Google Pixel 6a vs. The Real-World, 240815

I finally got this video more or less under control.
Trust me, it wasn't easy, as I was comparing it to my D300s, D610, D750 and D850 with my D850 and my post-processing giving me serious problems. Took me months to sort those problems out and get to the point where I could make some decently-objective comparisons among the 5 cameras, and I found a couple of bugs in the D850s HDR mode along the way.

[aside from the 8x3 name format, from DOS 6.2]

Basically If you insist on shooting your DSLR handheld in HDR (blend) mode, just be aware that if it's like my experience, you'll have "stack alignment" issues, in the blending step, on about half of the shots. Due to camera--shake between exposures. And that is if you get a good focus, have a good lens and shoot at a high-enough shutter-speed, ISO and F# to get solid exposures for the blending step. The 6a, in HDR+ mode, will produce shots that are about a 3 out of 5 in terms of linear-fidelity compared to a D300 (which doesn't support HDR blending) not to mention the D850 (which does, in exchange for D300 linear-fidelity), but the 6a will almost certainly beat the D300/D610/D750 & D850 in terms of color-appeal in HDR+ mode. Because that is what it is designed to do: produce HDR+images that look good in terms of COLOR and overall exposure, sacrificing linear-fidelity to do so.

DSLRs are designed to give you good linear-fidelity, not great color, at least not without a lot of fiddling and testing (thus Adobe).

The 6a is not a DSLR. And Google wisely decided not to try to make it produce shots like one. It produces shots like a good cellphone-camera does. And a lot of guys at Sony are smiling. Because that is what they have been saying that cameras should do since the A720 and the RX100. And Sony has consciously sacrificed linear-fidelity in their cameras in order to maximize "customer happiness" with the overall image. Don't believe me, get one of Sonys' 100MP camera-lens combos and test the linear-fidelity on real-world images. You will be lucky to get the linear-resolution of a D300 out of one.

I would advise very strongly against comparing a Pixel 6a directly to a decent DSLR & lens. Or even a good point & shoot. It is not a point & shoot any more than it is a bridge-camera or a DSLR. It is a good cellphone-camera. Nothing less, nothing more. Apples and oranges. When you are looking at your images in small-format? Then you are playing on the cellphone-cameras' home turf by its rules. All it needs to do to beat all that expensive gear is to produce images that look EVEN HALFWAY DECENT on a large-format high-res display at full-image. Not at 50%, not at 100% and definitely not at 150% or higher.

Why?
Because 6a shots are not likely to be viewed at even 50% not to mention 100%.

If you need to crop your shots at 150% or higher?
Then you need to either get closer or get a decent lens in front of your camera.

I almost never shoot at over 50mm effective.
For a 24mm effective 6a shot that is 8% at full-image on a 1080p monitor?
50mm effective is roughly 16%. The 6a can easily handle that.

Just goes to show two long-standing axioms:

If you get a great shot, great. Be happy and move on.
If you don't get a great shot, realize that it's probably your technique at least as much as it's the camera. But there's also a fair chance that the problem is your ambition as much as your technique.

The main selling-point of the 6a is that it is butt-simple to carry it and get decent shots with it. You just point the thing at what you want to shoot, give it a split second to auto-focus and expose, then hit the shutter button.

That's it. Done. And you're probably going to be ok with what it gives you, if you're close enough to what you're shooting.

There is no DSLR that is that simple and that reliable because your expectations with a DSLR will be far higher (let's face it: cellphone-cameras have produced crappy pictures for a long time now) and to get better shots with a DSLR than you will easily get with the 6a, YOU MUST USE BETTER TECHNIQUE. But still you must start with a scene than lends itself to being shot better with a DSLR than you could shoot it with a 6a. If you're happy with shots that are as good as what the 6a will give you, then there isn't much of a good reason to shoot that scene with a DSLR. And that turned-on a light-bulb in my head. I had more than enough real-world 6a shots. Why not make a video just about the 6a?

Since the 6a or something like it is obviously going to be an IQ baseline for any standalone camera going forward. Axiom #3: if you're purposely going to obsess, then don't be ashamed to be called an obsessive-compulsive.

I do have to mention one more thing. This video looks better in my video editor than it does in my video-player. I'm sure that trend will continue with the YT version. When you really want to know how good or bad something is, in real-world use? There is no substitute for actually having one.