Nikon or Canon?

As a photographer, whether professional, pro-sumer, or simple snapshot-taker, you never know when you might stumble upon a scene or image you want to capture. That’s why I almost always carry a small digital camera with me wherever I go.  There have been several times I’ve used it and been grateful for having the camera at hand. Particularly if you have kids, you never know when you will see your children do something clever, cute or simply ridiculous, and can capture the moment for future memories or blackmail.

My current ‘pocket camera’ is a Nikon Coolpix S8000. It is small, lightweight, has 14.2 megapixels, captures video (for those rare occasions when I want to do that) and a 10x zoom lens. It fits easily into a pocket and the battery allows for about 210 images per charge. I’ve been very pleased with the camera, and had planned to keep it for a long time.

On the other end of the camera spectrum, my primary or ‘real’ camera is a Nikon D300. This is the camera I use when I shoot sports, scenes and other images where I want maximum sharpness, resolution, and may want to color correct, sharpen or experiment with. One other key feature the Nikon D300 has over the pocket camera is the ability to capture images in RAW format. The ability to work with RAW files allows the user to enhance the image without losing or compromising data. If you don’t like how an image turned out the first time, you can start from scratch. It’s like a negative from the old film days – you can make several prints from the same negative, each one a bit different from the others, and still have your original image capture in pristine condition.

Once you’ve become comfortable shooting RAW images, when you work with a camera that only provides a JPEG output, you feel stuck.  Which is how I have been feeling recently, wishing I could capture RAW images with a pocket camera.

I took a trip to my local camera store (Pictureline – Salt Lake City) and lo and behold, there actually are ‘pocket cameras’ which capture images in RAW format. The Nikon Coolpix P7000 and the Canon PowerShot S 95 both offer RAW image capture capabilities.

It turns out there are other ‘pocket’ cameras that allow for RAW image capture. I don’t know why I didn’t think to explore this sooner, but for whatever reason I always thought RAW capture was a high-end, digital SLR feature only. Turns out that is not the case.

Having been a Nikon guy for awhile, it pains me to look at a Canon model, but I have been looking at the Powershot 95. But after looking online and comparing the two cameras, I’m torn. The Nikon CoolPix P7000 has some terrific features, including a 10MP CCD sensor, a 7x zoom (28-200mm equivalent) f/2.8-5.6 with 2 ED elements and built-in ND filter, ISO range from 100-3200, the RAW capture option (.NRW format) as well as NRW+JPEG (fine), 4 Picture Control preset modes + custom mode, four Picture Control preset modes + custom mode and Dual IR receivers (front and rear) for wireless remote control ML-L3. This is a very nice feature set in a relatively small package.

The Key word for me, though, is ‘relatively.’

I almost always carry my Nikon Coolpix S8000 with me. I have two kids and when we are out doing something, it doesn’t matter what, I will usually snap a few photos of them. Sometimes it’s a ‘we were here’ thing, other times it’s a ‘look how ridiculous we are acting’ thing, occasionally it’s a ‘oh no, did I really do THAT?’ thing. These moments have yielded some fun images, and it’s because the camera will fit nicely into my pocket. I would not have captured any of them with the Nikon D300 – even if I did have it along.

Occasionally, though, I will also see a scene or object that I would like to capture. In my mind’s eye I am already seeing the image in Lightroom and visualizing how I will use that program to make the object or scene come to life. With the Nikon Coolpix S8000 I cannot capture RAW, and therefore can’t realize the end result of what my minds eye has already created. This has been frustrating.  

Having been a Nikon guy for awhile, it pains me to look at a Canon model, but I have been looking at the Powershot 95. But after looking online and comparing the two cameras, I’m torn. The Nikon CoolPix P7000 has some terrific features, including a 10MP CCD sensor, a 7x zoom (28-200mm equivalent) f/2.8-5.6 with 2 ED elements and built-in ND filter, ISO range from 100-3200, the RAW capture option (.NRW format) as well as NRW+JPEG (fine), 4 Picture Control preset modes + custom mode, four Picture Control preset modes + custom mode and Dual IR receivers (front and rear) for wireless remote control ML-L3. This is a very nice feature set in a relatively small package.

The Canon also has a 10 MP CCD sensor coupled with a DIGIC 4 sensor with iSAPS technology. The lens has a 3.8 Optical zoom - a bit less than the Nikon (okay, maybe more than ‘a bit’ less), an ISO range from 80 – 3200, RAW capture, second curtain sync, built-in flash, and a host of shooting modes. The Canon P95 shoots HD movies.

Bottom Line for me, the Nikon is too large for me to consider it a true ‘pocket camera.’ It looks like it is going to do just want I want it to do – allow me to capture my kids silly moments as well as provide a means to get more ‘semi-professional’ images, created from RAW files.

Check back in awhile to view some images made with this camera.