C2500

[Olivier P. Sarda]

Having recently purchased the 2500, I have, of course, been taking lots of pictures. To my surprise, the 2500 seems a bit chaotic in its fully automatic mode "P". It jumps to extremely high shutter speeds in plain daylight...i.e. at the beach - 1/5000!! The pictures came out kind of dark logically...I checked to make sure everything was kosher...AF on, Auto WB on, etc.... So why these results?... In the auto mode "P", it should always expose correctly! I also get lots of soft focus on some shots which makes no sense. I correctly framed and fired away on the subject...but too many times the pictures are a bit blurry, making me think that I have absolutely no luxury on this camera to shake ever so slightly while snapping away. Has anyone encountered the same problem?

Plus, is it just me or is the manual just badly written? I still wonder how I can either in the A or M modes bracket the f-stops manually and see it change - not just a little box moving left and right in EVs'.

Please advise...the camera is amazing...but until I solve these quirks will I be truly satisfied!!

--O.

 

[Robbin Merritt]

I'd agree that the manual is poorly writen. Someone posted that it was more or less directly translated from Japanese.

I have to wonder if you have a defective unit. I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem. If I use Aperture mode to open up the aperture in the bright light I get a very fast shutter (what I was trying for) but the picture turns out fine.

I have noticed that the C2500L tends to be more senstive than my Kodak digicam when taking shots with a bright sky background. The foreground ends up dark. Sometimes spot metering helps, sometimes I have to set the EV to +1. I know all cameras do this, but the C2500L seems to need a lower percentage of sky to foreground than others.

Do you still have a problem if the entire image is evenly lit? Such as a bright wall or building shot that doesn't include the sky?

 

[Noel Carboni]

I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem.

Likewise, Olivier. I'd have to say that, while I've also noticed that my camera may lower the exposure a bit in shots with a percentage of sky, I have been very impressed with its rock solid exposure and focus logic. I get correct exposures virtually 100% of the time and I don't find, for example, that I need to worry about centering high contrast items in the viewfinder ring the way I used to with my D-500L.

By the way, regarding underexposing shots with sky in them... I remember reading, back a few years ago, complaints that the Olympus D-500L and D-600L cameras were overexposing clouds. I'm just guessing, but I believe Olympus may have added special logic to the C-2500L to ensure clouds don't end up solid white, making shots with sky sometimes seem underexposed.

From what I can see the C-2500L, from a usability perspective, is the result of an engineering department that listened INTENTLY to its customers. They corrected nearly everything anyone complained about in the previous generation SLRs.

Noel

 

[Robert G. Galvin]

Oliver,

Having just returned from a mega-shooting (picture) spree in Hawaii, I have found the same results as you. I'm used to shooting in automatic mode (on my old Polaroid PDC-2000) and all pictures were basically the same quality sharpness/focus (light would differ...that's all).

But, I found the same inconsistency that you saw, while shooting with the C-2500L (mainly on the beach, like yourself). I would swear that my hands weren't shaking, at all, and I would see good focus in the center of the picture and out of focus towards the sides of the pcitre (of subjects that were all still and the same distance away!). Not all shots did this, but enough so that it kind of ticked me off.

Also, I noticed a lot of graininess in my photos...more than I ever saw in my old digicam (on a side note, the Toshiba PDR-M5 I tested showed the same graininess in the photos I took)...was the Polaroid just better at resolving the grain that newer digicams? I'm beginning to think that maybe I was spolied and the the graininess I see now is to be expected(?).

Galv

Having recently purchased the 2500, I have, of course, been taking lots
of pictures. To my surprise, the 2500 seems a bit chaotic in its fully
automatic mode "P". It jumps to extremely high shutter speeds in plain
daylight...i.e. at the beach - 1/5000!! The pictures came out kind of
dark logically...I checked to make sure everything was kosher...AF on,
Auto WB on, etc.... So why these results?... In the auto mode "P", it
should always expose correctly! I also get lots of soft focus on some
shots which makes no sense. I correctly framed and fired away on the
subject...but too many times the pictures are a bit blurry, making me
think that I have absolutely no luxury on this camera to shake ever so
slightly while snapping away. Has anyone encountered the same problem?

Plus, is it just me or is the manual just badly written? I still wonder
how I can either in the A or M modes bracket the f-stops manually and see
it change - not just a little box moving left and right in EVs'.

Please advise...the camera is amazing...but until I solve these quirks
will I be truly satisfied!!

--
O.

 

[Fred W]

Noel -

My experiences are similar to yours. The C2500 has been very predictable and stable regarding exposure & focus.

Regards, Fred

I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem.

Likewise, Olivier. I'd have to say that, while I've also noticed that my
camera may lower the exposure a bit in shots with a percentage of sky, I
have been very impressed with its rock solid exposure and focus logic. I
get correct exposures virtually 100% of the time and I don't find, for
example, that I need to worry about centering high contrast items in the
viewfinder ring the way I used to with my D-500L.

By the way, regarding underexposing shots with sky in them... I remember
reading, back a few years ago, complaints that the Olympus D-500L and
D-600L cameras were overexposing clouds. I'm just guessing, but I
believe Olympus may have added special logic to the C-2500L to ensure
clouds don't end up solid white, making shots with sky sometimes seem
underexposed.

From what I can see the C-2500L, from a usability perspective, is the
result of an engineering department that listened INTENTLY to its
customers. They corrected nearly everything anyone complained about in
the previous generation SLRs.

Noel

 

[Olivier P. Sarda]

Thank you all for your interesting comments....I am wondering now if my camera could possibly be defective. If any of you have been taking shots at a beach, please forward me a photo or a URL to allow comparisons. I was seriously surprised by the results...just way too underexposed!

I am also not surprised that the manual was translated from Japanese...it's all over the place and not really categorized properly...maybe because the japanese read from the back of a book cover to the front....laugh!!!

O.

PS. Should I really look into getting a new camera or is it just the way its supposed to be?

My experiences are similar to yours. The C2500 has been very predictable
and stable regarding exposure & focus.

Regards, Fred

I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem.

Likewise, Olivier. I'd have to say that, while I've also noticed that my
camera may lower the exposure a bit in shots with a percentage of sky, I
have been very impressed with its rock solid exposure and focus logic. I
get correct exposures virtually 100% of the time and I don't find, for
example, that I need to worry about centering high contrast items in the
viewfinder ring the way I used to with my D-500L.

By the way, regarding underexposing shots with sky in them... I remember
reading, back a few years ago, complaints that the Olympus D-500L and
D-600L cameras were overexposing clouds. I'm just guessing, but I
believe Olympus may have added special logic to the C-2500L to ensure
clouds don't end up solid white, making shots with sky sometimes seem
underexposed.

From what I can see the C-2500L, from a usability perspective, is the
result of an engineering department that listened INTENTLY to its
customers. They corrected nearly everything anyone complained about in
the previous generation SLRs.

Noel

 

[Robbin Merritt]

Perhaps I stressed the sky exposure issue too much. Don't get me wrong. Except for this minor issue that I easily correct for, the exposures and focus I get are otherwise perfect. Everyone (including other digicam owners) has been very impressed by my images. Even Noel was impressed by the detail on a church facade I took.

I wouldn't trade this camera for anything short of a Nikon D1.

Robbin

My experiences are similar to yours. The C2500 has been very predictable
and stable regarding exposure & focus.

Regards, Fred

I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem.

Likewise, Olivier. I'd have to say that, while I've also noticed that my
camera may lower the exposure a bit in shots with a percentage of sky, I
have been very impressed with its rock solid exposure and focus logic. I
get correct exposures virtually 100% of the time and I don't find, for
example, that I need to worry about centering high contrast items in the
viewfinder ring the way I used to with my D-500L.

By the way, regarding underexposing shots with sky in them... I remember
reading, back a few years ago, complaints that the Olympus D-500L and
D-600L cameras were overexposing clouds. I'm just guessing, but I
believe Olympus may have added special logic to the C-2500L to ensure
clouds don't end up solid white, making shots with sky sometimes seem
underexposed.

From what I can see the C-2500L, from a usability perspective, is the
result of an engineering department that listened INTENTLY to its
customers. They corrected nearly everything anyone complained about in
the previous generation SLRs.

Noel

 

[Robbin Merritt]

Olivier:

I read a posting from someone on other forum who describes similar problems. Check out the Tom Wu thread at http://www.charm.net/~mchaney/wwwboard2/wwwboard.html

I am also not surprised that the manual was translated from
Japanese...it's all over the place and not really categorized
properly...maybe because the japanese read from the back of a book cover
to the front....laugh!!!

O.

PS. Should I really look into getting a new camera or is it just the way
its supposed to be?

My experiences are similar to yours. The C2500 has been very predictable
and stable regarding exposure & focus.

Regards, Fred

I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem.

Likewise, Olivier. I'd have to say that, while I've also noticed that my
camera may lower the exposure a bit in shots with a percentage of sky, I
have been very impressed with its rock solid exposure and focus logic. I
get correct exposures virtually 100% of the time and I don't find, for
example, that I need to worry about centering high contrast items in the
viewfinder ring the way I used to with my D-500L.

By the way, regarding underexposing shots with sky in them... I remember
reading, back a few years ago, complaints that the Olympus D-500L and
D-600L cameras were overexposing clouds. I'm just guessing, but I
believe Olympus may have added special logic to the C-2500L to ensure
clouds don't end up solid white, making shots with sky sometimes seem
underexposed.

From what I can see the C-2500L, from a usability perspective, is the
result of an engineering department that listened INTENTLY to its
customers. They corrected nearly everything anyone complained about in
the previous generation SLRs.

Noel

 

[Jack Churchill]

Hi there...

Any camera will have a hard time if the contrast is too high....a choice has to be made often between detail in the sky and detail in the landscape. Photoshop can compensate for about 3 to 4 camera stops underexposure using the levels command. Like slide film, if anyting goes too hot there is no detail left. Try to underexpose the darker part and still keep some detail in the sky. Sometimes it is necessary to take two shots....one for the sky and one for the land....and combine them in Photoshop as 2 layers.

Hope this helps a little..

Jack

I read a posting from someone on other forum who describes similar
problems. Check out the Tom Wu thread at
http://www.charm.net/~mchaney/wwwboard2/wwwboard.html

I am also not surprised that the manual was translated from
Japanese...it's all over the place and not really categorized
properly...maybe because the japanese read from the back of a book cover
to the front....laugh!!!

O.

PS. Should I really look into getting a new camera or is it just the way
its supposed to be?

My experiences are similar to yours. The C2500 has been very predictable
and stable regarding exposure & focus.

Regards, Fred

I have taken hundreds of bright outdoor shots and not had this problem.

Likewise, Olivier. I'd have to say that, while I've also noticed that my
camera may lower the exposure a bit in shots with a percentage of sky, I
have been very impressed with its rock solid exposure and focus logic. I
get correct exposures virtually 100% of the time and I don't find, for
example, that I need to worry about centering high contrast items in the
viewfinder ring the way I used to with my D-500L.

By the way, regarding underexposing shots with sky in them... I remember
reading, back a few years ago, complaints that the Olympus D-500L and
D-600L cameras were overexposing clouds. I'm just guessing, but I
believe Olympus may have added special logic to the C-2500L to ensure
clouds don't end up solid white, making shots with sky sometimes seem
underexposed.

From what I can see the C-2500L, from a usability perspective, is the
result of an engineering department that listened INTENTLY to its
customers. They corrected nearly everything anyone complained about in
the previous generation SLRs.

Noel

 

[Noel Carboni]

PS. Should I really look into getting a new camera or is it just the way
its supposed to be?

Olivier,

No one can really honestly answer this question without seeing your shots. Can you upload them to the web somewhere? If not, E-mail one or two of them to me as attachments.

If you believe the camera is acting erratically and is taking bad pictures despite your best efforts, and others' experiences don't seem to match yours, I'd imagine you should work on getting another one.

Noel

 

[Doc@]

PS. Should I really look into getting a new camera or is it just the way
its supposed to be?

Olivier,

No one can really honestly answer this question without seeing your
shots. Can you upload them to the web somewhere? If not, E-mail one or
two of them to me as attachments.

If you believe the camera is acting erratically and is taking bad
pictures despite your best efforts, and others' experiences don't seem to
match yours, I'd imagine you should work on getting another one.

Noel

Oliver

Best objective and constructive advice came from Noel. Please follow up for your peace of mind. ~ Doc ~

 

[Olivier P. Sarda]

Thank you Noel for again for your comments. Unfortunately, I have deleted them...I will try to repeat the shots again this weekend or not...if it happens again, you will get a copy of them. At that point, I will be very interested in hearing what you have to say.

I was also wondering what you recommend for a small convenient bag that could house the 2500 + the B28 lense as well as its charger, yet small enough to carry around on a trip.

I also wanted to know if you indeed use the "Soft" mode only in the C2500, it seems to give much better quality with less noise...prefering to do my own sharpening in Photoshop with Unsharp Mask at a setting of 100% .06 pixels.....What are your preferences?

O.

PS. Should I really look into getting a new camera or is it just the way
its supposed to be?

Olivier,

No one can really honestly answer this question without seeing your
shots. Can you upload them to the web somewhere? If not, E-mail one or
two of them to me as attachments.

If you believe the camera is acting erratically and is taking bad
pictures despite your best efforts, and others' experiences don't seem to
match yours, I'd imagine you should work on getting another one.

Noel