F550EXR – Macro and Bracketing — Review Part 15

Macro

I shot a few macros this afternoon. Just a few to post, but these were shot in L4:3 mode to see how that went. Exposure bias on all of these is +0.33 … I am pushing things because DR400 is so effective. I little extra light does not hurt. Until it does, that is :-)

100 ISO, f/4, 1/45s, 6.9mm

100% crop …

Pretty crisp. With close ups like this, the details are often large enough that L4:3 does not have a chance to smear things. Still, watch your subject. I’ll do some low contrast macro work later on to compare M and L sizes.

100 ISO, f/4, 1/25s, 6.9mm

100 ISO, f/4, 1/50s, 6.9mm

I was shooting at 6.9mm instead of 4.4mm just so I could be a little further away and allow more light into the subject. this was especially important with a reflective subject like the bolt. L4:3 has done well here.

Bracketing

I tested the three bracketing modes. I won’t bother showing you the exposure bracketing mode since it does the blindingly obvious. Note, though, that of the three bracketing modes this is the only one that shoots three actually images so if your shutter speeds are a tad long, beware of the second image which will be longer still (by the amount you specify in the exposure bracketing settings.)

Now film mode bracketing is much more interesting. You can shoot one image and it will save three. That way you are safe (I shoot Provia because I believe in pixels that are not bruised so I can process) yet you have the spiked colors and contrast of Astia or Velvia in case you want to use the result straight from the camera. Good deal that.

Here’s what that looks like:

And last, but not least, dynamic range bracketing. This one I like less since it changes only the DR setting. Basically, DR100 is high contrast and DR400 is low contrast with DR200 playing the mama bear in this scenario.

Remember that this whole series this evening was shot at +.33 EV. Which means that there is a tendency for highlights to go really hot. The reflection of the cloudy sky off of the colorful pool toys is a perfect example.

DR400 actually saves the highlights and when coupled with the increased saturation of Astia with its mild increase in contrast gives a decent result. So my choice would probably be to set DR400 always, run a little hot, and then use film mode bracketing to see if I get lucky and can use the shot straight from the cam. 0EV is safer though, right now I am just experimenting.

Note: For those of you who are eagle eyed, you will note some noise in the chair leg. This is a fine grained dither to convert to the GIF palette. It’s not actually noise from the camera. Just in case someone felt the need to run to the Fuji Talk Forum to report a flaw :-)