Yesterday it was raining here in Oklahoma, like much of the country, thanks to Ike. So, I spent my free time playing with my new Copic Markers. I’m not finished with the card design, but I’m using the in-progress stamped images to show off my camera.

Now, it is important to be clear that I’ve re-sized these to 72 dpi which is WAY under the original resolution for either camera. But, that is what I normally do to process shots for my blog and I want to see what kind of improvement the camera adds to the workflow.

This first shot was taken with my old Canon. The stamp is “Party Animals” by Penny Black. My daughter’s Kindergarten class is called the “Giraffes”, and I thought I’d make a batch of birthday cards. First of all, on my Copics, I am loving having 72 colors to choose from! And they are a dream to work with. You will be hearing a lot more from me as I learn to work with the Copics. In fact, I’m taking a certification class from the famous Product Manager “Marianne” in a few weeks. I’m showing six sets of colors here. I colored the dog in warm yellows, the giraffe in cool yellows and browns, the turtle in a wide variety of greens, the present and ladybug in pinks and reds, the balloon in blues and purples, and the cat in blues and greys.

This second shot was taken with my new Nikon DSLR. In the full resolution images the noise factor in the Canon was very obvious. And the level of sharpness improvement with the Nikon was easy to see. Now that they are both downsized to 72 dpi a discerning eye can still tell which photo is better.  Look at the focus especially on the eyes of the giraffes and look at the noise in the wall on either side of the illustrations.

In the close up images it is very apparent which is taken with the Nikon. Now, the Nikon does have manual focus capability and I thought I’d have to use it. But, it turns out that both of these shots were taken with auto-focus, and I didn’t even have to coax the Nikon along!

See the clarity difference?! And the color difference?! I’ll be doing a ton less tweaking of the color and contrast in Photoshop! The only problem is that now you can see where I colored outside the line! I didn’t even realize I’d done that on the giraffe or I would have cleaned it up with a white gel pen. That will teach me to start wearing my glasses. I only need them to read medicine bottles, well and color I suppose.

The reason for the improvement is not the pixel ratio of the camera. The biggest difference is the sensor size of the cameras. Any DSLR would make this impact in low light situations where a flash would blow out your highlights. But, I’m quite happy with my Nikon choice!

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