Data Sphere

Hi all,

this is not really a tutorial, but I havent found a category that seemed more fitting.

Inspired by another thread I wanted to compare the quality of a mobile phone picture and a medium class DSLR with a macro lens.

I took all pictures using my lightbox - a selfmade card box with cutouts covered with transparent paper. For light I use desk lamps from IKEA with special but cheap daylight lightbulbs (I have some from wallimex).

You can see my set-up here (on top of my untidy workbench )



I took some pictures of my current projects using my mobile phone and also using my camera (on a tripod),
I also did some adjusting to all pictures in Adobe Lightroom (really quickly, 3-4 minutes for all pictures)

NOTE: You see some conversion/reposes that I blatantly stole from inspiration from this or the official forum. The minis are primed and dipped in black wash and wait to be painted. I do not have any completely painted miniatures yet or I would have used those for this comparison. I just cant finish painting a mini :-/


EDIT: DSLR f/22 + 1/4sec (chosen by me) / iPhone f/2.4 + 1/160sec (chosen by software)

I think the iPhone-pictures are really great. The DSLR pictures could be better but I was a bit hasty with taking the pictures and also with the postwork. The automatic adjustments the iPhone makes are really good while on the other hand I have disabled all of those effects on my DSLR - so I have total control, but if I dont invest the time the pictures are lacking.

What you maybe can see is that the depth of focus on the iPhone is very limited (see saitos raised foot or the back wheel of maghariba-aragoto). Its okay-ish for most miniatures, but with some poses some parts are impossible to get sharp. With the DSLR I have much more control over this.
On the other hand this effect is lessened by the reduction in image size.

In the end I guess my conclusion is: your lighting is much more important than the camera you use. Yes - a cheapo camera will limit your results, but you can get good pictures if your lighting is good!
(Okay, given, this iphone-camera is neither cheap nor bad)

Hope this interesting for you folks.

CIF (Covered In Fish):
1.) Great Username.
2.) FANTASTIC tutorial! This is really we done and thought out and displayed well.
3.) Thank you very much for taking the time and obvious effort in making this!
4.) Great conversions
5.) I could go on
6.) Thank you again! I really enjoyed reading this and learned something...

f/2.8 gives a very short depth of field, it can be a problem with long things (front wheel in top bike starts to become fuzzy). Also many lens are sharper around the middle of their f/ range. Of course, bigger f/ also means bigger time and/or more light needed. 105mm will also flatten the subject a lot.

@Crushar
Thanks. A lot.

@Mob of Blondes
Ah ... you are totally correct (and good to point that out) but thats just the spec of the lens. The actual aperture was f/22 (to get a good dof), 1/4 sec exposure. I would probably buy another lens if its just for miniatures (eg the nikkor 60mm is much cheaper and probably better suited), but its the only macro lens I have (and its fixed focal length).

(According to the EXIF data the iPhone used f/2.4 and 1/160sec exposure.)

Aah, sorry, I read that as "settings" used, not "model".

Ah ... just thought that maybe un-edited, original size pictures are of interest.
The forums resizes the pictures, but when you right click the pictures and say something like "open image" (depends on your browser) you should get a full size version.

I have chosen the only pictures that does not show the depth-of-field-effect well. Clever me.
Also let me say that my macro lens for the dslr has a manual focus and it seems I'm not as good as my phone in finding the right focal point

iPhone:


DSLR:

Old cameras were easy to focus with their split, pattern, etc optical viewer screens. New ones are just clean, assuming everyone uses AF. Sadly it means that you have to fork some cash to get the old system.

I still use my DSLR in manual mode.
I control the shutter timing, aperture (for DoF) and ISO.

I don't use the screen for lining up shots (it doesn't do live-view to screen, I HAVE to use the viewfinder - but it does have diopter correction for my eyesight - allowing me to use my specs as well).

Whilst my nokia does have a pretty good macro function, it's let down by its lens. My SLR has an awesome set of lenses.

The phone is used when I want to tweet a picture, generally. For proper staged shots I use the camera.

By screen, I mean the focusing screen that goes in the optical viewfinder path, not a LCD on the back. It has pros and cons, obviously, but when light is fine, you can really see if the focus is right instead of trusting the camera and later finding the photos are blurry.

Great tutorial!

Tripod, my friend, tripod. Even a little baby tripod that's ~$10 will help give better results than trying to hand-hold a phone or tablet.

(I actually picked up an Olympus 830 for shooting minis, I need to dig out the charger and set up my lightbox)

+1 to Section9's comment on a tripod.

This alone will eliminate the cause of 90% of fuzzies. Camera movement due to hand holding.
Use self timer as well and you can eliminate another 5-7%.

The remaining 3% is due to other factors.

Some of the newer EVF cameras will allow you to set a highlight color for the part that is in focus. I can do that on my Panasonic G6 for example.