{"id":138043,"date":"2019-04-07T13:40:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-07T20:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=138043"},"modified":"2019-04-08T09:44:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T16:44:30","slug":"whats-more-important-image-quality-or-ergonomics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/07\/whats-more-important-image-quality-or-ergonomics\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s more important: image quality or ergonomics?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I think more important than image quality of a camera is ergonomics (size, feel of the camera in your hand, UI\/UX of menu and button system, responsiveness, haptic feedback, build quality, and weight\/compactness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What good is image quality if the camera weighs 1000 pounds?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Google Pixel 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It seems a bit useless if your camera has the best image quality in the world if you don’t take it out and shoot with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus for myself, this seems a good tradeoff:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always better to have worse image quality in exchange for a more compact, lightweight, and ergonomic camera. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For example, I would still prefer to have a RICOH GR III camera (opposed to a Leica Q2) because the RICOH GR 3 still weighs a lot less, is much smaller, and better as an everyday carry camera. If I needed supreme image quality, best to bring out a Pentax 645z digital medium format camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not a phone camera? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’m a big fan of phone cameras, but this is my thought:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A RICOH GR camera isn’t much bigger nor much heavier than a phone, yet the RICOH GR makes probably 5-10x better image quality than even the best image quality phone camera. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If your primary motive with photography is to make great visual artwork, image quality is important<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you like the way the photos look, the image quality is good! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Google Pixel 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course image quality is subjective. And the only test for image quality is, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you like the way the photos look, then it has good image quality! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fujifilm GFX 50s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pocketable or non-pocketable?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another epiphany: all cameras can be classified as being pocketable or non-pocketable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Pocketable: RICOH GR or a smartphone camera. <\/li>
  • Non-pocketable: Pretty much all other cameras. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    My theory is that we should “barbell” (embrace the extremes) with cameras. Better to own a RICOH GR II (pocketable) and a Pentax 645z (supreme image quality) than to own a full frame camera which isn’t really pocketable, and the image quality isn’t quite as good as digital medium format. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I think more important than image quality of a camera is ergonomics (size, feel of the camera in your hand, UI\/UX of menu and button system, responsiveness, haptic feedback, build quality, and weight\/compactness).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/eric-kim-ricoh-gr-ii-jpeg-bay-area-resize-58.jpg?fit=2048%2C1356&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138043"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138064,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138043\/revisions\/138064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}