Actually Edward, I think you've rather missed the point of this thread and gone off on a tangent of your own. The point of a thread is rarely completely transmitted my the title alone, but rather the title and the contents of the original message. Here it is again:
"To back up one of my comments from yesterday in the 5400 thread where I said:
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I've seen good photographers produce marvelous images with cameras considered as "dogs" by the boys at DPR so I prefer to do my own tests.
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here is a gallery of images, most of which were taken with a Coolpix 5000, the image quality of which is pretty much the same as the 5400..:
http://www.photo.net/photodb/member...?user_id=492716
I bet she's not whining and complaining about her little camera....;-)"
Soooo, the point I was making is NOT how great the Nikon Coolpix 5000/5400 is, but simply that a great photographer will take a given tool and get the best/most out of it, which I believe is what that lady has done in that gallery of images.
To criticise her images because they are post-edited is, quite frankly, ludicrous.
Nikon images especially are not subjected to much in-camera sharpening deliberately, leaving that part up to the photographer to adjust according to his/her taste. That doesn't mean necessarily changing or falsifying the image, as you have every right to sharpen the image so that it exactly matches what your eyes see.
When I post-edit my images I use Capture, Bibble and PS 7 to create the effect that I want, whether the effect I want is as natural as possible or more "arty". Prior to digital I would have done so in the darkroom, right?
Again, the point of this thread was to show that a good photographer can take a compact camera and produce work that many of us could only dream of achieving with our DSLRs....
One might add that if you are ever going to produce great digital images consistantly, you better make sure you also master the post-editing process as that is an important part of the digital capture process, whether you like it or not.
MVH Duncan