Good 'budget' camera with decent dynamic range

[dderidex]

So I've finally found a good way to describe the issue I find most annoying about digital cameras. From this review (dpreview.com):

As usual you can expect to see occasional highlight clipping in very bright, contrasty conditions - something common to virtually all high pixel count small sensor compacts. These cameras struggle to capture the full tonal range in scenes with a large dynamic range (high contrast, very bright days). Like previous A series models, the A570 IS's problem seems to be a combination of the usual limited dynamic range of such sensors and a fairly steep tone curve, which can lead to quite harshly clipped highlights
...
In very high contrast scenes with very strong bright colors we also saw some channel clipping and a little bleeding of color (blooming) across very high contrast edges, but it's nothing that's likely to affect prints and was only observed in a couple of shots.

Now, that's something I find VERY annoying. That 'bloom' in high contrast shots. We do a lot of hiking in woods, and any shots I take that include the tops of trees, you can basically never see the branches for the 'bloom' from the sky behind them.

If I was interested in a camera aiming specifically at resolving this issue, NOT getting a DSLR, what would be the best bet?

 

[Kadath]

You can't really. You can't change the laws of physics. Your best bet is to get a Rebel and a lightweight lens like a 50 1.8 and watch your histograms. You'll also benefit from not having the annoying shutter lag that pocket cams suffer from.

 

[Black Morty Rackham]

Get a film camera. Certain types of film have much better dynamic range than most digital cameras.

Or shoot multiple exposures and combine them into a single high dynamic range image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging

 

[dderidex]

You can't really. You can't change the laws of physics. Your best bet is to get a Rebel and a lightweight lens like a 50 1.8 and watch your histograms. You'll also benefit from not having the annoying shutter lag that pocket cams suffer from.

I confess I was looking at the Rebel - more than once. My only fear is that I have no faith my wife could ever figure out one of those. I had a (film) SLR camera a while back, and had no issue with the degree of fiddling needed for a great shot, but the wife...I dunno. The Canon A60 we have puzzles her some times...

 

[Black Morty Rackham]

Just set it to P mode and she'll do fine.

 

[Auric]

Well, as the review implies, you will get a larger dynamic range with a larger sensor, and DSLRs have larger sensors than compacts. Though to get a better dynamic range than a Digital Rebel or other similarly-priced DSLR, you would need to spend at least $1300. However, it's going to be a problem to some degree with any camera. That's simply one of the challenges of photography.

 

[dderidex]

Well, as the review implies, you will get a larger dynamic range with a larger sensor, and DSLRs have larger sensors than compacts. Though to get a better dynamic range than a Digital Rebel or other similarly-priced DSLR, you would need to spend at least $1300. However, it's going to be a problem to some degree with any camera. That's simply one of the challenges of photography.

You'd think it'd be one with a higher priority to solve. It isn't that hard to make a 24- or 32-bit-per-pixel sensor, why cameras keep using 10- or 12-bit-per-pixel is beyond me...

 

[Black Morty Rackham]

You'd think it'd be one with a higher priority to solve. It isn't that hard to make a 24- or 32-bit-per-pixel sensor, why cameras keep using 10- or 12-bit-per-pixel is beyond me...

Agreed. I would pay and arm and a leg for a camera that uses OpenEXR as its "raw" format and shoots in full HDR.

 

[Kadath]

Um, it's simple. You cant force that much data down the available path of the 'bus' the camera supports. Even if the bus was fast enough the digic or exspeed or whatever processor needed to process them would burn enough heat to fire a small oven. Ya canna change the laws of physics capn.