Olympus C-2100 ZoomWow! A superb 10X, optically stabilized zoom lens on a high-quality 2 megapixel camera!<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 10/18/2000 |
Exposure
The C-2100 offers excellent exposure control, with a variety of shooting modes from which to choose. Exposure modes are selected using the mode dial on top of the camera. Options include Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, and Scene Program. The Program mode is a basic automatic exposure mode, in which the camera controls both shutter speed and aperture settings. In Aperture Priority mode, you choose the lens aperture (from f/2.8 to f/8.0) and the camera selects the most appropriate corresponding shutter speed. Likewise, in Shutter Priority mode, you can set the shutter speed (from 1/800 to 1/2 second) and the camera chooses the best aperture setting. (We were interested to find that the maximum shutter speed in Program and Scene Program modes actually extends to 1/1150 seconds, even though Olympus' official specification for the camera shows a maximum shutter speed of 1/800.)
Manual exposure mode allows you to choose both aperture and shutter speed settings so that you can make more creative exposure decisions when shooting in special lighting situations. Once you're in Manual mode, depress the Info button until the f/stop and shutter speeds are displayed at the top of the viewfinder or monitor. You can adjust the f/stop with the left and right arrow keys, and the shutter speed with the up and down arrow keys. (Note that in Manual mode, your shutter speed range extends to 16 seconds).
Even in Manual mode, the C-2100 offers a fail-safe for improper exposures. If the camera doesn't agree with the exposure settings you've chosen, the Aperture Differential indicator will glow red in the upper right corner of the LCD. Aperture Differential tells you how far off your current settings are from the camera's optimal exposure level. Pressing the AEL button next to the Mode dial will switch the Aperture Differential indicator from numbers (ranging from +3 to -3) in the upper right corner of the monitor to a bar or scale reading at the bottom. This very helpful feature is standard with recent Olympus digital cameras.
Under the Scene Program mode, the C-2100 Ultra Zoom offers a handful of preset shooting modes for special situations. Options include Portrait, Sports, Landscape, and Night Scene modes. The Portrait mode focuses on your subject and uses a large aperture to reduce depth of field, blurring the background to eliminate distractions. Sports mode uses faster shutter speeds to freeze fast-moving action. Landscape mode uses a smaller aperture to increase the depth of field and keep the background and foreground in focus. Finally, Night Scene mode slows the shutter speed to allow more ambient light into the image. This mode can be combined with the Redeye Reduction flash mode for night portraits.
All of the exposure modes except Manual offer exposure compensation from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV (exposure equivalent) increments. This value appears in the top right corner of the LCD monitor and can be adjusted by pressing the right or left arrow keys. ISO sensitivity can be manually controlled in all capture modes. Using the Record menu, the ISO can be set to 100, 200, or 400 film speed equivalents. ISO 100 is best used in bright sunlight, while 400 will maximize exposure in dark situations. Our low-light testing indicated that the C-2100 did a great job at all three ISO levels, with minimal to moderate noise levels in the higher ISO settings.
White balance is also manually adjustable with a choice of Auto White Balance (determined by the camera) and preset Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten, and Fluorescent modes to match a variety of light sources. Testing indicated that the C-2100's Auto white balance system did a very good job in most tests, but seemed to have some trouble with studio lighting. We either had slightly warm images, or nearly accurate ones with a slight magenta cast. Still, the C-2100 handled the difficult tungsten lighting of indoor portraits and the high contrast of outdoor portraits very well.
In all capture modes, metering is controlled by the center button on the camera's top panel, which cycles through Standard, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering modes. The Standard metering mode uses a "digital ESP" system that meters the subject and the area around the subject to determine exposure. Center-Weighted metering bases the exposure on a large area in the center of the subject. Spot metering bases the exposure on a reading from the very center of the subject: This is best for high-contrast or backlit subjects.
The C-2100's Exposure Lock function deserves special mention as well: Most digicams lock both exposure and focus at the same time, whenever you half-press the shutter button. The C-2100 Ultra Zoom provides a separate Auto Exposure Lock ("AEL") button on the back of the camera that lets you lock the exposure setting without also locking focus. This lets you center on a specific part of the scene you're shooting, lock the exposure, and then recompose (even zooming the lens if you need to) before snapping the picture. We could even see using it for backlit portrait shots by actually walking up to the subject to get an exposure reading off their face, and then returning to our shooting position to take the shot. The AEL button works in any automatic exposure mode (Scene modes, Program, Aperture or Shutter Priority). You simply center the critical-exposure region in the viewfinder, press the AEL button briefly (you don't need to keep it held in), recompose your photo and shoot. A very nice feature and very well implemented.
While in Center-Weighted and Spot metering modes, you can access the Multi-Metering option from the Record menu. Multi-Metering measures the subject at up to eight different points and averages the readings to determine the best exposure. You control the number of metering points by centering each point you want measured in the monitor display and pressing the AE Lock (AEL) button at each point. A progress bar appears at the bottom of the screen, reporting each metered value, with the current average displayed in the middle of the bar. This is an excellent way to obtain readings of difficult subjects, and though it seems a little complicated at first, it is very easy to do with a little practice.
The camera's 12-second self-timer is set by the Drive button on top of the camera. Depressing the shutter button fully activates the countdown. For the first 10 seconds, the self-timer lamp on the front of the camera glows steadily, then flashes for the remaining two seconds. You can also trigger the self-timer with the camera's remote control, which works as far away as 16 feet. Once you depress the shutter button on the remote control, the self-timer counts down from three seconds before firing the shutter (two seconds in Movie mode). The C-2100 also features a sharpness adjustment, which allows you to set the image sharpness to Hard, Soft, or Normal. In our testing, we noticed that changing the sharpness setting also altered the image contrast. Specifically, the Hard setting increased the overall contrast, while the Soft setting did the reverse.
Flash
The
C-2100 features a built-in, pop-up flash unit that sits just above the lens barrel
(a sliding lever on the side of the compartment releases the pop-up flash). Five
flash modes are available: Auto, Redeye Reduction, Fill-in, Off, and Slow-Sync.
Auto, Redeye Reduction, and Fill-in flash modes are all controlled by the flash
button on the camera's back panel. Automatic allows the camera to choose when
to fire the flash, based on existing light levels. Redeye Reduction reduces the
red-eye effect in a subject's pupils by firing 10 short pre-flashes in rapid succession
before firing the full flash. As with the Auto mode, Redeye Reduction lets the
camera decide when a flash is needed. Fill-in mode is like a forced flash, in
that it fires with every exposure. The Off flash mode is selected by simply closing
the flash unit. Slow Synchronization flash is accessed within the Record menu
and comes with two options: Slow 1 fires the flash at the beginning of a slow
shutter release, while Slow 2 fires the flash at the end of the shutter release.
Both modes are great for creating special effects like light trails off moving
cars at night.You can adjust the C-2100's flash intensity level from -2 to +2 in 1/3 EV increments. This option is accessed in the Record menu (illustrated by a small box with a flash symbol and squiggly arrow). Use the arrow buttons to scroll to the appropriate intensity. In addition to the built-in flash, the C-2100 features a five-pin external flash sync terminal on the connector side of the camera. The terminal is protected by a threaded, plastic cap that screws into place. All of the flash modes are available for the external flash, as is the intensity adjustment. You can use both the internal and the external flash together, to achieve more balanced lighting effects (such as bouncing the external flash off the ceiling for more even coverage). While Olympus offers a dedicated external flash for the C-2100 (the FL-40), you can also use on-camera models made by other manufacturers with an optional adapter cable. (Most third-party flash units won't be able to take advantage of the flash intensity adjustment option though.)
Olympus rates the C-2100's built-in flash unit as effective from 11.8 inches to 13 feet (0.29 to 4.0 meters) in the normal intensity setting. Our test results differed slightly. The flash was reasonably effective all the way out to 14 feet, but we got the brightest results at the eight-foot mark. The flash intensity steadily decreased from there, becoming very dim by the 14-foot mark. Accordingly, we'd rate the C-2100's flash range at only 10-1 feet or so. (We test flash range at ISO100: At ISO400, the flash range would meet Olympus' specification.)
Sequence Mode
The C-2100 offers two sequence shooting modes, both controlled by the Drive button on top of the camera. In standard Sequential Shooting, the camera captures up to five frames at approximately two frames per second (actual cycle times depend on the image quality setting). AF Sequential Shooting also takes up to five consecutive shots, but meters the focus, exposure, and white balance with each shot. Thus, the shot-to-shot cycle time will vary with the image quality you've selected, as well as the time it takes the camera to make each adjustment.
Auto Bracketing
If you're uncertain about your exposure settings, the C-2100's auto bracketing feature takes several shots of the same image at varying exposures. Through the Record menu, you can set how much exposure compensation you want between each image, as well as the number of sequential images to be taken. Exposures can vary in intervals of 0.3, 0.6, or 1.0 EV in either direction, and you can set the camera to capture three or five images with each bracketing sequence. Once the shooting sequence is set, you simply press the Drive button on top of the camera until "BKT" appears in the monitor (the mode is similarly canceled). Auto bracketing is available in the Program, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority modes only.
Movies and Sound
The Movie recording mode can be accessed through the mode dial (marked by the movie camera symbol). In this mode, the C-2100 records moving images and sound as long as you hold down the shutter button. The maximum amount of recording time depends on the memory space available on the SmartMedia card. Optical zoom is available in this mode, but any camera shake will be accentuated at longer focal lengths. (Reduced of course, but the C-2100's excellent optical stabilization system.) Movies can be recorded at either 320 x 240-pixel (HQ) or 160 x 120-pixel (SQ) resolutions.
In addition to recording sound with movie files, the C-2100 also allows you to record short sound clips to accompany still images (available in all image quality settings except TIFF). The sound recording option, accessible in the Record menu, allows you to record up to four seconds of sound. A status bar appears on the LCD monitor and reports the amount of recording time used. The camera has a small, built-in microphone on the connection side of the camera, but you can also connect an external microphone via the A/V jack inside the connector compartment (the internal microphone is disabled when an external microphone is connected to the camera).
Panorama Mode
As with most Olympus cameras, the C-2100 features a Panorama/Function Card mode that works only with Olympus brand memory cards. The Panorama function is accessible through the Record menu. Once the Panorama mode is activated, a set of alignment arrows helps you line up shots to be taken in sequential order, to be later "stitched" together on a computer with the Quick Stitch software, available separately. Focus, exposure, and white balance are all fixed with the first panoramic shot. When any Olympus Special Function memory card is used, the same menu option allows you to access the designated function.
Special Effects
Also available through the record menu, the Function option offers a handful of special image effects. Images can be captured in sepia tones (reminiscent of an old-fashioned photograph) or black-and-white monotones. Two text modes are also available: White Board and Black Board. Both modes optimize the exposure and increase the contrast for clearly capturing text, either on a light or dark background.
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