Sensor size and noise in compact digital cameras

Tags photography sigma DP1 compact camera sensor noise iso

Posted on May 24, 2007 by Mark

I was rather pleased to see an article on DPReview last Sunday about how sensor size plays a massive part in determining the noise of an image produced by a compact digital camera, especially when increasing the sensitivity of sensor to give you a high ISO rating (full article).

This is something I’ve been moaning about for a long time: when are the camera companies going to stop this megapixel race and start worrying about noise in images?

It’s this poor performance that has put me off buying a compact digital camera for a long time. I have a digital SLR (and love it), but I don’t like taking it out with me in the evening. What I’ve been after for ages is almost exactly what the new Sigma DP1 promises to be: a compact camera with a wide angle lens (so I can get group photos of friends without standing half a mile away), and decent (read low noise) performance in low light conditions (read in the pub). The large APS-C size sensor in the Sigma DP1 is exactly the same size as the sensor in my EOS 20D, and this works beautifully in low light…

If course I’ve still not managed to get my hands on a DP1, and this waiting is killing me! For me, the crucial thing is how good the sensor is at ISO 800 or 1600. The lens is only f/4.0, so if I’m using it indoors in the evening I’m going to need a fairly high ISO setting to keep camera shake down to a minimum. (I guess I’ll be needing an exposure of about 1/30 or 1/60th second.)

As I said, this waiting really is killing me so hurry up Sigma and start shipping the thing!!

Comments

One Response to “Sensor size and noise in compact digital cameras”

  1. Camera Man on January 28th, 2008 10:20 am

    I don’t think most people that buy compact cameras look at it in so much detail like are :)

    Woman just generally want a compact and nice looking camera and guys well… I think we fall for the fake spec marketing, a lot of companies do flat out tell clients that unless you’re priting A3 or bigger those high mexapixels arnt going to make much difference.

Leave a Reply