Minolta Dimage F300A compact, stylish camera with a full five-megapixel sensor and clever autofocus system.<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 05/22/2003 |
Exposure
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The F300 has a broad range of exposure modes and features, providing
excellent flexibility in this area. The Mode dial on top of the camera controls
the main operating mode, with exposure mode options of Auto, Manual, Playback,
Movie, Audio, and Setup. Within the recording modes, however, a range of exposure
modes and controls can be found in the LCD menu system. Put simply, Auto mode
does exactly what you'd expect, placing the camera in control of just about
everything, from aperture and shutter speed to white balance and ISO.
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An Automatic Digital Subject Program Selection option automatically adjusts the exposure settings depending on the type of subject or scene the camera thinks is being photographed. When the camera is in Auto mode, it automatically determines if the subject fits into Portrait, Sports Action, Landscape, Sunset, or Night Portrait presets. An icon in the LCD monitor lights to inform you which mode has been selected. (You can also manually specify which "Scene" mode you want to use by pressing the Digital Subject Program Selection button until the correct icon lights. The mode remains in effect until changed.) The automatic system activates when the Shutter button is pressed halfway. You can adjust the flash mode and exposure compensation, depending on the mode selected. This could be a great tool for novice photographers, who may not yet know a lot about photography but still want the best exposure possible. Remembering which manual scene modes are available when you need them can be challenging for anyone, but especially novices: In my opinion, automatic scene modes are a valuable innovation. (Remember that you might need a tripod for some shots, as the camera may use a slower shutter speed. The LCD monitor will flash a camera shake warning, or shaky-hand symbol, in such cases.)
The Manual Record mode setting on the Mode dial provides the full range of exposure features, letting you select from Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure control options (set through the Record menu). In Program AE, the camera controls both shutter speed and aperture settings, while you maintain control over Exposure Compensation, White Balance, Metering Mode, Contrast, etc. Aperture Priority mode means that you control the lens aperture setting, while the camera chooses the best corresponding shutter speed. Shutter Priority works just the opposite, as you set the shutter speed from 1/1,000 to four seconds while the camera picks the aperture. Finally, Manual exposure mode puts you in charge of the exposure completely, and increases the shutter speed range to include a Bulb setting, for shutter times as long as 15 seconds. In all three manual adjustment modes, if the camera's internal metering system disagrees with your shutter speed and/or aperture choice, the exposure settings are displayed in red.
Three exposure metering options are available through the settings menu in Manual Record mode: Spot, Center-Weighted, and Multi-Segment (default). Spot metering mode reads the exposure from a very small area in the center of the frame, which works well with high-contrast subjects. (A good example is a backlit portrait shot, where the subject's face is in shadow. Spot metering will let you expose just for their face, without the meter being confused by the surrounding brighter background.) Center-Weighted metering takes a reading from a broader area in the center of the frame, while Multi-Segment metering divides the image into 270 areas which are measured for both brightness and color. This information is then combined with the distance reading from the autofocus system to determine the best overall exposure. An Exposure Compensation button on top of the camera lets you adjust the exposure from -2 to +2 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third step increments. In situations where you're not sure what the best exposure is, the Auto Exposure Bracketing mode automatically takes three shots at different exposure settings. Activated through the LCD menu, this mode snaps one image at the normal exposure, one image that's overexposed slightly, and one that's underexposed slightly. You can set images to vary by 0.3, 0.5, or 1.0 EV steps, by pressing the right and left arrow keys while in the mode. An ISO setting adjusts the camera's sensitivity to light, offering an Auto setting as well as 64, 100, 200, and 400 ISO equivalents. The F300 also offers a Noise Reduction option, which effectively decreases the level of image noise in longer exposures.
White Balance choices include Auto, Cloudy, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, or Custom to correct the overall color balance. The Custom setting bases the color balance on a white card held in front of the camera. You can recall the previously-used Custom white balance as well, so you can quickly achieve the same color balance under the same lighting conditions without having to reshoot a gray card. The F300 also provides an extensive array of image adjustment controls, including Sharpness, Saturation, Contrast, and Color (which offers Neutral Color, Vivid Color, and Black and White options). You can instantly check the most recently captured image by pressing the Quick View / Erase button in any record mode, and most of the Playback mode options are available.
Flash
The
F300's onboard flash operates in one of four modes: Auto, Fill, Flash Cancel,
and Redeye Reduction Auto. A Flash button at the top of the camera's back panel
controls the flash mode, and the corresponding icon appears in the LCD monitor.
Auto mode lets the camera decide when to fire the flash, based on existing light
levels and the amount of backlighting, while Fill mode fires the flash with
every exposure (regardless of lighting conditions). Flash Cancel simply disables
the flash. Redeye Reduction Auto fires two small pre-flashes before the full
flash, reducing the red reflection in the subject's eyes (known as the Redeye
Effect). Minolta estimates the F300's flash as effective from 1.6 to 11.1 feet
(0.5 to 3.4 meters) at wide angle and 1.6 to 6.6 feet (0.5 to 2.0 meters) at
telephoto settings. In my own testing, I found the F300's flash effective to
about 10 feet, but my test conditions are such that the lens was zoomed slightly
toward its telephoto end at that distance. A Flash Exposure Compensation adjustment
controls the output of the flash, from -2 to +2 EV units, adjustable in one-third-step
increments. One added note: It appears that the F300 actually boosts its ISO
setting to 200 when the flash is enabled in dark conditions. This increases
the range of the flash, but at the cost of increased image noise. Many current
digicams use an ISO boost of this sort to achieve increased flash range, so
Minolta can't be called too much to task for following suit, but I'd much prefer
to simply see more powerful flash units on cameras to avoid the need for tricks
of this sort.
Self-Timer / Remote Control Mode
Through the Drive setting of the Record menu, you can set the camera's drive mode to Self-Timer / Remote Control, Continuous Advance, UHS (ultra high speed) Continuous Advance, and Auto Exposure Bracketing. When set to the Self-Timer / Remote Control mode, the F300 provides a 10-second delay between the time the Shutter button is fully pressed and when the shutter actually opens. A small LED lamp on the front of the camera lights to indicate that the timer has started, and then blinks a couple of seconds before the shutter fires. This mode also works with the optional remote control accessory, which allows you to control the camera as far as 16 feet (five meters) away. The camera automatically changes the AF mode to Single Shot whenever you select the self-timer option, so the camera will lock focus on the subject when you trip the shutter release to begin the self-timer countdown.
Continuous Advance Mode
Two Continuous Advance modes capture a rapid series of images for as long as the Shutter button is held down (or as long as the memory card has available space). Normal Continuous Advance mode captures images at a maximum speed of 1.5 frames per second, depending on the image resolution and quality settings chosen (with the shutter sound switched off in the Setup menu). In my own tests, I found that the F300 could grab frames as fast as 1.09 frames/second when using its smallest image size (640x480), capturing as many as 60 frames before having to pause to write to the memory card. It's almost as fast with large/fine images, at about 1.0 frames/second, but the run length is limited to about five frames. Using the flash will reduced the rate of capture.
The UHS Continuous Advance mode captures a maximum of 11 frames in just under one second (a measured frame rate of 12.3 frames/second), and resolution is fixed at 1,280 x 960. Shutter speeds slower than 1/30 second, digital zoom, flash and super-fine quality can't be used in this mode.
Recording Movies and Sound
Through the Movie Record mode (set via the Mode dial), the F300 records moving images with sound for as long as 20 minutes (!) at the low-resolution setting, assuming sufficient memory card space is available. (A 20-minute movie occupies about 84 megabytes of memory card space.) Available movie resolutions are 320 x 240, and 160 x 120 pixels, and the amount of available recording time appears on the LCD monitor. Maximum recording time at the high-resolution setting is 3 minutes. Movie mode also works with the accessory remote control. Flash and digital zoom are disabled in this mode, but Exposure Compensation and White Balance can be adjusted. The optical zoom lens also remains active during recording, an uncommon feature on cameras with sound recording. (The zoom motors on most lenses make too much noise to permit their use while recording movies with sound. The lens motor on the F300 is nearly silent, so it's quite feasible to use it while recording.) Set through the Record menu, a Night Movie mode uses slower shutter speeds for better recording in low light.
Indicated on the Mode dial with a microphone symbol, Audio mode records a maximum of 180 minutes of continuous sound (without an image), at approximately 8KB per second. If you have a small card or less memory available on a larger one, the maximum recording time will be correspondingly shorter. As with Movie mode, the amount of recording time available appears in the LCD monitor. The audio quality is sufficient that you could easily use the F300 to record dictation, with the camera's microphone held a foot or less away from your mouth. When held further from the subject though, the microphone tends to pick up a lot of ambient noise and much less of the subject. Holding it at arms length and speaking in a conversational tone of voice results in a very noisy recording, with the recorded voice difficult to pick out above the ambient noise.
You can also record short clips of sound to accompany still images, through the Voice Memo option. Available only in Manual Record mode, this function is activated through the Record settings menu, and records a maximum of 15 seconds of sound to accompany an image. When used with Continuous Advance or Auto Exposure Bracketing modes, the sound file is attached to the last image captured in the series.
To prevent the lens from extending when switching from Off to Audio mode, hold down the Down button on the controller when turning the mode dial.
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