I'm starting to use the 105 with the S1R and it's a very capable combination.
As for setup tips, I'm assuming this is tripod based work, and you are turning off the in-body stabilization.
Indeed.
You can setup the focus assist to automatically zoom in when you twist the focus barrel, which can be handy or annoying, depending on the situation.
To get all the MF-goodness, be sure & set the switch on the lens barrel to MF, as well as the rotating switch on the body.
Switching either the lens M/A switch or the body M/S/C switch to MF has the same effect for me.
This being a fly-by-wire system, neither and both of the MF switches, of course [!], don't disable focus changes initiated by the camera, or even disable AF.
The AF-ON button still performs AF, AF can be triggered from the touch screen, and switching the camera off and on resets focus (unless "The camera memorises the focus position" is switched on).
This made me quite Whisky Tango Foxtrot when I first put the thing on a macro rail, since I'm used to setting the focus/magnification, with AF off at the lens, and then racking the camera on the rail to focus. Without the lens focus changing unless I change it myself. Of course, this isn't just a problem with macro, it's a problem any time we want to set up the camera, switch it off, and later switch it on and expect it to be in the state we left it in.
I sortof guess that some Panasonic beta tester wrote a not entirely polite email to Panasonic about the behaviour, leading to the "The camera memorises the focus position" menu option.
Perhaps Sigma could put a hole in the side of the lens, where we can put a locking pin that physically jams the focus mechanism. :-x
Beware the switch that is on the lower right front (as you are looking down the barrel of the lens) of the body - if you accidentally flip it to "2" certain capabilities may become disabled, depending on how it's configured (don't recall what the default is). It's a common stumbling block for new users.
Have you experimented with hi-res mode?
thanks for all this.
Yes, I'm using a mammoth Beseler enlarger that probably weights 80 lbs. And yes, thanks, stabilization off.
What is "the rotating switch on the body"?
I haven't used hi-res yet. I've seen comparisons on another board and didn't think it made much of a difference. I'm already getting 100 mps+ files out of my GFX-R kit. But, of course, these aren't pixel-shifted.
Have you tried the hi-res? has it made much of a difference.
thanks again for taking the time to answer.
[...]
The "rotating switch" I am referring to is the switch that lets you choose between AF-S, AF-C, and MF. If you set it to MF you should also set the switch on the lens barrel to MF, otherwise some of the MF behaviors will not be available.
I was thinking of the "Fn Lever" at the lower left front of the body, which, by default, switches the camera to "silent mode" (including electronic shutter). I've managed to knock that, and then be quite puzzled why flash has just stopped working.
Have you tried the hi-res? has it made much of a difference.
Generally speaking, Panasonic's hi-res mode is considered by some to be the best in the business. You get a 187 MP raw file on the card - no extra processing necessary - and you can configure it to also keep a regular raw file just in case things don't work out on the 187 MP file. Of course, motion can cause problems with hi-res, but if you are digitizing negatives that shouldn't be an issue. Generally speaking, in addition to the higher resolution files, you may find the colors and DR to be a little better as well. Seems like a no-brainer for digitizing negatives, but then you'll need to sort that out for yourself, of course.
Yes, the high-resolution mode is very good, when the subject is completely static. Not because it delivers significantly higher resolution - it doesn't, but because:
- Aliasing - including moiré - is essentially eliminated. The oversampling pattern, which gives 1R,2G,1B samples both at the original pixel centres, plus (IIUC) the centres of the square gaps between the original pixel centres, combined with sinc(x)-like MTF of the sensor microlenses alone is enough to eliminate for practical purposes spatial frequencies above the Nyquist limit of the double-pixel-resolution output file, in all colour channels, before even considering the Airy Disc (diffraction) MTF, or the lens MTF.
- SNR (per un-shifted pixel area) is improved by ~1.5EV. That's a lot. There's so little noise that there have been complaints on this forum about Mach-band effects in out-of-focus areas of High-Resolution mode images rendered at 8 bits/component, because there isn't enough noise to dither transitions between 8-bit R'G'B' values.
The 47MP S1R has a small enough pixel pitch (4.3μm) that it can usually - but not always - avoid bad aliasing effects in normal single-shot capture, even though it lacks an anti-aliasing filter on the front of the sensor. Sometimes stopping down to f/11 or more may be necessary to control aliasing.
The 24MP S1 & S5, with 5.9μm pixel pitch, and no AA filter, are quite prone to moiré and spurious colours at normal f/numbers in de-bayered images.
This DPR page allows comparison of S1 & S1R with- and without- High-resolution mode. The black-on-white text in the test scene is a good testcase. It's clear that HR mode doesn't turn an S1R into a Fuji GFX-100.
It's also interesting to compare Sony A7R4 (60MP) pixel-shift implementation with Panasonic's S1R (47MP) implementation on that DPR page. The A7R4 pixel-shifted images show noticeable aliasing in the form of stair-stepping on sharp diagonal edges, and colour fringing, which are not present in the S1R (or S1) HR images. Perhaps Sony could fix this with better PC software to combine the shifted images. Look at the slanted-edges and Siemens-stars in the scene.
