Sunday, January 31, 2010

F70EXR – Does P Mode Bin?

Big Tom asked me to test whether P mode bins as I have claimed because there is a flickr group where the question was asked and user Kelly_Squared, who is presumably a Fuji representative, answered no.

The exact quote:

2. No , reducing the file size to 6MP outside the EXR mode does not incorporate any pixel binning.

So … Tom would like it tested because there are a lot of people who use this setting as the result of my assertions (and those form others of course.)

The test is pretty simple … low light, 1600 ISO, four shots, crops of several areas to gauge detail and noise … and especially chroma noise.

The four shots will be:

  1. P mode large size resuced to medium size in CS4
  2. P mode medium size DR400
  3. EXR SN mode
  4. EXR DR mode DR400

I’ll save you the agony …. I am right. There are three differences between shot one and the other three shots, which look surprisingly similar.

Fine details are smeared, likely from selective NR that kicks in hard in 10mp mode.

Noise pattern is very fine and annoying on shot 1, the others have grain that looks more film like.

At least twice the amount of chroma noise on shot 1, even after reduction. Very objectionable levels. The key here is that shot 2 is *clearly* not just a reduced shot 1. It is binned as are shots 3 and 4. This is blindingly obvious from these crops.

And … without further ado … here are said crops. Click on them to see them full-sized.

noise1600modes2[1]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually had the same question when i grabbed my F70, so I had tried it out too, and came to the same conclusion, though i only compared the P to EXR and noticed no measurable difference in noise characteristics. adding the resized 10mp was a nice addition here and seals the deal so to speak

-Dustin

Big Tom said...

Speedy work Kim - thanks for putting in the time and effort, that's very useful.

Anonymous said...

What a great resource!

Kim Letkeman said...

Thanks.

Unknown said...

Kim was testing the cam mode for binning and it looks like F70 bins in EXR, P, M and Auto mode too when the image size is set to 5M mode. Although the Auto mode has DR disabled it seems to be active in AUTO DR sort of mode. Looks like the 5M triggers binning in all modes :)

Kim Letkeman said...

Archish: Thanks for confirming. I have no problems with shooting in any of the 5mp modes ... I've been happy with the cam's output in all modes at that size.