HX5 HDR oddities

With the HX5 the only control you have in HDR for focus is the choice of Multi, Center or Spot. There are no manual exposure or metering adjustments. I would think that in most situations the depth of field would be enough to allow focus on the metering area you need while keeping the subject reasonably sharp after recomposing; but as you indicate - not always.

Frank B
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I don't mean to be offensive, but you keep posting this and have obviously never worked with this camera. It does not have an AE lock and spot metering does not work with this mode, so there is no way to do what you suggest (which is trivial with a dslr).
Also, this is not a "HDR" mode- it increases DR without any tone mapping.
To increase the contrast one merely does a bit of PP.

Stuart said:

I don't mean to be offensive, but you keep posting this and have obviously never worked with this camera. It does not have an AE lock and spot metering does not work with this mode, so there is no way to do what you suggest (which is trivial with a dslr).

Click to expand...

Not a problem - discussion and debate is healthy - and many good points can be brought up from both sides.

You're right in that I haven't worked with this camera...I've been very open with that fact from the beginning. I have lots of experience with the two-frame HDR mode from my Sony DSLR, which does have significantly more control from the user than the P&S cameras do. Even with the DSLRs, very few if any users knew that the camera is shooting for highlights in the first frame and shadows in the second...so I've definitely been on a mission to inform anyone using this mode on DSLRs that the metering should be done on highlights. As I saw the same situation popping up with the P&S version of HDR mode, I figured the advice may be usable here too. I've only just been discovering lately that the HX5 doesn't allow a choice of metering mode in this mode, which does make it harder. I have a TX1 that doesn't have the HDR mode, but it does have twilight mode, and it allows you to use the touch screen to choose a focus point while leaving the metering in 'matrix' or wide mode...which significantly helps with focusing on your subject while metering the sky, for example. Apparently the TX5 and TX7 maintain this touch-point control in HDR mode - while the HX5 doesn't have a spot focus capability in HDR. Pity, that.

However, there are still workarounds that at least sometimes will work in getting a better metering off highlights with the HX5. Using the examples in the original post - if he had moved the camera up in the frame, so that the very top edge of the 'mushroom' fell right on the center point of the camera, that would allow the camera a strong contrast line right on the center focus area allowing it to focus properly, while filling a majority of the wide metering box with sky. The camera would predominantly be metering based on the influence of the sky, yet focusing on the foreground 'mushroom' roof. By half-pressing to lock focus and metering, he could then recompose before shooting and get the same composition as the above shots, but with the camera having stopped down the aperture and chosen a much faster shutter speed from the bright sky's meter influence. The second frame of the HDR mode would then take the second shot at a slower shutter speed to pull in a better exposure of the shadow areas, and the two would be blended with likely a better result than what was achieved above.

That would be my suggestion for HX5 users with HDR mode - try to get a majority of the metering area (the center 1/3 to 1/2 or so of the frame) to point at the highlights, then half press to lock and recompose. After another website testing the TX7 tried this out, they did get a much better result, which was at least a good affirmation that the P&S cameras are using the same technique as the DSLRs - first shot highlights, second shot shadows.

Stuart said:

Also, this is not a "HDR" mode- it increases DR without any tone mapping.
To increase the contrast one merely does a bit of PP.

Click to expand...

Of course. But we're using 'HDR mode' as a common phrase to refer to this mode whereby the camera takes two exposures, aligns, and blends for highlight exposure and shadow exposure. In the DSLRs, they actually call this mode 'HDR'. In the P&S models, they appear to have amended the name to 'HDR backlight correction'. So for the sake of simplicity, most of us just refer to it as 'HDR mode'.

You're right it isn't tone mapping, and some contrast adjust after the fact can help...however my expierence has been that it can work fabulously well if you can manage to meter the first shot on the highlights - and requires no contrast adjustment or post-processing of any kind. As we've noted, it's harder on the HX5 with no spot meter or spot focus controls or adjustments - TX users may have an advantage if they can still touch the screen to designate a focus point. But at least sometimes, with some effort, it is possible to find something to focus on at the right distance with a predominantly highlight background to fill the meter box with, even within the limits of the HX5.

--
Justin
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Thanks for the detailed reply. Your approach may work with this small sensor camera if everything is in focus. This is likely to be the case with the small sensor. I will try this, but I doubt the camera would focus if only the sky was in the field of view when the shutter release was pressed down half way. I will try to post the results.