I got up early this morning and popped outside to grab some shots of my neighbour’s garden. He has Narcissus (Daffodils) in full bloom with Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) just coming into bloom.
I use one of these images to show you how to take advantage of the script I documented yesterday, in a short video:
As of this writing, it is still being processed. Since it is full HD, it might take a little while. Be patient.
Before I went out the front to cross the street to my neighbour’s yard, I opened my back patio door and grabbed a quick shot from 35 feet away of the Forsythia, which is still blooming to beat the band. The 500mm lens if very useful for this …
f770exr 100iso f/5.3 1/90 500mm
Note that the shutter speed continues to be really slow, causing difficulty to grab crisp images. But this one turned out all right.
The next image was shot at full zoom, trying to throw the plants just behind into a bit of soft focus. It worked ok.
f770exr 100iso f/5.3 1/140
The next image is shot zoomed out again. Still at 100 ISO. I think the F770EXR is mocking me now.
f770exr 100iso f/6 1/110
I next focus on the Muscari and find that there are bees arriving. Great big ones too. I wait while a bee finishes its meal on one bloom and transfers to the next. The shutter response on the F series is certainly fast enough to capture the moment.
f770exr 320iso f/5.3 1/125
I get as close as I can with the lens only a cm or two from the bee. This is the one truly crisp image of the bees. The JPEG version first and the RAF version second.
f770exr 200iso f/3.5 1/170
After doing the video, I actually tried a third version, again from the RAF. I tried getting the distortion correction closer to the JPEG. Turns out that the real difference is that the JPEG engine scales up the image a bit more, effectively cropping it a bit. Obviously, they fear the deep corners of this lens.
Note that I also masked out the light colored tops of the Muscari. I really like that look.
They have a really nice stand of Narcissus … I cannot resist the wider view.
f770exr 100iso f/3.5 1/180
After that, I pop back across the street to my own yard and photograph the logs I have sitting against the garage. Remnants from my long lost diseased Ash tree. The moss has taken over.
f770exr 100iso f/3.5 1/60
f770exr 100iso f/3.5 1/70
Conclusion
The lack of an actual test makes the conclusion a bit superfluous. But I will say that the JPEGs from the F770EXR are really good. The RAW, of course, is still me preference. But I could live with the JPEGs if I had to.
I hope you found the video useful if you are trying to process your RAF files in Adobe software. The trick should be redundant soon enough, but we’re a full three months away from the next update, so you’ll need to do the hack for that long if you want to take advantage of RAW headroom and tonality.
One other point: I find that the new compensation for sunlight on the LCD does not work. It is much too bright all the time. The camera is much more pleasant to use with that switched off. YMMV.
