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My Review of the F550EXR

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Hi Barbara, I asked Jeannie a simple question and referred her to her previous thread that had relevant comments to what she had just posted. I also wished her luck. With that in context:
BPSomerset said:
Don't let the grouches win!
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Can you or Jeannie or anyone else please point me to where in this thread I was being a grouch? I assume you were referring to myself and expressivecanvas when you made that coment.
BPSomerset said:
Please don't give up. I am in the same position. I am interested in a camera that produces very good image quality in low light, and fast enough to capture moving children. This forum is not only for the experts; many of us are interested in your observations.
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None of us here are experts or claim to be. An open mind would be helpful in her quest. Jeannie chose not to listen to lots of good advice she received and has done nothing to allow us to assist her. The people offering the advice also learn and enforce ideas particularly if what we say is incorrect and appropriately challenge.

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Apologies if my lack of photographic knowledge is catching.
 
BpSomerset and Jeanine , The new Olympus XZ-1 is looking good for indoors, kids moving pics. It sports the fastest lens of any compact (f1.8-2.5), as usual for good IQ the zoom's kept on the short side, "only" 28-112mm, but has been well received by their users. It has ONLY 10MP, a response for better pics in small sensors, instead of 16MP :)

Check it out just in case ;) $$$$$ though.
But if you're one those "Fuji only" then keep your F200/70/S200exr etc, I guess!

Cheers,

Ed
 
From http://www.dcresource.com

"I found the XZ-1's photos to be on the soft side, which I attribute more to noise reduction than the camera's very nice lens. You will see smudging of fine details at ISO 100, which is an issue that the Panasonic LX5 has, as well. Things will slowly get softer as the ISO increases, with a significant drop in image quality when you hit ISO 800. Usually there's an improvement to be had by shooting RAW, but I didn't obtain better results by doing so at the camera's higher sensitivities. Redeye was definitely a problem on this compact camera, though at least there's a tool in playback mode to get rid of it. Purple fringing, on the other hand, was not an issue."

Many in the Oly forum complain about the NR smearing in the lXZ-1 and the lack of any NR control in a high priced $499 point and shoot.
 
These threads have produced some excellent advice, a fair amount of it covering what for some is long-forgotten fundamentals. It's been a great refresher course.

Draek's post is yet another fine contribution in this vein. My own belief is that while P&S makers -- especially Fuji -- are slowly but surely improving results at ever higher ISO's, it's still foolhardy to ignore the warning in his first paragraph. There's nothing I'd like more to see in the 550 than the ability to capture high-quality images of active children indoors without flash. But I'm not going to buy either the 550 or HS20 in the hope either will make that dream a reality. Better high ISO stills, absolutely. Indoor action without flash...not yet.
Draek said:
As someone who's been photographing as a hobby for 7 years, I can tell you with full confidence: shooting children indoors in low-light without the use of flash, and with a point-n-shoot mentality (ie, no prefocusing and etc) is the single hardest challenge for a camera bar none. Compacts such as the F550 suffer from slow autofocus and (relatively) noisy sensors while dSLRs suffer from very, very shallow DOF (1) with most lenses, including the ones you'd likely want to use indoors not to mention the sheer bulk and price.

Really, the best bet for an amateur is to learn how to use flashes well instead, either built-in or external; they're available on most cameras, they're not that hard to use, and a bounced external flash produces gorgeous results for very little work. It's just a pity most amateurs hold a very negative view on flashes as result of the typical cave-like, red-eyed look of direct, fast-sync flash and as result they never bother to research it at all.

(1) If you don't know what "shallow DOF" is, have you seen those portraits where the person is in focus but the background is a blur? imagine that "background blur" starting on your children's ear and you'd have a good idea of what it's like. Not good.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/Draek
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Tim, FZ18, F20
 
I am sorry I forgot to mention that the pictures where taken strickly in the auto mode with flash in afternoon regular light.
They seem to be very blurry.
Any suggestions
 
Cute dog!

These do look quite soft and noisy.

As you used flash Jeannie you could use a lower ISO value to avoid some of this. Also, look at the aperture (the F number). The aperture is one way of controlling light in to the camera, essentially it is the size of the hole that lets in light. Those shots are taken above F5 whereas the LX5 at that focal lenght has an aperture of F3.3. The bigger the number the smaller the hole (aperture) hence the LX5 has a distinct advantage and will appear much quicker to focus and likely shoot at a lower ISO value.

Your shutter speed is 1/60. At a focal length above 100mm and a stabilised camera this is okay as he is pretty still. A moving subject might start bringing in motion blur. Again the larger aperture of the LX5 (ie:more light) would allow for a faster shutter speed and minimise any movement blur.

The LX5 has a larger sensor so noise will less as well.

Not all is lost. There are advantages of thisd camera like EXR that you may not have used yet. It will take time to get to know the camera so be patient.

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Apologies if my lack of photographic knowledge is catching.
 
Thanks for your input...I will try them tomorrow..as I said, these pictures were taken in the auto mode and I didn't set anything. I tried to take the same pictures at the same time without flash, but they didn't come out at all.
Thanks again
 
Jeannie46 said:
I am sorry I forgot to mention that the pictures where taken strickly in the auto mode with flash in afternoon regular light.
They seem to be very blurry.
Any suggestions
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I can't see why these are so blurred. My theory is that they are out of focus. The first one seems to be focused more on the couch than the pooch, the second one is blurred everywhere.

Small sensor cameras do develop OOF areas when they are zoomed in and my theory is that this is what has happened.
 
Jeannie46 said:
I tried to take the same pictures at the same time without flash, but they didn't come out at all.
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Just a few things, which you probably already know:

1. Try not to zoom too much when taking low-light pictures without flash. You lose lens speed, causing slower shutter speeds, and it's harder to handhold a longer focal length steady enough to avoid blur.

2. Take a series of pictures at different ISO settings to get a sense of how much image quality you're willing to lose to gain increased sensitivity. With my S200EXR, I don't like what I see above ISO 400, so I limit the ISO range accordingly.

3. Some objects are difficult for a particular autofocus system to lock onto. My dad has a cat named "Fluffy," and getting a good picture of her often means locking focus on something other than her furriness that's a similar distance away, then re-composing to include the cat.
 
BPSomerset said:
I know that a dslr would give me both those things, but I would also like a reasonable zoom in an easy to carry size.

I realise that this may be a tad unrealistic, but I am still looking for the best compromise. Carrying and changing lenses does not appeal in the slightest.
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I understand completly. But you also have to face reality. The real limitation in shooting moving subjects indoors is (a) AF speed and (b) IQ, because you will have to have enough shutter speed to freeze movement which means using high ISOs. In both respects, compacts fall way short in these respects. So if you are contmeplating using a compact for such work, then you need one with the fastest lens and the best sensor for noise. And they are the LX5, Samsung TL500, Oly XZ-1. After that, you are looking at the Canon G12, Nikon P7000 and Canon S95.

So for me, the Fuji 550 is way down the pecking order for such work because (a) it has a smaller sensor than all of these which will give worse IQ at high ISOs which you will have to use, and (b) it has a slower lens than all of these cameras which means you will have to use a worse ISO than thes cameras on top of being inferior ISO for ISO. To Fuji's credit, their compacts usually focus pretty quickly.
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Stephen
 
BPSomerset said:
I know that a dslr would give me both those things, but I would also like a reasonable zoom in an easy to carry size.

I realise that this may be a tad unrealistic, but I am still looking for the best compromise.
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For a non changable lens compact with somewhat of a zoom and fast lens there is only one the Olympus XZ-1. The long end is 2.5 there's nothing else in the compact with a lens like that. The video sucks and you'll have to shoot RAW to get the most out of it, but hey we can't have everything.

All these long lens, small bsi sensor cameras seem to try to get by with in camera tricks and processing for low light shooting but it's not there yet.
 
bab4 said:
For a non changable lens compact with somewhat of a zoom and fast lens there is only one the Olympus XZ-1. The long end is 2.5 there's nothing else in the compact with a lens like that.
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True. But the LX5 is a close second and well worth a look. The AF is incredibly quick in lowlight which is critical to capture that moving subject. And the video would be superior and could be worth the compromise in a tiny bit of lens speed. Also, the LX5 is a proven and well sorted camera coming after the already well proven LX3.
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Stephen
 
Personally, I like many others do not like the Panny color reproduction. Owned the wonderful GF-1. Could not get the color reproduction I like.

The TL500 also has the superb pivoting AMOLED 3" screen....
 
Thank for giving me some good advice...I will take the same picture with a lower ISO and see if that helps...I didn't realize it but the camera automatically set itself at 800.
Will post my results later

P.S. There was also some mention of zoom, I didn't use the zoom on these pictures, I was standing close but not too close to them.
Jeannie
 
I think we're starting to make some progress...

As is so often the case, it seems as if we have to start with what doesn't work to discover what does.
Jeannie46 said:
Thank for giving me some good advice...I will take the same picture with a lower ISO and see if that helps...I didn't realize it but the camera automatically set itself at 800.
Will post my results later

P.S. There was also some mention of zoom, I didn't use the zoom on these pictures, I was standing close but not too close to them.
Jeannie
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Tim, FZ18, F20
 
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