Olympus C-720 Ultra ZoomOlympus packs an 8x zoom lens into an amazingly small body, for an amazingly low price.<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 7/1/2002 |
Exposure
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The C-720 Zoom offers fairly extensive exposure control, including Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes, as well as a handful of preset scene modes for shooting in specific situations. The Full Auto and Scene modes make the camera easy to use for novices, while the other options provide the flexibility demanded by more advanced users. All capture modes are set by turning the Mode dial on top of the camera, which also accesses the My Mode, Movie, and Playback modes. (My Mode lets you create a custom setup for the camera, including virtually every exposure and operating parameter, that can then be selected simply by rotating the Mode Dial to the "My" position. See below for more information.)
In Auto mode, the camera has complete control over the exposure parameters. You have control over options like zoom, drive mode, image size, etc., but no exposure adjustments at all (not even exposure compensation or white balance - this is truly a "point & shoot" mode). Program mode leaves the camera in charge of the aperture and shutter speed, while you control the remaining exposure options such as ISO, metering, and white balance. In program mode, you also have access to the exposure compensation adjustment, which lets you adjust the camera's automatically determined exposure setting by plus or minus 2 EV units, in steps of 0.3 EV. Aperture Priority lets you set the aperture from f/2.8 to f/7.1 (depending on the lens zoom position) leaving the camera to automatically determine the appropriate shutter speed. In Shutter Priority, you can select shutter speeds from 1/1,000 to 1/2 second, with the camera selecting the corresponding aperture setting. The Manual exposure option lets you control both aperture and shutter speed yourself, and the bottom end of the shutter speed range is extended to 8 seconds. An interesting feature of the Manual mode is that, as you scroll through the various exposure settings, the camera indicates whether or your chosen setting will produce a correct exposure. It does this by showing the f/stop, shutter speed, and exposure differential (the difference between your settings and what the camera metering system thinks is correct) in green when everything is OK. If it disagrees with your choice, the exposure differential shows in red how much under- or overexposed the image will be, based on the camera's own calculations. The exposure differential shows up as an exposure equivalent (EV) value, with the difference shown within a range of +3 to -3 EV. This is a very handy feature that I'd like to see implemented in the manual exposure modes of more cameras.
Three scene modes include Portrait, Sports, and Landscape-Portrait modes, which optimize the camera for specific shooting situations. In Portrait mode, the camera uses a larger lens aperture, which captures the subject in sharp focus in front of a slightly soft-focused background. Sports mode biases the exposure system toward faster shutter speeds, to help freeze fast-moving subjects. Finally, Landscape-Portrait mode uses a smaller lens aperture, to help keep both the foreground and background in sharp focus. Limited menu options are available in the scene modes, as their purpose is to simplify camera setup for novices. (A multitude of menu choices would only add complication to what are intended to be easy-to-use camera settings.)
The C-720 features a variable ISO setting, which lets you set the camera's light sensitivity to 100, 200, or 400 ISO equivalents, or to an Auto mode. The higher sensitivity settings, combined with the camera's maximum eight-second shutter speed, provide good low-light shooting capabilities. In my tests, the C-720 performed well at low light levels, capturing clear images with great color (see the test results section below). The higher ISO settings are also helpful when you want faster shutter speeds in normal lighting, to help freeze fast action. Of course, as with all digicams, the higher ISO settings produce photos with more image noise, much as higher-ISO film shows more film grain.
Two metering systems are available on the C-720: Spot and Digital ESP. Both are accessed through the Spot / Macro / DPOF button on the camera's back panel. Under the default Digital ESP setting, the camera takes an exposure reading from the center of the image as well as the surrounding area and chooses the best exposure based on brightness and contrast across the entire scene. Spot metering simply reads the exposure from the very center of the image, so you can pinpoint the specific area of the photograph you want properly exposed. (Spot metering is very handy when you have a subject that's backlit, or that has a very different brightness (either lighter or darker) than the background.) An AE Lock button locks the current exposure settings whenever pressed, so that you can independently lock exposure and focus. (AE Lock is useful when you want to base your exposure on an off-center subject. Point the camera at the subject, lock the exposure, then recompose your shot however you like. Your subject will be correctly exposed, regardless of what might be in the center of the frame when you finally snap the shutter.)
A Record View function can be enabled through the Record menu, which displays the most recently captured image on the LCD screen while the image is being recorded to the memory card. You can set the Record View to display the image only, or to display the image with a confirmation screen, letting you delete the image before it's saved to the card. This is a nice way to check your shots and not waste time switching back and forth between Playback and Record modes. There's also a Quick View function that lets you check the previously captured image, by pressing the Monitor button twice in quick succession. The most recent image is displayed, with an option to delete it.
In situations where exposure compensation is necessary, simply press either the right or left Arrow buttons (in all exposure modes except Manual) and the EV value displayed on the LCD will increase or decrease in one-third-step increments, up to a total of +/- 2 EV. Or, you can use the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) function to automatically bracket an exposure as much as +/- 2 EV in either three or five step increments of 0.3, 0.6, or 1.0 EV units each. (NOTE that the number of shots you can take in AEB mode can be limited by your image resolution/quality setting. In SHQ mode, the bracketing series is limited to 3 shots. In HQ and lower size/quality settings, the full 5 shot series is available. Bracketing is not available at all when you're recording uncompressed TIFF images.) The auto bracketing will center its efforts around whatever exposure you've chosen as the starting point, including any exposure compensation adjustments you've made. AEB is really handy for those times when you want to make sure you get just the right exposure for a critical subject, and need to do so quickly.
White balance can be set to Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten, or Fluorescent, through the Record menu, to accommodate a variety of lighting situations. (Given the other advanced capabilities of the C-720, I'd really like to have seen a manual white balance option as well.) The C-720 UltraZoom also offers a 12-second Self-Timer for self-portraits or those occasions when you don't want to risk camera shake on a long exposure by pressing the Shutter button to trip the shutter.
There are also options on the record menu to set the in-camera image sharpening and contrast. This last option is one that I personally find particularly appealing: I find that I often want to decrease a camera's default contrast somewhat, to help preserve highlight detail on contrasty subjects. The "Low" contrast option provided by the C-720 is just right for that purpose.
Flash
The
C-720 offers a built-in, pop-up flash, with six operating modes: Auto, Red-Eye
Reduction, Fill-in Flash, Flash Off, Night Scene, and Night Scene with Red-Eye
Reduction modes. Auto mode lets the camera decide when to fire the flash, while
the Fill-in mode fires the flash with every shot. (Fill-in is useful for throwing
light on backlit subjects, keeping their faces from being obscured in deep shadow.)
The two Red-Eye Reduction modes fire a small pre-flash before firing the flash
at full power, which reduces the occurrence of the Red-Eye Effect. Night Scene
allows more ambient light into the background, producing more natural lighting
behind a flash-illuminated subject. A button on top of the camera releases the
flash from its compartment, while the Flash / Protect button on the back panel
controls the flash operating mode. You can also adjust the overall flash intensity
from +/-2 EV through the Record menu.
The C-720's flash has an unusually long operating range, rated by Olympus for up to 18 feet with the lens set to wide angle, and up to 14.8 feet in telephoto. This agrees well with my own tests, as the flash showed good brightness up to the 14 foot limit of my flash range test.
One of the features of the original C-700 UltraZoom that's most regrettably missing on the C-720 is the external flash sync terminal. The C-700 had one, the C-720 doesn't. :-(
Special Exposure Modes
Movie Mode
The C-720's Movie mode is accessible via the Mode dial on top of the camera
(marked with a small movie camera symbol). Once in Movie mode, you can record
QuickTime movies (without sound). The length of movie clips depends on the resolution
setting and the amount of memory card space. At the 320 x 240-pixel size, movie
clips can last as long as 15 seconds. You can record much longer clips at the
160 x 120-pixel resolution setting (up to 70 seconds). A number indicating the
available seconds of movie storage on the SmartMedia card appears on the LCD
and EVF monitors. You can use the digital zoom while recording movies, but the
zoom action is slower than usual. (Most cameras I've tested don't permit any
zoom during movie capture.) I was really surprised though, to see that Movie
Mode forces the optical zoom lens to its wide angle setting. - What's the point
of an amazing zoom lens, if you don't get to use it. Most cameras don't permit
zooming during recording, but most will let you adjust the zoom before
you start recording. (Olympus: How about it? Give us zoom in movie mode on the
next model?) Spot metering, exposure compensation, focus lock, self-timer, ISO,
and white balance are also available in Movie mode, all of which are likewise
unusual features to find available during Movie recording. Both resolutions
record at approximately 15 frames per second.
Panorama Mode
Like most Olympus digicams, the C-720 offers a Panorama exposure mode when
using an Olympus brand panorama-enabled SmartMedia memory card. In this mode,
the exposure and white balance for a series of shots are determined by the first
exposure. The Panorama function provides light blue guide lines at the edges
of the pictures to help you align successive shots, leaving enough overlap between
them for the stitching software to be able to do its job. Up to 10 shots can
be taken in a panoramic series. Note that this function is only enabled by the
built-in panorama firmware found only on Olympus brand memory cards. Images
are saved individually and then assembled on a computer using the (included)
Olympus software after they've been downloaded.
"2-in-1" Mode
Accessed through the Record menu, "2 in 1" photography mode records
two vertically-oriented, half-sized images. After capture, the images are saved
side-by-side as one full resolution image, giving a split-screen effect. As
with Panorama mode, a set of guidelines appear in the LCD display, to help you
line up shots.
Sequence Mode
The C-720 also offers a Sequence mode that mimics the motor drive on a film
camera, continually recording images for as long as the Shutter button is held
down or until the memory runs out (this varies with the image quality setting
and available SmartMedia space). The maximum frame rate is rated to be1.2 frames
per second, although my own testing showed rates as high as 1.47 fps when recording
in small/basic mode. As is usually the case though, the number of frames you
can capture quickly is limited by the camera's buffer memory capacity. At maximum
size and JPEG quality, you're limited to three or four rapid-fire shots. Sequence
mode isn't available at all for the TIFF (uncompressed) image format. The AF
Sequence mode also captures a rapid series of images, but adjusts focus between
each shot, resulting in much slower shot to shot times (about 3 seconds).
My Mode
Accessed by turning the Mode dial to the "My" position, this mode
lets you save customized settings and then access them simply by turning the
Mode Dial. For example, if you consistently shoot in the same environment, you
could save the exposure settings for those specific shooting conditions, so
that they can be instantly recalled.(I can imagine this option being very handy
for situations where you might have to switch quickly between two different
environments. - Think of a wedding reception, for instance: Standard "program"
mode for outside shots on the lawn, etc, but a custom setup in My Mode to shoot
the indoor scenes under incandescent lighting.) My Mode even lets you edit the
Shortcut menu items, which appear when the Menu button is pressed, to reflect
often-changed settings. The My Mode is very flexible, letting you preset the
following camera parameters (see the subsequent section on camera modes and
menus for explanations of any settings which might not be obvious from the list
below):
- P/A/S/M exposure mode
- Lens default aperture
- Default shutter speed
- Exposure compensation
- Lens zoom setting
- Flash mode
- Macro/spot metering setting
- Drive setting (single, sequence, etc)
- ISO
- Flash exposure compensation
- Digital zoom enabled/disabled
- File size/quality
- White balance
- Sharpness
- Contrast
- LCD default (on/off)
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