Get my free eBook User's Guide for the FZ200 available from my photoblog site http://www.grahamhoughton.com/downloa...Also available from Amazon UK in hard copy bookhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/149484935...and Amazon USA http://www.amazon.com/dp/1494849356?t...Today I decided I wanted to push the camera out of my comfort zone with higher than my mandatory use of the base ISO (100). This resulted from re-reading some of the comments circulating about the poor IQ of the lens/sensor particularly at higher ISO setting. I also wanted to test the HDR function for another viewer and compare the rseult to manually merged under/normal/over images to get the best dynamic range. For me the in camera HDR results in a image which is lacking too much in contrast, the shadows are boosted too high, for me. It was raining (seems to always be at the moment) so the camera also got a moisture test as well! I shot some images of fungi under heavt leaf canopy and the exposures were up to 3 seconds long. The images look pretty good for this type of camera. I also did the ISO 800 - 3200 test with the 1S -2NR factors applied for in camera jpeg. I also shot raw files to process to get teh best image using light room.Whilst the images were pleasantly usable even at 3200 for small web images it was apparent the jpeg processing was creating too much smearing. I took these same images into lightroom but could only achieve similar results. I then took the camera jpegs into photoshop and applied a high pass monochrome layer to the original image in the luminance blend mode. Our eyes see more detail in the black and white image so by introducing a highly sharpened luminance component to the smeary chrominance layer we end up with a much more respectable image, imho. The amount of "sharpening" is controlled by the layer opacity in the blending. So in conclusion, what dis this prove to me. Well even in the dingiest of lighting I could still use my beloved iSO100 by using mechanical means to steady the shot - rsting on the ground, propped against trees etc so there really was no situation were I had to use higher iSO values. However in good light the ISO 400-800 can be used to allow higher shutter speeds for sports etc without too much image degradation through noise. Also with further processing the iSO 1600 would be a good fall back. I honestly do not know were the negativity has come from with this camera upgrade. is it peoples too high expectation from a point and shoot with a long lens or is it lack of camera skill in assessing lighting levels and contrast?

タグ: panasonic-lumix-fz200, fz200