Re: TG-6 cosistenly overexposus
RBEmerson wrote:
Very impressive! However, the key point of this issue is:
"It's not my camera, it's my wife's, and she has 0.00% percent [interest] in tweaking with knobs, menus, or asking me to do the tweaking. She wants point&shoot."
Why a TG-6 at all? The previous camera, Nikon AW130, was a hurry-up purchase to replace a Canon P&S that was very not waterproof, as a brief dunk in a Bahamian stream proved.
The problem with the Nikon, which she likes, probably comes from outgassing from plastic bits in the camera. That's coated some of the optics. Not Good - think lens smeared with fingerprints, only inside the camera body.
The TG-6 was selected, in great measure, based on DPR's review, with the ability to shoot RAW a big deal for me. I'm the one who'll get asked to print something from what my wife pointed to and shot. From JPEG and needing cropping? Hello, RAW!
So that's "why a TG-6".
It's interesting that you mention the AW130...I owned both its predecessor and successor (AW120 and W300) and shot them a ton. I got the TG-6 has a replacement for the W300 and was happy I did so.
The optics on Nikon's rugged series are not good. The TG-6 despite having less MP (12 vs 16) IMO has a more effective real life resolution.
Also its options are much too limited. There is no quick exposure dial on the AW series like there is for Olympus. That drove me nuts plowing through menus on the Nikon simply to change exposure...it's ironic, but the TG's quick exposure dial is one big reasons I prefer Olympus over Nikon for rugged shooting.
Also Nikon also didn't "stick" their shutter delay (2 second min), while Olympus (1 second min) does which is also huge.
I'm surprised you didn't have exposure issues with the Nikon. Often the Nikon's default exposure for ideal sunny conditions (sun to your back) was good...but it was quite bad in overcast conditions or when taking pictures into the sun.
Both cameras do absolutely expose differently. Olympus (not just the Tough series) prefer bright vibrant images with the midtones on the high side for OOC jpgs. Nikon JPGs prefers more safer/conservative midtone exposures that preserve sautation/blowouts, but at a SIGNICANT cost to contrast. Olympus images are high ceiling/low floor...while Nikon images are low ceiling, high floor. Olympus jpgs can wow you if you get the settings right, but yes are more apt to have over-exposed upper midtones. I think the trade-off is worth it.
Now the Nikon rugged series isn't all evil. It's video stabilization is better than the Tough series. Also there are cases where it is imperative you under-expose the midtones (like nice sky shots) and for that Nikon does better. I get can get deeper/bluer/richer skies with the NIkon, but Olympus is IMO better at everything else...it's images just look more vibrant and have more "pop" to them.
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As to settings used, the factory defaults except: enabling RAW, trying spot metering. I shot with P mode, but tried Auto and Scene. All three simply overexpose. In P mode, changing the EV "cures" overexposure, and restores saturation. See above re: knob twiddling.
Bottom line: out of the box, with 0.0 EV, scenes are consistently overexposed. That displeases the camera's owner. End of camera, end of story.
Spot metering is weird. Its only really useful if you have a small dark subject outline by a much brighter, larger and less interesting background. Like a spider against a sky. It will cause more exposure problems than alleviate if used casually for every day scenes.
For exposure it's important to differentiate between exposure for the entire images and parts of the image. Often even TG-6 images that are "over-exposed" will have properly black blacks. Often the problem more precisely is that the TG-6 over exposes the upper mid-tones (intentionally...it's a strategic tradeoff between contrast and saturation).
But the Tough series has a great way to deal with exposure issues with its quick exposure dial...I'm not sure if ANY other rugged compacts have this. Olympus is fantastic about also saving custom settings. You could have set a nice custom settings recipe for your companion (including a default -.3 exposure for ALL images) for P or C1, then handed it off to her and she would have been great in most cases.
I do agree however that Olympus should make this easier for new users. Their auto is just awful. It frequently uses i-enhance high (which has too much saturation/contrast). It's default noise reduction is also way too aggressive which kills detail. Lastly, disabling the default exposure dial for auto is just stupid from Olympus...sadly many TG-6 users may never figure out what that dial even does or why it is so important.
