Originally Posted by
rigolith
Thanks skitraveler, that's exactly what I'm trying to achieve. My Pixel 8 Pro works miracles, but there are limits. Sometimes I'd like to crop in a bit more, sometimes there is just too much noise. Constrained optics and a small sensor, there's only so much software can do.
But the step up to a decent mirrorless camera, in terms of the effort you need to put in to get good results, seems to be huge. I've been learning Another Raw Therapee and I'm slowly improving, but at least there I usually have a decent base to work from thanks to the phone doing its thing. There aren't many reviews of serious cameras where they look at the auto settings.
You're welcome. In-camera JPG on a modern camera is also better than my Pixel. I shot the Singapore F1 race in JPG to clear cache faster and the results are still stunning from an A7RIV (this is also a super compressed file at 250kb when the JPG from camera was 26MB). Don't be too intimidated, good results are a combo of taking a lot of photos and having an adequate camera for what you're trying to shoot. I started on ASP-C then upgraded to full-frame. Rent a camera and lens for a weekend and play around before buying one.
I shoot RAW+JPG most of the time to have a backup if can't get the RAW to look as good as the JPG, but this is an edge case.
2023 Portland ePrix also shot in JPG only on the RIV.
