My NX300 AF & AE setup

jpcutler85 wrote:

I have had my NX300 for a couple years and its my first step away from a mobile phone/compact digital. Slowly I have been learning the settings and working on a NX300 setup that works for me.

Primary I purchased the camera for travel and sight seeing. Mostly I take photos of landscapes, buildings or people posing in front of landscapes and buildings. I am sucker for DOF so my camera is on Aperture 99% of the time so I can play with blur. If I want a nice blurry close up I drop down to around F2.2 and If I am photographing a landscape I set to around F8. Unless I chicken out and use auto for some shots just to make sure I get a decent photo.

To give you an idea here are photos of which I am pleased with how they turned out: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpcutler85/

Nice shots.

At the moment I am swapping between the various AF & AE options the NX300 has to offer and I wouldn't mind some guidance. What I am aiming for is a default setup that is suitable for the majority of the situations I may take a photo. I think if I continue to say to my partner hold that pose whilst I setup the focus and exposure she might throw the camera in the water!

AF Mode

I have this set to Single Auto Focus, one reason is because it saves battery as opposed to Continuous Auto Focus. Also as I mainly take photos of still things, I see no reason to have this setup any different. Is it better to just have it on continuous instead as even people who sit still, still move! Or does little movements such as this not matter and Single Auto Focus is best?

I think CAF is just designed for when you need to react quickly and it is helpful if the focus is already in the ballpark. That way the lens group has a shorter distance to travel. Probably for scenarios whereby you are watching the subject and waiting for an action to occur before shooting - like a bird beginning to take flight etc.

AF Area

I have this set to Multi AF which the majority of the time focuses on the subject anyway. The only other usable option is Selection AF but I will get on to that next.

Sounds like the best way. If it gets it wrong can you use the 4-way controller to guide it?

Touch AF

I have this set to Touch AF so in the event that the Multi AF doesn't focus on what I want I can simply touch where I want to focus and override the camera. I assume this is the same as Selection AF anyway? I also have DMF enabled so I can further adjust the focus manually using the ring whilst holding the shutter.

Yes, touch AF just gets you there quicker than using the 4-way pad to move the AF point. More pro-level cameras usually have a joystick for this because using the 4-way pad is pretty darn slow.

I see there is also AF Point, the camera says " AF Point will be set to where you touched the screen". How is this different to Touch AF? "Touch the screen to focus on that area".

I'm not sure about this one.

Finally Tracking AF since I don't track fast moving objects I see no reason to choose this option. If I see a low flying bird I usually have my camera set on burst in the hope that one photo might come out OK.

Tracking AF is usually for when you are panning a subject. You select the subject with a half press and then it can continuously re-adjust focus for you. It lets you concentrate on good panning technique.

Link AE to AF Point

Since I have my AF Area set to Multi AF, this is disabled. I assume this means it is off so the exposure does not change when I focus on an area. As opposed to being enabled and the exposure changes to what I have focused on.

Until recently I have had this enabled with Selection AF, so I have been used to the exposure changing as I focus. But I found when taking the occasional couple selfie in front of a landscape as you do, the Selection AF doesn't take a good photo because it doesn't know what to focus on. So I now have it set to Multi AF for reasons mentioned above.

Metering

I have this set to Multi so it takes into account the exposure of the entire photo. I assume this is good for most situations and in the event I wish to capture a silhouette, I have taken a RAW photo in Lightroom and adjusted it until it looked good. I know Spot or Center-Weighted might be better suited for this but are either of these better for the majority of photos I would take as opposed to Multi?

I think that is all for now, I am sure there are settings I have missed that are important...

Thanks,

I don't worry too much about exposure with my NX500. It's pretty much ISO invariant so if I under-expose by a few stops I can easily correct in post. If anything I try and use this to my benefit and deliberately under-expose so that I can decide later if the highlights are worth saving. Recovering blown highlights is not so forgiving. I assume the NX300 sensor is much the same and you shoot in RAW? Ditto for white balance. I keep it on AutoWB and adjust later if necessary.