RP I vs RPII

Helmut Eder · Oct 13, 2006

Hi,

I have the S9500 and one of my biggest problems with this camera is that the focus is out more than half the time. So I'm considering buying the S6500fd in the hope that the Real Processor II (along with FD) will be a noticeable improvement.

Has anyone used both to comment?

Thanks,
Helmut

tbcass · Oct 14, 2006

Helmut Eder said:
Hi,

I have the S9500 and one of my biggest problems with this camera is
that the focus is out more than half the time.

You are doing something wrong. 95%+ of my shots with the 9000 are in focus. Do you half press the shutter to pre-focus? I aim at the part of the image I want in focus, press the shutter half way and then re-compose if cecessary. I find with this camera (or any autofocus camera) that if you prefocus you will almost always get a shot in focus.

--
Tom

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/

Helmut Eder · Oct 14, 2006

Hi,

Yes, I use this technique all the time. The camera seems to miss the focus a lot in my experience...especially when the distance to the object is quite large.

-Helmut

BigginHill · Oct 14, 2006

Helmut Eder said:
The camera seems to miss the focus a lot in my experience...especially
when the distance to the object is quite large.

pls post a untouched samplepic with exifdatas.

Helmut Eder · Oct 14, 2006

Hi,

Here's a sample image:
http://users.tpg.com.au/hnt_eder/DSCF3787.jpg

Cheers,
Helmut

xy2006 · Oct 16, 2006

Hi, Did you take this photo through a window?

Jim Hess · Oct 16, 2006

I don't think focus is necessarily the problem here. For one thing, the image is slightly overexposed. Often I find if I use a -1/3 or -2/3 EV compensation my exposure will look more natural. Also, this image is in the 3:2 aspect ratio, and that suggests that you didn't use the highest quality setting on your camera. It may or may not have had an impact on this image. Also, I found that applying a very slight unsharp mask in Photoshop helped a little bit. The "problems" you seem to think you have probably would not be corrected by moving to the newer camera. I think you just need to work on your technique a little.

GAREB · Oct 16, 2006

Looked to be in focus to me, but then my eyes are not as good as they used to be, I agree that it looks over exposed some to me, watch what focusing mode you use, center (spot), average, or manual, or maybe I should have said what auto focus mode you use, area, center or multi, this might be your trouble. But the photo looks in focus to me, just exposure is a little off.
JD

Tianium · Oct 16, 2006

Its certainly a very hazey scene with sun at the wrong angle, coming into the lens. Not ideal conditions at all. Air is not completely transparent. It just apears to be very bad conditions to take a photo in.

Contrast and unsharp mask definitely help, but can't fix it fully.

Darin

Russ Yost · Oct 16, 2006

In my Fuji cameras (F10, F30) a red AF! appears in the LCD if the AF system thinks it has not found a max contrast focus setting; do you see that?

Window glass could cause the problem. Imperceptible thidckness variations could cause light rays from distant objects to be converging, which your camera cannot compensate for.

JPEG quality wilol NOT cause the problem, as long as it's not one that reduces pixel count. For example 6M N vs 6M F will not cuase poor focus. JPEG compression degrades low contrast details, but not high contrast details, as in your photo.

Any possibility of camera shake blur? For (35 mm equiv) focal length of F mm, shutter time sould be less than 1/F sec. Test with a tripod.

Use the fast operation setting if your camera has it to minimize time taken to focus.

Is aperture too small? f/22 would result in blur, for example; arounf F/4 would probably be optimum.
--
Russell
Galleries at http://www.pbase.com/russ

Helmut Eder · Oct 16, 2006

Hi,

Yes it was - I understand that this may cause problems - perhaps I can find another image with similar problem not done through a window.

Thanks,
Helmut

Helmut Eder · Oct 16, 2006

Hi Jim,

You've hit upon a couple of big gripes I have with this camera. To sum it up, I cannot find a mode that I'm happy with using. I agree that -1/3 or -2/3 eV would be useful - I've heard this before and would love to use it. However, I also don't want to spend my precious moments having to manually adjust WB and ISO. But there is no mode that allows you to compensate exposure, while keeping ISO & WB at Auto - Arrgh!

The other comment regarding the aspect ratio is also frustrating - I very much prefer the 3:2 format - for purely aesthetic reasons. I wish the choice of aspect ratio were independent of quality, but alas, I can only use 3:2 in normal 9M mode - pretty silly really! Post cropping of 4:3 is a lot of work, and often crops important details.

What do you suggest about all this?

Cheers,
Helmut

Helmut Eder · Oct 16, 2006

Hi Russ,

Thanks for all your comments - here are mine...

Russ Yost said:
In my Fuji cameras (F10, F30) a red AF! appears in the LCD if the
AF system thinks it has not found a max contrast focus setting; do
you see that?

I never take a shot when the AF! appears...

Russ Yost said:
Window glass could cause the problem. Imperceptible thidckness
variations could cause light rays from distant objects to be
converging, which your camera cannot compensate for.

Yes I agree this is an issue - I will try to find a shot where focus was out and there was no window.

Russ Yost said:
JPEG quality wilol NOT cause the problem, as long as it's not one
that reduces pixel count. For example 6M N vs 6M F will not cuase
poor focus. JPEG compression degrades low contrast details, but
not high contrast details, as in your photo.

I agree..

Russ Yost said:
Any possibility of camera shake blur? For (35 mm equiv) focal
length of F mm, shutter time sould be less than 1/F sec. Test
with a tripod.

Could be an issue, but camera blur can usually be differentiated from bad focus, and I thought in this case the problem was focus...

Russ Yost said:
Use the fast operation setting if your camera has it to minimize
time taken to focus.

Yes, this is an option, but I've found that I sometimes forget to turn it off again...

Russ Yost said:
Is aperture too small? f/22 would result in blur, for example;
arounf F/4 would probably be optimum.

Yes, I agree, I would have preferred to set the aperture myself, but in A mode I cannot use Auto ISO, so I would have been wasting time flicking throught the menus trying out different ISO settings...

Russ Yost said:
--
Russell
Galleries at http://www.pbase.com/russ

Thanks again!

-Helmut

tbcass · Oct 17, 2006

Helmut Eder said:
However, I also don't want to spend my
precious moments having to manually adjust WB and ISO. But there
is no mode that allows you to compensate exposure, while keeping
ISO & WB at Auto - Arrgh!

I believe keeping ISO on auto mode is a mistake. I use "P" mode a lot which puts everything on auto except iso and allows manual compensation of exposure. You should keep iso at the lowest possible setting. I take 90% of my photos at iso 80.
--
Tom

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/

tbcass · Oct 17, 2006

Helmut Eder said:
Yes, I agree, I would have preferred to set the aperture myself,
but in A mode I cannot use Auto ISO, so I would have been wasting
time flicking throught the menus trying out different ISO
settings...

The f button allows quick access to iso. It only takes a second. It shouldn't be necessary to change iso much at all. If a simple procedure like setting iso annoys you you should get a simpler more P&S oriented camera. The 9000/9500 is not for you.
--
Tom

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/

Helmut Eder · Oct 17, 2006

Hi,

I'm afraid I don't agree with you on this point - in fact I'm considering getting a Pentax K10D because of its sophisticated Auto ISO function.

I would like the camera to automatically set the lowest possible ISO for the given Aperture/Shutter speed I have chosen. If I am in Aperture mode, I would like to be able to simply open my aperture further if I would like the camera to use a lower ISO.

At least this is how more professional cameras work.

-Helmut

DLacouture · Oct 17, 2006

Well, looking at your sample, I agree that it seems quite OOF...
What was the shutter speed?

I noticed something using mine : the noise reduction becomes quite ugly when you go up into the ISO. ISO 400 pics already show some effects of this, and often results in what we can see in your sample, where you have a lot of tiny details that will suffer a lot from NR.

I (accidentally) removed the problem by shooting RAW... OK, it's a PITA to process, but you would be surprised by how much details you can retrieve when using ISO400 and above...

Straight-out-of-camera JPEGs then seem badly blurred, compared to RAW files gone through ACR.

Jim Hess · Oct 17, 2006

Generally speaking, as has already been mentioned, you really do want to shoot at the lowest practical ISO. I think it is a lazy man's crutch to set the ISO on Auto and expect the camera to do all the thinking for you.

I don't think the picture that was posted at the beginning of this thread is out of focus. There is atmospheric haze, and to paraphrase a not so recent movie, haze happens. If I had taken that picture I would be quite happy with it. Some level adjustment and a little sharpening does a lot for it.

Videoguy · Oct 17, 2006

yeh, that picture focus doesn't look bad compared to some of the misfocus I see with my DSLR.

RP I vs RPII

Leading Member

Forum Pro

Leading Member

Member

Leading Member

Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Leading Member

Leading Member

Leading Member

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Leading Member

Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Keyboard shortcuts