F70EXR -- Low to High ISO Ladders

I've been thinking that the F70EXR seems to be surprisingly low in noise. It seems to create relatively smooth looking results. right up to 3200ISO. The latter takes quite the hit on detail, of course, but still looks ok for web sized images.

Anyway, there's nothing quite like the ISO ladder to show you the degradation as ISO changes. The key, of course, is to change only that variable. Keep everything else the same. Of course, you will need to compensate for raising ISO by shortening shutter speeds in order to keep exposures identical.

I shot the ladder twice ... once at 5mp and again at 10mp. I used manual mode, since I needed long shutter speeds and the auto modes will not drop below 1/4s. Sheesh ...

Anyway, without further delay ...

The 10mp ladder goes from 100 to 1600 ISO ...


The 5mp ladder goes from 100 to 3200 ISO ...


What I see here is that the 10mp images are decent at 100 through 400 ISO, but chroma noise really ramps up at 800 ISO. The 5mp images hold on right through to 3200 ISO.

I still don't see much of a reason to shoot 10mp ... YMMV of course.

First Day Back for Nick

Nick's first order of business was to go for lunch at the Singapore Restaurant on Carling Avenue, one of our absolute favorites because of their Malaysian soup, Laksa.

Nick was dying to get behind the wheel, so I threw him the keys and Jon and I put ourselves into his hands. He was a bit scattered, but nobody died. Every day above ground ...


We listened to the Kings of Leon on the way ... oh yeah, he twisted my arm this morning to pick up a couple of Kings of Leon tickets for him and Jon ... so that's why they went on in the car. They'll see that concert while I am in San Antonio later this month.

On the way, I was playing with my new cam to see how well the stabilization handled a moving vehicle at full zoom (270mm equivalent.) I shot 5 images I think, a couple were a bit too blurry to use, the rest were usable. One was quite sharp.


I consider that a decent performance.

Anyway ... back to the Laksa ... Singapore's version in incredible ... a light curry broth filled with perfectly cooked rice vermicelli noodles, a hard fried egg, a checken breast cut up and curried and two jumbo curried shrimp. And lots of hot sauce .... man ... oh yeah ... shallots on top ...


Best soup in town ... even better than the Phu Yen's Spiucy Beef Noodle.

When we got back, we worked on Nick's car for almost an hour ... boosting it until we got it started, then cleaning the contacts on the battery and trying again when it failed to start after running for 15 minutes.


Nick then drove it at highway speeds for 20 minutes and when he got back, it failed again. So it does not take a charge ... that's a total bummer. Running a lead-acid battery flat is a bad idea I guess .... anyway, we're off to hit a bucket shortly and then we'll hit Canadian Tire for a replacement ...

Edit: Took it in today (Saturday) and found out that it is physically ok (liquids are fine) and that it is at 5.5V, which is much better than 1V. It is still under full warranty, but they think it will be fine tomorrow once they have charged it up. Turns out that a flat battery cannot be brought back by simply running it for half an hour. That adds at most 1V. So it needs the charge they are putting into it. We'll know tomorrow ...

Edit: After we had our wonderful Broadway breaky Sunday at noon, we stopped over at Canadian Tire and found out that the battery was happily sitting at 13 volts. I installed it in Nick's car when we got back and it starts and runs just fine. While I was at it, I unstuck his trunk latch and all appears to be well. One feels so very manly when he fixes two items on a car and neither costs a dime :-)

F70EXR -- How to shoot it ...

The following is a historical record of my exploration of this camera ... every mistake is recorded as is every success. If you want a shortcut to the correct settings, read my Mark II post on this topic here.

*** Updated *** 21 Sep 2009 ... changes marked as **Edit2:
*** Updated *** 09 Oct 2009 ... changes marked as **Edit3:

So I've shot a lot of images with it in all sorts of circumstances. I've tried all the settings and have some preliminary thoughts on how it should be shot.

Edit: Took it to San Antonio for a week and shot 671 images in all sorts of light ... indoors, late evening, dark and harsh midday sun. I have definite thoughts now on how to shoot this camera.

Let's go through the options for day and night photography and see how they stack up so far ...

Day:

1. EXR Auto. During the day it will choose HR mode or a DR mode, which is more correct. But since you cannot use compensation, you may blow highlights anyway, even in DR. **Edit2: This mode is not of use to me.
**Edit3: This mode eats battery quite badly as it sets continuous focus.

2. Resolution priority. Yuck. NR wipes fine low contrast details even at base ISO. This is not a 10mp cam in my opinion. **Edit: confirmed with tests at 100ISO. Raises ISO when DR set to 400%, so you get a lot of smoothing of shadows. **Edit2: Confirmed that this problem manifests on all EXR sensors, even the larger one in the F200EXR. This mode is evil. **Edit3: We continue to see images on the Fuji Talk Forum that are simply awful from EXR cameras, and it is always because HR mode was engaged. DO NOT USE IT.

3. DR priority. Works pretty well. Allows you to set floating ISO *** but ISO must float!*** Chooses ISO 100 most of the time in bright light. Allows you to set 400% DR mode. And will shoot that at ISO 100, meaning that it will use the hardware to do the job, unlike an S100fs which is all software. ** Edit2: I like to set this mode to DR800 now. I use it in very bright sunlight or with severe contrast.

4. Manual. Set everything. Works perfectly. But suffers badly from an inability to set floating ISO. What were they thinking ... **Edit2: I use this mode when I have to to get shutter speeds as I want them.

5. Aperture priority. Works well enough, but for some reason also does not allow you to float the ISO. So is not nearly as useful as it should have been. **Edit2: Not of any interest at all.

6. Program. Works well. Allows ISO to float. Allows setting of DR400. Allows compensation, although not sure how well that works in daylight. Had some difficulty in some modes. But I see no practical difference between P and EXR DR. Same settings, images look the same. **Edit2: I set this mode to auto ISO 1600, DR400 and I use it for everything except harsh contrast and bright sun.

*** Edit: If you shoot large 10mp images in P mode (cannot shoot L in EXR DR or SN modes), it reverts to the software DR400, which means ISO is 400 minimum. So shoot P mode at 5mp and then you have the near-perfect mode. ***

Night (indoors also):

1. EXR Auto. Chooses SN mode. But that sets DR100, which does not handle contrast very well. Also cannot compensate the meter ... which is bush league. **Edit2: Mode is of no interest to me.

2. Resolution priority. You're kidding, right? **Edit2: Mode is evil on any EXR cam in my opinion. **Edit3: It is even worse than I thought.

3. SN Mode. Allows compensation, but still only DR100. **Edit2: Mode not of interest as I find DR modes work as well on noise but much better on highlights.

4. Manual. Gotta keep up with the light ... painful. But if you have time, works fine. Also, this is the only mode in which you can directly control shutter speed ... and that's critical for concerts and action. **Edit2: Preferred mode to astro-work and concert work. Also useful to try to get flowing water images.

5. Aperture priority. Why bother. ISO does not float. Might as well use Manual. **Edit2: Useless mode in my opinion.

6. Program. Ditto from day time. **Edit2: Yup, this mode is what I shoot exclusively at night.

Conclusion ... I shoot DR priority in DR400 and Auto ISO 1600 most of the time. Or P mode. One can be set with flash on, and one with flash off. Since they are next to each other on the dial, that's a quick way to go back and forth.

**Edit2: I now shoot P mode at auto ISO 1600 and DR400 for everything except the following. I shoot P mode at 3200 ISO for really dark scenarios, although I must say that U never set 3200 ISO in San Antonio. I shoot EXR DR mode at DR800 (which selects 200 ISO) for any harsh contrast situation. This includes any midday sunlight. I flip back and forth between P and EXR on the dial all day long. Easy peazy ...

**Edit2: One further setting ... the lenses on this cam run the gamut from fairly sharp to blurry in the corners. I always shoot 3:2 mode, which is the same aspect ratio as dSLRs. You might try that if you don't like the quality of the corners in your prints. This ratio perfectly matches 4x6 prints anyway ...

**Edit3: A note on film modes ... the standard mode is Provia. That is *all* I shoot. Astia softens colors but hardens tones. Velvia hardens both. I prefer to save the highlights and shadows and do contrast work in photoshop. If you prefer out of camera images, try the other film modes ... but be careful with Velvia, as it will burn highlights and block shadows very quickly in harsh sunlight. Try it on cloudy days in soft light. It would probably do well with flowers.

One last thought ... how come there are a thousand modes? Well, ask Fuji. There are caveats and limitations on all modes except program and DR priority (and even then, there are just less of them :-) ... so the others are just not that interesting. **Edit2: Really seems dumb now that I have thoroughly tested the cam ... needs only a couple of modes to handle everything.

Manual is cool, though, if you want to have total control. It really works. And in fact is how I will shoot at concerts, since fixing the shutter at 1/100s is the cornerstone of my technique. I may be using 1/250s now to handle the longer lens ...

One more last thought .... gotcha. How about a comparison of all these modes at 1600ISO? Well, I actually produced one, and to be honest I see so little difference that I will no longer sweat it.


DR mode should not get the same benefits as SN mode in shadows .... and yet they look similar enough that I can't get excited. This is really good news as I like DR400 ... it works well indoors.

Here's a third last thought ... what about DR800? Well, it does work ... but is limited to 200 ISO . So it's yet another unfinished feature ... nice one Fuji. Edit2: Perhaps it is not unfinished, but inherently limited. It must adjust the two exposures three stops apart, which means that it needs room on either side ... and with the aperture being so limited, it makes sense that there is only a tiny range of ISOs at which it can all work.

Tidbits:

1) I've just sent in the Neat Image profiles for this camera. They should hopefully be up soon. Edit: They went up same day.

2) The FINE compression ratios are different between 5mp and 10mp images. This is the first time that I've seen such a thing. The 5mp images use 6:1 compression and the 10mp images use 8:1 compression. This is not a huge deal, as 10:1 is still considered excellent and both are below that ... but it is yet another reason why I don't shoot 10mp images with this cam. Edit: A good argument was made on the FTF that this is irrelevant, since the same image shot in two resolutions will compress more easily in the higher resolution because of a lot of redundant data. I.e. more pixels at the same value. However, there is still more fine detail to be compressed and Fuji could in fact crank up the jpeg quality to ensure the 6:1 ratio is maintained. That makes sense in what should be thought of as the "premium" mode. **Edit2: Yeah, it really is irrelevant. There is in fact no extra detail in HR mode images. What might have been there tends to get smeared out anyway. So compression is not important.

Crombie McNeill Review -- Kintail Workshop

And once again we all descend upon the Aylmer Marina to share our results -- this time from the Mill of Kintail shoot. Quite a few turned up this time, something like 10. Nice.

I arrived a bit early to grab some food. Nick was in the back yard, partying with his buds, and Jon was munching away on a biggie sized Wendies nuggets meal ... mmmmm ... so I was superfluous to the action at home. This left me no choice but to do what I wanted to do anyway and go see everyone's work.

As I walked from my car, I noticed the warm, inviting tones as the sun began to set. I grabbed some nice shots of the boats in all their glory.




I went in and ordered some dinner, chatting away with some of the guys about the new F70EXR ... the cam that shot all these images. Crombie is interested in something that can shoot at high ISO and record a decent image while fitting in your pocket. I shot an image of Crombie while we were chatting ... I used 3200iso, a ridiculous ISO for a tiny megazoom camera before this one was launched ... and the result is pretty darned good.


Anyway ... my dinner arrived (club sandwich if you care) and we began the show. We were halfway through the first set when the power went out in the building.


After a while, we wandered outside again and I started shooting the sunset some more. The colors were getting pretty spectacular by now ...


I shot the above at a moderate 400iso, but the shutter speed was only 1/10s and this was too much of a pain to get good exposures, so I cranked it back up to 1600iso for the next few.



Those last two were both shot at 1600iso and 1/15s. That's low light ...

One more stunning image of the sunset over the beach ...


I realized at this time, that no one else was out there any more, and when I looked at the building, the power was on. :-) .... I'd shot through the resurrection ... when I got back in, my seat was free and the room was full.

We went through all the images from all the people ... it was a very good show. I saw some great light and some very good processing. Some really nice sculpting of skin using shadow and some lovely eye processing. All in all, another very good shoot.

My own images did not excite me over all this time ... I liked them a lot while I was processing them, but processing the Balderson blackj and whites left me with a new appreciation of how much good lighting and contrast contributes to the visceral reaction people get to an image. And I had processed too many of the Kintail images with flat contrast.

Anyway ... we got through the projected images and then went through the printed images, as shown here.



These images are shot indoors after dark by the light of some overhead lamps 12 feet or more in the air. So the fact that they are usable at 3200 iso continues to amaze me from such a small sensor. At this point, I do use Neat Image on some of the images ... but not on all of the images.

While the review was happening, some people gathered around a Wacom Intuos tablet, an awesome piece of kit. Beautiful in every way.I have the dirt cheap toy version of this, the Wacom Bamboo Fun!, and I must admit that it does a great job. I can never go back to editing with only a mouse .... no more stone knives and bear skins for me.


Edwin seemed particularly interested ... here he is with Crombie looking on. This was shot from across the room at 270mm and 3200iso.


Meanwhile, there was an ongoing discussion on Costco printing and the Dry Creek Photo site's printer profiles for our local printers. Turns out that their current profiles do not quite work. so Kyle has been working with Dry Creek to update them. He brought test patterns and test images with all sorts of tweaks so he could isolate the issues for Dry Creek. That's taking one for the team!


And that about did it. We adjourned outside because it got too hot to stay in. We chatted for another hour before everyone split up to go home (most were already gone ... in fact only 4 of us hung around.)

I walked over to the boats to try to capture them again ...


This color rendering is not very appealing ... so I tried the rest in black and white, which worked much better. Now remember again that I am shooting a tiny sensor at 3200 ISO in dark conditions. The lighting is awful, to balance it you need to push the blue channel way out of whack. So B&W is a much better choice.





Some decent images there ... this little cam is a hoot.

Nick's European Tour -- It's All Over Bar the Shouting

Nick arrived home today after slightly more than a year in the UK and Europe. All in all, he had a spectacular time, made a bunch of lifelong friends, and almost completed his Honors English degree.

He's already planning his application for Leeds for his Masters :-)

His plane was delayed, apparently they had to change a tire on the runway and it cost them 45 minutes. That actually seems like a pretty small delay, all things considered.

Anyway, unlike last December's hour long search of his bags, he squirted right through customs this time with huge suitcases etc ... amazing. We were parked less than 5 minutes and actually avoided our traditional parking ticket this time. Here he is walking out and then greeting his brother after hugging his daddy ...



On the way home, I thought I'd snap an image of the three of us, together again ...


We arrived and had to carry those monsters into the house.


Nick's friends were waiting in the back yard with a massive amount of alcohol ... but despite the blinds to the back yard being open and his friends sitting in plane view, he didn;t notice them even as he opened the patio door and said "you left the patio door unlocked" ... it was a hoot, because a moment later he saw them sitting there in plain view and he dashed out for hugs all around. A nice moment ...


And, as soon as he realized it was party time, he brought out the gifts he'd picked up for his friends from duty-free ...


They're still out there as I write this past midnight ... and there are more of them. :-)

Spicy Beef Noodle (#27) at the Phu Yen

I met my friend Sue for lunch today and we went to our favorite Pho place ... the Phu Yen restaurant in Kanata. Back 10 years ago, when I managed e.mediate networks, a Canadian startup with American funding, a bunch of us would eat there three times a week. It's still just as packed at lunch as it was then ...


They have awesome food. I arrived early, so here it is empty ... a rare site .... trust me.


Those are the owners back there and the one sitting down has been running the restaurant since I can remember.

We both had this spicy form of Pho, a traditional Vietnamese "soup as a meal." It is #27 on the menu and you really must try it.

I also love their #180 ... Beef with Black Bean on wide Rice Noodles. Their version is stunning ... heavy and rich. I can also get a decent version at the local delivery place near my house ... they call it Chow Ho Fun with Black Bean Sauce. Every once in a while ...

Anyway ... I failed to capture the actual meals in an image ... duh ... but I did capture this action shot of green tea being poured. And it was good ...


If you are ever in Kanata (western suberb of Ottawa), try out the Phu Yen. Come early if you want to get in ... 11:30 works. Awesome food.