My trip to the Auckland Museum - Tough low-light

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

Went to the Auckland Museum with wife and kids in tow.

I kid you not when I say that the place is not bright, and the R1 did struggle a little with AF yet it did get focus lock if you waited long enough and didn't give up. So it took about 3-4 secs to get focus lock in very tough lighting and 1 sec for good but not bright lighting. It was usually accurate too, even if the green dot blinked or I was at full tele.

This scene, for example, is a lot darker than it looks here (I've adjusted it to be brighter) and the R1 managed to get focus lock despite a very dark environment, no AF assist and handheld too:

Noise was also surprisingly well-controlled and I only threw out about a dozen out of the 143 I shot because of misfocus, motion blur or were just plain uninteresting. I used Framing mode only as that allowed me to view what I was shooting under such difficult lighting conditions. LCD most of the time to take advantage of the waist-level views, with ocassional use of the EVF.

Here are some examples (all handheld, non-flash, P mode, Auto ISO, Auto-focus, Standard Color, default Colour Sat, -ve Sharpening):

The rest here:
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net/c770469_49.html
Thanks for viewing!

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

jrdu · Dec 9, 2005

It's fun to watch you getting used to your R1. Is it a big difference from your other cameras?
John Dunn

David A Melges · Dec 9, 2005

Ya know, its the first one with its wide angle feel that excites me the most...I'm so looking forward to a wide end.

thanks
dave

--
Amazing what we can do with just three crayons, red green and blue!
http://diamondmultimediagroup.com

Agent 828 · Dec 9, 2005

Great, what colors, and that Museum is quite a place too. You take pics from a very nice perspective.

Tigadee said:
Went to the Auckland Museum with wife and kids in tow.

I kid you not when I say that the place is not bright, and the R1
did struggle a little with AF yet it did get focus lock if you
waited long enough and didn't give up. So it took about 3-4 secs to
get focus lock in very tough lighting and 1 sec for good but not
bright lighting. It was usually accurate too, even if the green dot
blinked or I was at full tele.

This scene, for example, is a lot darker than it looks here (I've
adjusted it to be brighter) and the R1 managed to get focus lock
despite a very dark environment, no AF assist and handheld too:

Tigadee said:
Noise was also surprisingly well-controlled and I only threw out
about a dozen out of the 143 I shot because of misfocus, motion
blur or were just plain uninteresting. I used Framing mode only as
that allowed me to view what I was shooting under such difficult
lighting conditions. LCD most of the time to take advantage of the
waist-level views, with ocassional use of the EVF.

Here are some examples (all handheld, non-flash, P mode, Auto ISO,
Auto-focus, Standard Color, default Colour Sat, -ve Sharpening):

The rest here:
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net/c770469_49.html
Thanks for viewing!

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

khoss · Dec 9, 2005

My two favorite spots are the American Museum of Natural History and The Metropolitan Museum of Art both in New York City. I was there a few months ago with my H1, which despite all the ragging it receives as a poor low light performer has acquited itself to my satisfaction in the dingy environs of the "Met" as we call it. Never under estimates image stabilization. But I digress, I wanted to advise all that the R1 has already been immortalized in one of the world's most famous museums and some say predicted many eons ago.

The first is a picture of the "Statue of Tigadee" (artist obviously close to subject) demonstrating the gyrations he went through in obtaining the R1 (admittedly some by his own thoughts):

The second demonstrates the vacillation our very own STFers have gone through in deciding on the R1 (artist unknown):

Still looking for a decent duck ...
Regards,
Kurt

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

Not really, not even the LCD. It is a little awkward at first but seems natural enough now after a full day's use. The body is solid and nothing creaks or flexes, so no complaints about the plastic body. EVF is a little hard to use in bright daylight, mainly 'cos I wear eyeglasses.

Again, AF is a little slow in low-light and at tele but it does get there. It is slower than my old F828 in low-light BUT the low noise and metering makes up for that.

Overall, I am enjoying the R1 immensely!

jrdu said:
jrdu wrote:
It's fun to watch you getting used to your R1. Is it a big
difference from your other cameras?

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

In fact 24mm wasn't wide enough sometimes! LOL! But the 120mm was more than adequate and the fact that I carry only one camera/lens made it the perfect tool for a family outing like this as I don't waste time changing lenses and minding the wife and kids, etc.

The metering worked surprisngly well and the accuracy of the LCD/EVF in telling me exposure and focus was very good! The LCD/EVF is very sharp and I've even experiemented with manual focus (which I had little success previously with the F707 & F828) and all my MF shots came out correctly focused!

David A Melges said:
David A. Melges wrote:
Ya know, its the first one with its wide angle feel that excites me
the most...I'm so looking forward to a wide end.

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

Agent 828 said:
Agent 828 wrote:
Great, what colors,

The R1 renders very nice colours, and metering was very good. This is an excellent photographic tool!

Agent 828 said:
and that Museum is quite a place too.

It is, we only explored 1/4 of the place in the couple of hours we were there (the kids are young and couldn't last more than that).

Agent 828 said:
You take pics from a very nice perspective.

The waist-level LCD is great for that!

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

khoss said:
khoss wrote:
The first is a picture of the "Statue of Tigadee" (artist obviously
close to subject) demonstrating the gyrations he went through in
obtaining the R1 (admittedly some by his own thoughts):

The second demonstrates the vacillation our very own STFers have
gone through in deciding on the R1 (artist unknown):

I hope they vacillitate no more. If they can be patient with the AF in low-light (which may be possibly improved in the future with a firmware update), it's a near-perfect photographic tool! low noise, excellent metering, lovely colours, sharp lens, etc.

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

khoss · Dec 9, 2005

From one museum shooter to another : good work. The R1 seems to be made for this type of shooting.
Regards,
Kurt

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

khoss said:
From one museum shooter to another : good work. The R1 seems to be
made for this type of shooting.
Regards,
Kurt

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

busch · Dec 9, 2005

A wide range of subjects and lighting. Well done!

I am finding the low light focusing to be about as you said. In really low light it is slow but accurate.

--
Busch

Take the scenic route! Life is too short to do otherwise.

http://www.pbase.com/busch

Yehuda Katz · Dec 9, 2005

Tigadee said:
Went to the Auckland Museum with wife and kids in tow.

I kid you not when I say that the place is not bright, and the R1
did struggle a little with AF yet it did get focus lock if you
waited long enough and didn't give up. So it took about 3-4 secs to
get focus lock in very tough lighting and 1 sec for good but not
bright lighting. It was usually accurate too, even if the green dot
blinked or I was at full tele.

This scene, for example, is a lot darker than it looks here (I've
adjusted it to be brighter) and the R1 managed to get focus lock
despite a very dark environment, no AF assist and handheld too:

Noise was also surprisingly well-controlled and I only threw out
about a dozen out of the 143 I shot because of misfocus, motion
blur or were just plain uninteresting. I used Framing mode only as
that allowed me to view what I was shooting under such difficult
lighting conditions. LCD most of the time to take advantage of the
waist-level views, with ocassional use of the EVF.

Here are some examples (all handheld, non-flash, P mode, Auto ISO,
Auto-focus, Standard Color, default Colour Sat, -ve Sharpening):

The rest here:
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net/c770469_49.html
Thanks for viewing!

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

Many thanks for the kind words...

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

busch said:
busch wrote:
A wide range of subjects and lighting. Well done!

Thanks!

busch said:
I am finding the low light focusing to be about as you said. In
really low light it is slow but accurate.

Yeah, and since the R1 isn;t a low-light action camera anyway (lack of burst with external flash support, 3 fps, etc), it's performing well within my expectations...

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

dnjake · Dec 9, 2005

--
David Jacobson
http://www.pbase.com/dnjake

Tigadee · Dec 9, 2005

I hope to go back again soon to visit the other sections with my R1...

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

andreas haun · Dec 10, 2005

hi,

what do you mean "-ve sharpening" with "-ve" ?

cheers
andreas

AAK · Dec 10, 2005

--
AAK - http://www.aakatz.com

Tigadee · Dec 10, 2005

Andreas, that means sharpening in menu has been changed from Normal to less or negative. I tried to do the sharpenin in Photoshop instead. Since noise was well-controlled, I decided to switch back to Normal sharpening...

andreas haun said:
andreas haun wrote:
what do you mean "-ve sharpening" with "-ve" ?

--

Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net

My trip to the Auckland Museum - Tough low-light

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