Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F707Wow! 5 megapixels, a super-sharp lens, Hologram AF, NightShot, NightFraming and more! Killer technology, great photos from Sony!<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 08/20/2001 (Full production model update 11/20/2001) |
Exposure
The F707 offers a full range of exposure controls, with options for Program AE,
Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes, as well as a
Scene mode position with Twilight, Landscape, and Portrait preset shooting modes.
All exposure modes are accessed via the Mode dial on top of the camera, and
the Scene presets are accessed through the Record menu in Scene mode. In Program
AE mode, you control everything except the aperture and shutter speed. Aperture
and Shutter Priority modes give the user control over either aperture or shutter
speed (depending on the mode), while the camera selects the best corresponding
exposure value. Manual mode provides complete control over the exposure, with
the user selecting both shutter speed (1/1,000 to 30 seconds) and aperture (f/2
to f/8).
In the Scene exposure mode, you have the option of shooting in Twilight, Landscape,
or Portrait preset modes. Twilight mode sets up the camera for shooting night
scenes, using a slower shutter speed to capture more ambient light. This mode
is good for subjects like sunsets and fireworks, as the longer exposure preserves
the original color in the scene. Landscape mode simply uses a smaller lens aperture
setting to increase the depth of field, keeping the foreground and background
in focus. Landscape mode typically uses slower shutter speeds, so a tripod is
recommended. Portrait mode works in the opposite manner, using a larger aperture
to decrease the depth of field. This produces a sharply focused subject in front
of a slightly blurred background.
The F707 employs a Multi-Pattern metering system as the default mode, dividing
the scene into several small sections and taking exposure readings for each
section. The readings are then averaged to determine the best overall exposure.
Center-Weighted and Spot metering options are also available, accessed by pressing
the Metering button on the lens barrel. You can lighten or darken the exposure
with the F707's Exposure Compensation adjustment, which ranges from -2 to +2
exposure values (EV) in one-third-step increments and is available through the
Record menu.
In addition to the F707's NightShot and NightFraming low-light utilities (discussed
in detail in the Viewfinder section), the camera also offers an impressive Noise
Reduction system. Activated automatically with shutter speeds of 2.5 seconds
and longer, Noise Reduction does an outstanding job of reducing the image noise
associated with long exposure times. Judging by the camera's operation, it looks
like the F707 is shooting a "dark" frame after each exposure when
the noise reduction mode is active, and then subtracting the dark noise from
the captured image. This is very effective in reducing noise, but "hot"
pixels end up as black spots, since they were saturated at white on both the
live and dark frames. (And when the two values are subtracted, they sum to zero.)
Still, the resulting images are exceptionally clean, even at ISO 400. Color
in extreme low light is also quite good, although the auto white balance system
left a little of the warm cast of the shuttered photoflood bulb in our low light
testing.
An AE Lock button on the side of the lens allows you to lock the exposure reading
without locking focus. AE Lock works well with Spot and Center-Weighted metering,
as you can base the exposure on a particular area of the subject without locking
the focus on that area. Simply aim the center of the viewfinder at the portion
of the subject you want properly exposed and press the AE Lock button. The exposure
is locked until the Shutter button is fully depressed or until the AE Lock button
is pressed again. ISO can be adjusted to 100, 200, or 400 sensitivity equivalents,
or set on Auto. The F707's White Balance adjustment offers four settings: One-Push
(manual), Indoor, Outdoor, and Auto. The One-Push reading is set by placing
a white card in front of the lens and pushing the One-Push button on the side
of the lens barrel. The Indoor setting is matched to incandescent lighting,
so you'll need to use the Auto or One-Push functions when shooting under fluorescent
lights.
The 10-second Self-Timer mode is activated by pressing the Down arrow button
on the Four Way Arrow pad. Once in Self-Timer mode, a full press of the Shutter
button kicks off the timer, which counts down 10 seconds before firing the shutter.
The F707 also offers the versatile Picture Effects menu, which has become a
standard feature on Sony digicams. The menu offers three creative options: Negative
Art, Sepia, and Solarize. Negative Art reverses the color and brightness of
the image. Sepia changes the image into brown, monochromatic tones. Solarize
clarifies the light intensity of the image, making it look more like an illustration
than a photograph. These effects are "live" in Record mode, so you
get a preview of the effect on the LCD monitor before you record the image.
The F707 also offers a Sharpness function, which adjusts the overall image sharpness
from -2 to +2 in arbitrary units.
After recording an image, the Quick Review function provides instant playback
of the picture. Pressing the Left arrow button also activates the Quick Review
mode, giving you the option of deleting the most recently recorded image.
Flash
The pop-up flash on the F707 features true TTL (Through The Lens) metering,
for more accurate flash exposures. To the best of our knowledge, the F707 is
the first prosumer-level digicam to offer true TTL flash metering. Most cameras
have "smart" flashes that automatically adjust exposure based on the
light being reflected by the subject. Other than the F707 though, the sensor
for the flash exposure is mounted on the front of the camera case, and simply
responds to the overall amount of light bouncing back toward the camera. If
the camera's lens is zoomed in on a small subject with a significantly different
reflectance than the remainder of the area illuminated by the flash, the exposure
seen by the CCD and the flash sensor will be very different. With the F707 however,
the flash exposure is based on the light actually coming through the lens, avoiding
this problem. The result will be much more accurate flash exposures in a much
wider range of shooting conditions.
The flash operates in Auto (no icon), Forced, and Suppressed modes, with a Red-Eye
Reduction mode that can be enabled through the Setup menu. Auto mode lets the
camera decide when to fire the flash, based on existing lighting conditions.
Forced means that the flash always fires, regardless of light, and Suppressed
simply means that the flash never fires. Red-Eye Reduction mode tells the camera
to fire a small pre-flash before firing the full flash to reduce the effect
of red-eye. Once enabled through the Setup menu, the Red-Eye Reduction flash
fires with both Auto and Forced modes. Flash intensity can be manually controlled
via the Record menu with choices of High, Normal, and Low. There is no flash
release mechanism, as the camera pops open the flash on its own, once the Shutter
button is halfway pressed (in all flash modes except Suppressed).
Sony estimates
the F707's internal flash to be effective from 1.6 to 16.4 feet (0.5 to 5 meters)
in the normal intensity mode. This agrees well with our own testing, which is
limited by the 14 foot depth of our studio. (We couldn't test to the full 16.4
foot distance, but can safely say that we saw no decrease in flash intensity
out to 14 feet.) When a more powerful flash is needed, the F707 has an external
flash connection socket and a "cold" mount shoe. (Note though, that
the flash connection on the F707 is a proprietary one, requiring use of the
dedicated Sony HVL-F1000 external flash unit. You could certainly slave additional
external flash units to this one via an optical slave unit, but the main flash
will need to be a HVL-F1000.) The HVL-F1000 is a pretty capable little unit,
particularly in that it provides true TTL (through the lens) flash metering
when used with the F707. (This is quite unusual in prosumer digicams, which
almost universally employ area sensors for flash metering.) (Late-breaking
note: IR Reader Tom Ferguson has observed that the F1000 is *not* TTL. I had
the camera and flash all boxed up, ready to ship back to Sony, but will unpack
it again and double-check this: I admit I'd just slavishly repeated what Sony
told me about the unit, without actually checking it out myself. Stay tuned
for more info once I've verified (or not) this piece of info!)
Even though you'd give up the advantages of TTL flash metering and variable
flash exposure provided by the dedicated HVL-F1000, we really wish Sony would
provide some means of interfacing to strobe systems using the standard PC sync
connector. Besides the hordes of photographers with old Vivitar 285's kicking
around in their gear bags, the extraordinary image quality and resolution of
the F707 will likely lead to a lot of them being used in pro studio environments,
for tabletop or portrait photography. While you'll doubtless be able to shoot
with a "peanut" slave taped to a HVL-F1000, that's an awfully kludgey
solution for such a sophisticated piece of equipment. (Actually, it may take
more than a simple peanut slave - The F707's internal strobe uses a metering
flash prior to the main exposure, necessitating a "smart" strobe trigger
such as the SA-10 slave unit sold by SR
Electronics.)
In
the event that any of our readers are electronically inclined (possibly someone
from SR Electronics themselves?), we measured the dimensions of the unsual four-circuit
plug used for the F707's flash connector. The connection between the F707 and
the flash unit is apparently a serial data link, so we'll leave that to the
individual experimenter to figure out. The connector itself strikes us as the
biggest challenge in building an external flash coupler though, as we've never
seen a four-channel mini phone plug anyplace. As a first step toward someone
building a flash coupler for the F707 (or other Sony digicams that connect to
the HVL-F1000), here's a diagram with the physical dimensions we measured from
the plug on the HVL-F1000. (Click on the thumbnail for a large-scale drawing.)
- The "A" and "B" circuits shown on the plug appear to be
the serial data connections.
Special Recording Modes
Like many Sony digicams, the F707 offers a number of special recording modes,
including TIFF, Voice, E-Mail, Exposure Bracketing, and Burst 3. The TIFF option
saves a 2,560 x 1,920-pixel uncompressed TIFF version of each image, in addition
to the standard JPEG version, at whatever image size you've selected. Voice
mode lets you record a five-second sound clip to accompany a still image, with
the audio recording starting immediately after the image capture. The E-Mail
option records a still image at the 320 x 240-pixel JPEG size for easy e-mail
transmission, in addition to a full-resolution file, at whatever image size
you've selected in the menu system. This enables you to capture full-resolution
images for storage, while at the same time recording smaller versions that you
can just drop into an e-mail to share with others. Exposure Bracketing captures
three images with one press of the Shutter button (one at the normal exposure,
one underexposed, and one overexposed). The amount of variation between exposures
is adjustable through the Setup menu, with options of 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0 EV steps.
"Burst 3" mode captures a rapid series of three images, at approximately
two frames per second. The actual frame rate and the number of images in the
series varies depending on the resolution and quality settings, as well as the
amount of available Memory Stick space.
Movie Mode
The Movie mode is accessed via the Mode dial on top of the camera, by selecting
the film frame icon. You can record moving images with sound at either High
Quality (HQ) 320 pixels, or standard quality 320 x 240 and 160 x 112 pixels.
MPEG EX means that you can record in the non-HQ modes for as long as the Memory
Stick has space. (The amount of available space varies with the quality setting
and resolution.) At the HQ setting, recording time is restricted to a maximum
of 15 seconds because of the larger file size, but the image quality, frame
rate, and audio sampling rate are all significantly increased. Recording starts
with a single press of the Shutter button, and ends with a second press. A timer
appears in the LCD monitor to let you know how long you've been recording and
approximately how much recording time is available. At the 320 x 240- and 160
x 112-pixel settings, the F707 records in the MPEG EX format, capturing eight
frames per second, with audio sampling at 4 KHz. The 320 HQ setting captures
16 frames per second, uses less image compression, and increases the audio sampling
rate to 10 KHz. Additionally, movies captured in the 320 HQ setting play back
full screen in Playback mode, as opposed to the smaller display shown with the
MPEG EX settings.
The F707 also
provides limited editing capabilities. We don't think digicam users will want
to engage in full A/B roll video editing on their cameras, but we've often found
that we wanted to trim off material from the beginning or end of a video we've
recorded, or to extract an interesting bit of action from the middle of a much
longer clip. The F707 provides for this via an option on the Playback menu called
Divide. As its name suggests, Divide works by dividing movies into two segments.
Do this once to trim away spurious material at the front of the clip you're
interested in, and do it a second time to remove unwanted footage at the end.
Once you've split the movie into parts like this, throw away the segments you
don't need, or keep them around to show your viewers how lucky they are that
you're only showing them the "interesting" parts!
After enabling the Divide function through the Playback menu, the F707 starts
to play back the movie. You simply press the center of the Four Way Arrow pad
to stop the playback where you'd like to make an edit. From there, you can scroll
backward or forward frame-by-frame until you find the point where you'd like
to divide the movie. You can then either delete the unwanted portion of the
movie or keep it on the Memory Stick. As noted, the Divide function is great
for "editing" out the best part of a movie file, as you can make an
unlimited number of divides. You just can't put the pieces back together again
in the camera. For that, you'll have to use the included MGI VideoWave III SE
software, which is Windows only.
Clip Motion
Through the Setup menu, you can set the movie recording format to "Clip
Motion," which turns the F707 into an animation camera, recording up to
10 frames of still images to be played back in succession as an animated GIF.
Frames can be captured at any interval, with successive presses of the Shutter
button. When you've captured as many photos as you need, you just press the
center of the Four Way Arrow pad to tell the camera to finish the sequence.
Available image sizes are Normal (160 x 120) and Mobile (80 x 72), and the number
of actual captured frames may vary with image size and available Memory Stick
space. (You have a maximum of 10, but could be constrained to fewer if your
memory is very full.) Files are saved in the GIF format, and are played back
with approximately 0.5 second intervals between frames. Unlike Movie mode, the
flash is available with Clip Motion. (The shot at right was captured using the
Clip Motion feature on Sony's earlier DSC-P1 camera.)
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