Last month I bought a Sony A6700. I still have mostly m4/3 gear and still mostly prefer it, but I was sort of bored and felt like trying something else.

Anyway, I have been playing around with HEIF photos. Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic, etc. these days produce 3 types of photo files: raw, 8-bit JPEG, and 10-bit HEIF.

With the A6700 the HEIF choices are: 4:2:2 or 4:2:0.

And you can select among 4 compression levels (same as for JPEG): Extra Fine, Fine, Standard, Light.

With Sony HEIF you can use sRGB or HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) that uses BT.2020 color, but not Adobe RGB (choice is grayed out). With JPEG you can use sRGB or Adobe RGB.

I wonder why Sony HEIF does not allow Adobe RGB?

I have been playing around with HEIF 4:2:2, Fine, sRGB. Lightroom Classic supports it.

Just for kicks and giggles, here is a quick comparison between three DSLRs:

Nikon D610, 2013, 14.4 stops
Pentax K5 (APS-C), 2010, 14.1 stops
Canon EOS 6D, 2012, 12.1 stops

I expected more progress in the DR department, especially from the medium format sensors. This is not to say that things won't improve. Oh, they absolutely will. High end cinema cameras by ARRI and Red have more DR than 14.8 stops, but they are quite expensive.

Kodak Vision3 film has up to 15 stops in 35mm format. So it's not like film has made much progress either, although AFAIK you gain a stop with every doubling of surface area.

What are your thoughts?

Let's get started.

SDIM0064in by blurrist lump, on Flickr

SDIM0197in by blurrist lump, on Flickr

SDIM0219bw in by blurrist lump, on Flickr

Thanks, Kevin

To cut a long story short, I have a friend (and voluntary colleague) who arrived - 5 years ago in NL as a refugee without much money. With an old, borrowed DSLR + lense, he took up voluntary photography work for the organization that I also for.Initially, his main aim - through his voluntary involvement in photo-shoots and editorial meetings - was to improve his fluency in the Dutch language. Based on his initial photos, I was asked to 'coach' him in photography.  Since then, we've become firm friends! Soon after his initial 'voluntary work', he got a permanent job. But he still (voluntarily) takes photos and attents editorial meetings when his shift work allows.,

When his 'old, DSLR + lens' borrowing period came to end someone else suggested he buy an old, second-hand 'camera kit' on a local online ad/auction website: a 2005 (8 MB) Olympus E500 kit, including  lens and flash unit. Yes, it was dirt cheap but pretty much useless. For almost every photo he took, he had to use a flash. His photos also came out with a distinct blue or green wash.

So, now - 5-6 years later - he wants to buy a better camera and lens with a budget of roughly $1000. He asked me to hep him make a choice. There literally thousands of cameras of different types that fit within his budget. My initial reaction was that he could pick up a used DLSR (or example a Canon EOS mk iii body + lense) within his budget. But this afternoon - together with him  - we discovered that there were attractive (body + lense) deals on new, mirrorless cameras.

As a DSLR 'dinosaur', I know nothing about the 'mirrorless market. He has no legacy 'lens collection' so he's basically starting from scratch. That's why a 'new camera + lense' deal is probably more attractive for him than buying separate bodies and lenses. If I was starting from scratch (without a lens collection), I might have gone mirrorless too!

Within my friend's budget of $1000, we saw a couple of attractive deals online:

 - Panasonic Lumix G80/90 bodies + 12-60mm lense

- Canon R50/R10/R100 bodies + lenses

- Fujifilm, others?

So my questions are:

- do you have any opinions regarding the choice(for my friend)  between an (old) DSLR and a 'mirrorless' camera (I've already read web articles 😉 )

- has anyone any experience with and/or comments on the brands and models I mentioned above?

From what I've seen internet so far, my friend might just be able to afford an (old) full-frame DSLR but not a FF mirrorless. I assume that there's an improvement in technology between  (older)  SLR's and more modern mirrorless cameras. But t.b.h., I'm not sure.

From what (little) I understand, the image quality is determined by the size and quality of the light sensor DSLR or mirrorless). More modern (mirrorless) sensors  - perhaps - result in better image quality than DSLRs.