Saturday, November 14, 2009

F70EXR high ISO revisited ... Garden Update

So I got chastised a bit last week for coming out in favour of 1600 ISO when rthe images might have worked at 800 ISO, albeit with less keepers. I argued a bit in that I use compacts as cameras of convenience and stealth and I choose Fuji precisely because they are good in all kinds of light. Thus, I don't worry too much about 1600ISO ... it comes with the territory.

But I also agreed that these images could have been shot at 800 ISO by shooting more images to guarantee a keeper (very low shutter speed at 270mm means a lot of blurred shots.)

But I always wonder if the kind of documentary shots I was making really do benefit that much from such improvements? So I went out a few days ago in the sun and shot a series of similar images at 200 ISO ...

Here are pairs of images for you to evaluate ... I processed each image to the best result I could get and did nothing else. Click on each image to see the 800px version. Hint: right click and select "open in new tab" so you can click tabs to switch between then in place. Makes it much easier to see differences. (Although that technique is less effective in this case because the images are not identical.)

First image ... three pods just above the pavement. Shot in macro at 3 feet ... 270mm. 1600 versus 200 ISO.



Second pair is the berries ... shot at 270mm from 3 feet in macro mode. 1600 versus 400 ISO.



Third pair is the lovely Blue Spruce branches ... 1600 and 200 ISO ...



And the final pair ... apples ... 800 and 100 ISO ...



Enjoy ...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That is a huge difference. No comparison really between the two ISOs in my opinion. I have had this cam for about a week and am really disappointed so far. I know you love it and i am trying to as well but at this point i feel like i wasted my money. My previous cam to this was the Fujif30 and was hoping this would be the update of that cam as i wasn't crazy about it's lack of a wideangle and 3x zoom. I guess i was spoiled by it's IQ. The f70 can't hold a candle to the pics taken with the f30. Maybe i need more practice with the f70 to find it's strengths but so far, so disappointed. I get noisy photos even at iso400 in decent light and the lack of sharpness and detail at any setting is a real downer. I was used to SLR IQ from the f30 and the f70 just wont cut it for me i guess.

Kim Letkeman said...

Sorry, but if you are seeing "no comparison", then you have issues with your monitor. The differences on both my monitors are rather subtle. Definitely better edge definition on the low ISO shots, but not so much difference that I'd get my knickers in such a twist. The F30 is well known for water color images ... you obviously like super smooth paintings, which you can get by running Neat Image with strong settings on an F70 image. Try that. Regarding SLR quality images form your F30 ... I shot the D70s for years and the D300 now for a couple of years ... there is no comparison. F30 is a decent compact with outdated features. The F70 is the next gen of that, and when shot correctly (i.e. using the settings in my how to shoot articles on this blog), it can rival or beat the F30 under most circumstance in my opinion.