jeffa4444 said:
The casual user may not know about dynamic range but they certainly notice burnt out skies, or overexposed parts of the frame. Lattitude would provide more keepers and better satifaction for casual photographers and a greater confidence in photography if it was not important I doubt all the CMOS designners & manufacturers would be spending $$$$$$ on improving sensitivity for a minority.
Obviuosly in itself its only one aspect and Wi-Fi, GPS etc. is more appealing for advertizers to sell cameras to consumers after all we EXPECT cars to be reliable and that every new model has better gas consumption so it follows each new generation of camera should improve overall performance the point is we have a long way to go between 12 stops and 20 stops.
this goes right back to what i said in a few posts back though, the benefit of that DR comes in post process - the image out of camera will not look significantly different. The point of DR is that to give latitude after the shot is taken. What I am saying is that most casual users shoot in jpeg and don't use any post process. Hell, I know many causal users who have shots from 2 years ago still on their memory cards, some even further back. Some that don't even know how to get the photos off their camera!
IMO, the casual user would prefer some kind of in cam HDR to more DR because they can get the effect of more DR without doing any PP. It's easy to be here on these forums and forget that WE are in the minority.
Another point to consider here too - casual users and burnt out skies, overexposed parts of the frame, and more than likely lots of red eye washed out on camera flash - we are talking about casual users, folks who go full auto everything (AF in all points active mode too) ---- maybe the skies would be a bit better if they took the time to learn how to use their camera!!!! I know that sounds real condescending, but, you have no clue how often I get asked simple questions - and many of these people have owned their rebel for years (and yeah, the nikon equivalent). At least when its a canon i can show them stuff, but when its an entry level nikon person, I always say ---check the manual, it'll explain it...they say, I don't have the manual... I say - well, you should be able to find it online ---- then they say, I'll just ask my other friend, he shoots nikon....I shoot a lot of events so I get asked these questions quite a bit. These are the users that drive the entry level market.
Some end up liking photography enough to read the manual, then find tutorials and learn, maybe even take a class or 2. these are the folks that end up taking the plunge into the XXD, XD series cameras.
Things like DR and low ISO IQ, max ISO IQ, buffer, FPS, AF control, AF tracking, AFMA, ...this is all stuff that will only matter to those who take things to the next level. That's why new awesomeness will come first in the semipro and pro bodies. The XXD and XD series market does care about this stuff.
