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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Cameras For A Modern Cartier-Bresson

New small, but highly capable cameras give street shooters and photojournalists some interesting options for making ­top-quality images

This Article Features Photo Zoom

The DP1 Merrill has a built-in 19mm ƒ/2.8 wide-angle lens (28mm equivalent on a full-frame camera); the DP2 Merrill has a built-in 30mm ƒ/2.8 "normal" lens (45mm equivalent on a full-frame camera). Otherwise, the two cameras are pretty much identical. They have 3.0-inch, 920K-dot LCD monitors, with optional eye-level optical finders available. ISO range is 100-6400. Each camera can do 640x480 video at 30 fps. Both cameras are 4.8 inches wide and 2.6 inches high; the DP1 Merrill is 2.5 inches deep and weighs 12.0 ounces; the DP2 Merrill is 2.3 inches deep and weighs 11.6 ounces. Each camera lists for $999.

Interchangeable-Lens Street Shooters
	Mount	Sensor Size	Sensor Resolution	Normal ISO range	AF System	Max. Drive	Max. Video
Fujifilm FinePix X-Pro1	Fujifilm X	APS-C	16.3 MP	200-6400	Contrast	6 fps	1080/24p
Fujifilm FinePix X-E1	Fujifilm X	APS-C	16.3 MP	200-6400	Contrast	6 fps	1080/24p
Leica M	Leica M	Full-frame	24.0 MP	200-6400	MF only	3 fps	1080/24p
Leica M-E	Leica M	Full-frame	18.0 MP	160-2500	MF only	2 fps	None
Sony NEX-7	Sony E	APS-C	24.3 MP	100-16,000	Contrast*	3 fps	1080/60p
*The optional Sony LA-EA2 adapter lets you use Sony A-mount (and legacy Konica Minolta) A-mount lenses and incorporates a phase-detection AF system like the one in the SLT-A65 DSLR.
Fixed-Lens Street Shooters
	Lens	Sensor Size	Sensor Resolution	Normal ISO range	AF System	Max. Drive	Max. Video
Fujifilm FinePix X100	23mm ƒ/2	APS-C	12.3 MP	200-6400	Contrast	5 fps	720/24p
Sigma DP1 Merrill	19mm ƒ/2.8	APS-C	14.8x3 MP*	100-6400	Contrast	Not stated	480/30p
Sigma DP2 Merrill	30mm ƒ/2.8	APS-C	14.8x3 MP*	100-6400	Contrast	Not stated	480/30p
Sony Cyber-shot RX1	35mm ƒ/2	Full-frame	24.3 MP	100-25,600	Contrast	5 fps	1080/60p
*The Foveon sensor stacks three pixel layers, each containing 14.8-million effective pixels, so the sensor contains 14.8x3 = 44.4 effective megapixels, but output images measure 4704x3136 pixels; see text for more details.