VR-320 images (3)

Today I went into Washington DC to use the VR-320. Not many images, but I did manage to shoot images with very contrasty lighting, strong sunlight, reflective objects (like cars and glass)...It hates glass. I bumped the setting back to 14mp Fine; this needs toying with a bit further. All images needed auto highlight correction, contrast, and shadow adjustment in PSE 8; amazingly pretty much the same amount. Subjectively, the images appears no worse than my FE-5020 (which was the same price) at wider angles. Tomorrow, I'll go out again to a nature area and test the zoom at the far end.







--
The Last of the Yashicans.

The camera does seem to do rather well with contrasty situations, with bright areas and shadows.

I am glad you found the time to get some pics. I visited Washington in 1987, and there were no digital cameras then.

Your pictures are a lot better than some of the printing from 35mm I got then.

Noticed you went to full resolution. It does make it easier to mess with pictures later when they don't look quite right to you out of the camera. On yours, my preference would be to darken the midtones slightly (like 'Levels' 0 0.85 255).

Are you shooting in 'P' mode or in iAUTO?

Henry

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Henry Falkner - SZ-30MR, SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

Henry Falkner said:

Noticed you went to full resolution. It does make it easier to mess with pictures later when they don't look quite right to you out of the camera. On yours, my preference would be to darken the midtones slightly (like 'Levels' 0 0.85 255).

Are you shooting in 'P' mode or in iAUTO?

Click to expand...

Yes, I went to full resolution; as it arrived it was set at 14mp Normal, I went to Fine. My PSE 8 has a slider for corrections (15 seems to be the number correction); but yes I did darken the midtones as you recommend (perhaps a bit more could help) and also darkened the highlights; the reflections from the automobiles were terrible. I am shooting in P mode currently. I'd like to try iAuto. And 8mp Fine.

Today I went out with it and also the Stylus 9000; trying to shoot the scenes at roughly the same scale and at 12mp Fine, and 14mp Fine respectively. Seat of the pants judgement call; no real discernable difference, but the VR may actually be a touch less sharp at the wide end but sharper at the telephoto end. Startup/shutdown times, time to zoom in/out all seem very similar. The VR does have an advantage in that the SD card is much faster to view on my computer; Xd cards are terribly slow to do anything with.

--
The Last of the Yashicans.

Reflections are terrible with it; fair bit of editing helps. Out of the camera everything needs a touch more contrast, and highlight/shadow/midtone adjustment. But yes, it seemed to do okay (probably as well as could be expected for a $150 US camera) in those settings.

--
The Last of the Yashicans.

This is at full zoom. Auto correction used in Microsoft Picture Manager.



--
The Last of the Yashicans.

That is a nice one.

I also got to the point where none of the three cameras in current use produce substantially better IQ than the others. However, the SZ-30MR does better HD720p video than the Stylus 9010 (the SP-570UZ does VGA only).

Henry

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Henry Falkner - SZ-30MR, SP-570UZ, Stylus 9010
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner