) and a lower shutter speed for the actual image, with a lower ISO to try to make the exposure look equivalent, it just isn't very good at it. Also I'm convinced there is some sort of AI smoothing filter ran on the live preview for the Android camera app by default, but that just may be the difference in settings between the video & photos. Taking a video and clipping out a frame looks almost equivalent to the live preview though on Android for me.
You could probably fix all that with a better camera app that allows manual control of your Fstop, ISO, & shutter speed, but controlling that stuff on a phone always feels weird to me with no physical dials so I just always use the auto shoot mode.
 
After approximately 1000 hours of research I have decided I am going to wait until the Ricoh GR IV is released and buy that. I was tempted by the Fujifilm X1000IV or whatever but I decided against it because the company appears to be ran by fags who deliberately cause product shortages to hype their product, and that is the gayest nip shit ever and every nip that does that should get seppukud by the ghost of Hirohito.
 
I understand where Null is coming from with how phones are making legit cameras obsolete with how fast they're improving, but every time I've tried to catch a photo of something moving that's in motion, my phone fucks it up and the subject usually comes out blurry. This is because phones don't know exactly what you're taking a photo of and is just guessing on it and automatically setting things for you. With a camera, you have more control over it.

As for taking a big camera everywhere and it being a pain in the ass to lug around, idk. Personally, that makes me take better photos. It's like, I'm taking my camera with me, so that makes me look around more for things to take photos of. Adds dedication. If it's just me and my phone then I'm not as attentive with it. I have a Sony A7 3 with a couple of lenses, I want to get more to play around with but what I have now is fine. Every time I've brought it with me in my camera bag, it makes whatever I'm doing more fun because I'm paying way more attention to my surroundings and go 'oh shit that looks cool!' or 'damn i need to come back here when it's sunset'. I'm not out in nature very much but doing that made me want to go out there more.

It's also fun to just play around with settings on the camera and with apps to adjust colors and saturation. Unedited photo I took of a squirrel:
uned05336.JPG
Adjusted saturation, temp and hue:
sattintcool05336.JPG

Honestly, if you have fun taking pictures of things but don't have an actual camera, you don't need something state-of-the-art to have fun with it. I'd say starting out with something a little older but still decent is the best way to go, but that's just me.

As for video cameras, I found this video informative:

 
Null said:
I have decided I am going to wait until the Ricoh GR IV is released and buy that.
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Considering they just did a rerelease of the ricoh III with a built in softness filter in March, that might be a while. That is not to say it's a bad idea, just saying it could be more than a few months and the Ricoh III or IIIx is a capable camera as is. The Sony RX100VII might incidentally also be worth a look in the interim.

I wouldn't recommend the overhyped fuji either because one can get any other fuji that has the same capabilities without the lens being fixed and non interchangeable (the xt5 and xh2 which have the EXACT same sensor) and they're all excellent and offer the same performance without the artificial scarcity. The X1000VI is an influencer/designer product first and foremost.
 
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I really think I just need a high-end compact with out of the box image and video. The X1000VI takes really good video whereas the GR3 doesn't, but the GR3 is old and Ricoh doesn't seem to give a shit about keeping up with the other brands at all. If the Fiji didn't have super gross nip business practices I'd have bought it already, it's basically what I want.
 
Dropping by cos @Null was talking about it on stream
I have been fucking around with photography for 30 years but it was never professional, always a cool hobby that I only spent enough money on to fulfill a creative craving. I inherited old film 35mm cameras first, including soviet Zenits and around a decade ago switched to digital.
I recommend you just buy an old, used dslr. They aren't expensive and they mog any compact or phone camera. Specifically Nikon. An AF lens made in fucking 60s fits a modern nikon camera WITH NO ADAPTERS. If the CCD doesn't have dead pixels, even a D90 will do for 200 bux max.
No filters. No auto-levels. Just reality as you see it, and if you want, full control over exposure, iso and focal length, as God intended.
 
Null said:
but the GR3 is old and Ricoh doesn't seem to give a shit about keeping up with the other brands at all.
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A little heads up...
Cameras do NOT age like a phone does. Even if it's a compact camera, a release date of 2020 for the X100V (X100F was 2017) and 2021 GR IIIx, that's a pretty new'ish for a camera. A camera might get the "old" status after 10 years. But 3 years? No!

Take for an example Sony α7R III or the Sigma fp, released 2018-2019, people still seek these older models due to cameras pretty much only has one function: create a sharp optical light onto a big sensor, and they sure deliver big times on this, despite having a newer model that are slightly better (honestly, you can't see the difference on the final JPG). Most of the specs are related to sensor materials and optics, which does not evolve as fast as phones do, since they need to keep up with software security and other (NSA and advertiser) shit we don't care about. For a camera, all the "software" processing that isn't related to auto balance and stablization is done on a big computer to save battery and processing hardware costs.

It might be worth considering picking up one generation older model since the prices will drop on those (the rest on the budget can go to accessories instead). Unless the specs varies extremly between those model generation, then you can go full consoom mode.
Null said:
ran by fags who deliberately cause product shortages to hype their product, and that is the gayest nip shit ever and every nip that does that should get seppukud by the ghost of Hirohito.
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Null said:
If the Fiji didn't have super gross nip business practices I'd have bought it already, it's basically what I want.
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Cameras stores memories for you to share with others, it might be worth swallowing the Pride™ for a good device. That's what I did with the GoKikePro and Sony.

Not saying you should go consoom mode, but... I don't think you can go wrong with a Fujifilm.

LEGOsneed said:
I recommend you just buy an old, used dslr. They aren't expensive and they mog any compact or phone camera.
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He wants a pocket device, it rules out getting a DSLR.
 
snowdunes said:
He wants a pocket device, it rules out getting a DSLR.
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And I look at this from an economic point of view. He doesn't want to spend much money. My dslr is a D80, an almost 20 year old camera. It is superior to phone dogshit, while costing pennies, with an ecosystem of lenses that's been around since the fucking 1930s. Perhaps sacrificing convenience of a compact device for a cheap but technically superior dslr would be worth it? Just an idea.
 
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