Re: ZS100 - is it worth considering as a viable alternative IQ wise to an RX100
ArturoImages wrote:
KH, your pics are great. Composition is spot on. You don't have any data for the pics. I just got a used ZS100 and after a bit of handling and some casual shots, I like it. I have been taking photos as an enthusiast for 50+ years. re your pics do you have any particular settings you could share with me for the ZS100? Or do you shoot all manual. I'd be surprised to hear that those shots were taken with camera set on iA. Do you do a lot of post? Thanks for any advice you can share. Art
99+% of the time I shoot in the P mode with focus set to the default 'face detect'. I keep an eye on what the camera decides on and occasionally override this with spot focus/exposure using the touch screen - I usually keep the spot square quite large, about 1/6 of frame height. Being a lazy person I end up with many shots at the widest focal length even though I know that the lens sharpness improves considerably, especially in the corners, if you zoom in just a touch.
When shooting people I find the drive mode very useful. I then mercilessly cull all the not-so-good shots of a sequence.
I shoot RAW and process in PS. In Camera Raw I just tweak the highlights and shadows a little and maybe crop down a bit to get a better composition. Colour is usually spot on and I rarely touch that. Then back into PS, use auto contrast and sharpen with Topaz Sharpen AI. The default or auto settings in that are usually too harsh for my liking so I turn those down considerably. It all takes only a few minutes per shot and it is well worth it.
For prints it is also important to check for any out of gamut colours and to fix these.