Analysis firm DxO Labs hosts a fantastic comparison tool over at their website, which can very quickly and helpfully chart out whether or not your Canon PowerShot G10 is really as good as your photographer friend’s $22,000 Hasselblad H3DII 39. The answer to that question, of course, is “no” but surveying the results, you’d be surprised how close the gap is between some sub-$1,000 cameras and professional models five or six times the price.
Image Quality Database [DxOMark via Crunchgear]
There’s been some interesting discussions of this over at The Online Photographer and Luminous Landscape.
The IQ database has some serious problems:
1. High ISO gets over-weighted.
2. Resolution is basically ignored.
3. “Horses for Courses” factor is ignored.
4. Best case raw conversion is not being done.
I’m not a fan of taking something as complex as image quality and distilling it into a single number. In the end, its the final product that counts. DxO Mark doesn’t measure it.
Compare the Nikon D700 at one-tenth the price to the Hasselblad: http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/eng/Image-Quality-Database/Compare-cameras/(appareil1)/296|0/(appareil2)/301|0/(onglet)/0/(brand)/Nikon/(brand2)/Hasselblad
The Hasselblad has a slight edge in dynamic range and color depth, but the Nikon is way ahead in sensor (!) and ISO. While I believe the ISO claim to some extent, claiming that the sensor is better is contrary to all evidence.