Casio EXILIM PRO EX-P6006.0 megapixels, a Canon 4x zoom lens, and a host of features.<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 07/30/2004 |
Exposure
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The EX-P600 offers an impressive amount of exposure control, including
Program (called "Snapshot" by Casio), Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority,
and Manual exposure modes, as well as a BESTSHOT mode with 25 preset scene modes.
All capture modes are set by rotating the Mode dial on camera's rear panel,
which also accesses the Movie, Audio, and Playback modes.
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In Program (Snapshot) mode, the camera has control over the aperture and shutter speed, while you can adjust other exposure parameters. (You can leave all of the additional parameters at their default settings for full automatic exposure control.) In Program mode, you also have access to the exposure compensation adjustment, which lets you adjust the camera's automatically determined exposure setting up or down by up to two exposure equivalent (EV) units, in steps of 0.3 EV. (Each EV unit corresponds to a doubling or halving of the total exposure.) One limitation of Program mode that I disagree somewhat with is that the maximum shutter time is limited to only 1/8 second, significantly limiting the camera's low-light capability in this mode. (You can get exposure times as long as 2 seconds in Night Landscape mode, but for really dark conditions, your only options are Shutter Priority or full Manual mode.) Aperture Priority lets you set the aperture from f/2.8-f/4.0 to f/8 (the bottom end of which depends on the lens zoom position, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 at full wide-angle, and f/4.0 at full telephoto) leaving the camera to automatically determine the appropriate shutter speed, once again down to a maximum of only 1/8 second. In Shutter Priority, you can select shutter speeds from 1/2,000 to 60 seconds, with the camera selecting the corresponding aperture setting. A Bulb shutter mode is also available for manually controlled exposures of varying lengths up to 60 seconds. The Manual exposure option lets you control both aperture and shutter speed yourself, with the same shutter range.
The 25 scene settings of BESTSHOT mode include: Portrait, Scenery, Portrait with Scenery, Coupling, Pre-Shot, Soft Focus, Children, Sports, Candlelight Portrait, Party, Pet, Flower, Natural Green, Soft Flowing Water, Splashing Water, Sundown, Night Scene, Night Scene Portrait, Fireworks, Food, Text, Collection, Monochrome, Retro, Twilight, or Custom. Each of these modes is fairly self-explanatory, thanks to fairly explicit descriptions in the menu system itself, although the Coupling and Pre-Shot modes perhaps deserve a little further explanation here. Coupling mode combines two separate exposures into one split image, with the two smaller images displayed side-by-side. This is great if you want to get yourself and a companion into the same shot, when there's nobody around to snap the shutter while you both pose. Pre-Shot mode is a sort of double-exposure mode, in that you can record one image on top of another. In both modes, framing guidelines appear on the LCD display to help you line up shots. 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 Custom option lets you save a series of exposure parameters, based on a previously captured image, useful if you shoot under specific conditions frequently. (See the Camera Modes and Menus section of this review for a more detailed description of the operation of the various BESTSHOT modes.)
The EX-P600 features a variable ISO option, which lets you explicitly set the camera's light sensitivity to 50, 100, 200, or 400 ISO equivalents, or to an Auto mode in which the camera selects an ISO appropriate to the subject's brightness. Three metering options are available on the EX-P600: Spot, Center-Weighted, and Multi. Under the default Multi 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 both brightness and contrast across the entire scene. Center-Weighted mode reads the exposure from a fairly large area in the center of the frame, while 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 you can lock exposure and focus independently of each other. (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, but the focus will be determined by whatever was in the currently-selected focus area when you finally pressed the shutter button.) If you're not sure of the best exposure for a given shot, you can use the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) function to automatically bracket the exposure as much as +/- 2 EV in either three or five steps of 0.3, 0.6, or 1.0 EV units each. 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.
White balance options include Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Incandescent, Daylight Fluorescent, White Fluorescent, Flash, and Manual, to accommodate a variety of lighting situations. You can also use the Auto Bracketing option to bracket the white balance.
The EX-P600 also offers a ten- or two-second Self-Timer for self-portraits or for those occasions when you don't want to risk camera shake on a long exposure by using the Shutter button to trip the shutter. (For the latter case, just set the Self-Timer for a two-second delay, and any vibrations from pressing the shutter button most likely will have died away by the time the shutter opens.) Additionally, the EX-P600's Triple Self-Timer mode takes three images consecutively, with the self-timer countdown before each, handy for taking multiple group shots to insure getting at least one exposure with nobody blinking or not smiling. A Remote Control mode works with the included remote control accessory, with a two-second self-timer.
There are also options on the Record menu to set the in-camera image sharpening, contrast, and saturation, and a Filter option for adjusting the overall tint of the image. The camera's Multi-Bracketing feature lets you bracket any of these adjustments. The sharpening, contrast, and saturation adjustments work pretty well, but I have to confess that I don't see any use for the Filter option as implemented on the P600.
Flash
The
EX-P600 offers a built-in flash with four operating modes: Auto, Suppressed,
Flash On, and Red-Eye Reduction modes. Auto mode lets the camera decide when
to fire the flash, while the Flash On mode fires the flash with every shot.
The Red-Eye Reduction mode fires a brief low-power flash pulse before firing
the flash at full power, making the pupils of your subject's eyes contract,
reducing the occurrence of the Red-Eye Effect. Through the Record menu, you
can set flash intensity to Normal, Strong, or Weak. The EX-P600 also features
a PC sync socket, for connecting a more powerful external flash unit. Both internal
and external flashes synchronize properly at any shutter speed up to the maximum
1/2,000 second, surprisingly fast, and very helpful for situations in which
you need to minimize the impact of ambient lighting on your flash exposures.
Note too, that the action of the internal and external flash appear to be completely
independent of each other. The "flash" button on the camera's rear
panel controls the internal flash, but the external flash sync socket appears
to always be "live," regardless of the setting of the internal flash.
This means that you can choose to combine internal and external flash units
or not, as dictated by the subject you're shooting.
Special Exposure Modes
Movie and Sound Recording Modes
The EX-P600's Movie mode is accessible via the Mode dial on the rear panel
(the movie position indicated by a small camcorder symbol). Once in Movie mode,
you can record QuickTime movies with sound, for as long as the memory card has
available space. (There doesn't appear to be any limit on the length of individual
movie clips, you can record continuously until the card is full.) Movies are
recorded at 320 x 240 pixels. Numbers indicating the minutes and seconds of
movie storage remaining on the memory card appears on the LCD monitor.
As is the case with most digicams that record sound with their movies, you can't adjust the P600's zoom lens while recording is in process, although you're free to set the zoom to any position prior to the beginning of recording. (This is to prevent the noise of the zoom motor from affecting the audio track.)
An Audio recording mode (indicated by a microphone symbol on the Mode dial) records audio only, for as long as the memory card has available space. (The built-in memory can accommodate about 40 minutes of sound.) You can also record a short sound clip to accompany still images, via the Audio Snap option of the Record menu. Audio captions can be a maximum of 30 seconds in length.
Continuous Shutter Mode
The EX-P600 also offers three Continuous Shutter modes that mimic the motor
drive on a film camera, recording images in rapid sequence when you hold down
the Shutter button. The Normal Speed Continuous Shutter
mode captures shots for as long as the memory card has available space, at frame
rates ranging from 0.6 to 1.1 frames/second, depending on the size of the images
being recorded. High Speed Continuous Shutter mode captures a maximum of only
six shots, but at 2.3 to 2.4 frames per second. (Casio's specs say three frames
per second for high speed continuous mode, but my own measurements showed slightly
slower frame rates.) Finally, the 25-Shot Stop Action Images mode captures 25
small frames at high speed, and then displays them as a single image in a five-by-five
array.
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