Sony DSC-V3By: Shawn Barnett and Dave Etchells(none) <<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 09/09/2004, Updated: 11/30/2004 |
Exposure
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In the Scene exposure mode, you have the option of shooting in Twilight, Twilight
Portrait, Landscape, Portrait, Snow, Beach, or Candle modes. Twilight mode sets
up the camera for shooting night scenes, using a slower shutter speed to capture
more ambient light, and adjusting the exposure bias to prevent loss of detail
in bright lights and highlights. Landscape mode simply uses a smaller lens aperture
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
in all but bright lighting. 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. Snow mode prevents color
from washing out in heavy-white scenes, while Beach mode emphasizes blues for
accurate water and sky rendition in seaside and lakeside images. Candle mode
maintains the proper yellow cast, rather than letting the white balance correct
for it.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 employs a Multi-Pattern metering system as its default,
dividing the scene into multiple areas and taking separate exposure readings
for each section. The readings are then evaluated (not necessarily averaged,
the algorithm evaluates contrast as well as brightness) to determine the best
overall exposure. Center-Weighted and Spot metering options are also available
through the camera's Record menu. The Exposure Compensation adjustment manually
increases or decreases the exposure determined by the metering system from -2
to +2 exposure values (EV) in one-third-step increments, and is adjusted by
pressing the Exposure Compensation button on the rear panel and turning the
Command dial.
In addition to the V3's NightShot and NightFraming low-light features (discussed
in detail in the Viewfinder section above), the camera also offers an impressive
noise reduction system. Activated automatically with shutter speeds of 1/25
second and longer at ISO 800, or 1/6 second or longer at ISO 400 and below,
the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3's Noise Reduction does an outstanding job of reducing
the image noise associated with long exposure times. Judging from the camera's
operation, it appears the V3 is shooting a "dark" frame with the shutter
closed after each exposure when the noise reduction mode is active, and then
subtracting the noise in that dark frame from the captured image. (It's hard
to tell whether the camera is using a dark frame after each shot with shorter
exposure times, as there's no visible delay. It definitely does so for exposure
times of one second or longer though.)
An AE Lock button on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3's rear panel locks the exposure
reading without also locking the focus (as happens when you half-press the Shutter
button). AE Lock works well with Spot and Center-Weighted metering, letting
you base the exposure on a particular area of the subject without also having
to lock 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 will be locked until the Shutter button is fully depressed or until
the AE Lock button is pressed again.
ISO can be adjusted to 100, 200, 400, or 800 sensitivity equivalents, or set
to Auto, letting the camera adjust it to match the shooting conditions. The
V3's White Balance adjustment offers seven settings: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy,
Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash, and One-Push (manual). The One-Push reading
is set by placing a white card in front of the lens and pressing the up arrow
to set the reading. Through the Record menu, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 also
lets you adjust sharpness, saturation, and contrast, offering low/normal/high
options for each. (Kudos to Sony for including these features: Now, I'd like
to see them go a step further, and offer both a wider range of adjustment and
more/smaller steps for contrast and saturation. I've found fine-grained contrast
and saturation adjustments on some other cameras highly useful in "customizing"
the camera's basic response to suit my personal preferences.) A Picture Effects
menu offers two creative options: Sepia and Black and White. Sepia translates
the image into brown, monochromatic tones. Black and White mode needs no explaining.
The 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 starts
the timer, which counts down 10 seconds before firing the shutter. The camera
beeps and flashes a front-panel LED to mark the countdown interval. After recording
an image, the Quick Review function provides instant playback of the picture
if you don't release the Shutter button. Pressing the left arrow button also
activates the Quick Review mode, giving you the option of deleting the most
recently recorded image.
The Small-Aperture Conundrum
While the V3's exposure system tends to deliver accurate exposures, there's
a subtle issue with it that will affect the sharpness of your images. In Auto
or Program mode, all cameras follow a "program curve" that determines
the combination of aperture and shutter speed used for any given light level.
Different cameras employ different curves, some tending to prefer large apertures
(keeping the lens aperture as wide as possible, until the light level forces
the choice of a smaller opening), while others tend to prefer smaller ones.
The Sony DSC-V3 is one of the latter, as it tends to stop down the lens to the
minimum f/8 aperture setting as soon as there's enough light available to do
so without incurring an unreasonably slow shutter speed. This wouldn't normally
be an issue, but it turns out that the V3's lens is much "softer"
at very small apertures than it is at wider ones, causing it to lose a fair
bit of fine detail when stopped down all the way. This isn't an insuperable
obstacle, but it does make the V3 into a somewhat more manual camera than it
could be, at least if you want the best image sharpness: Shoot in aperture-priority
mode at an aperture of f/5.6 or wider, and you'll get images that are tack-sharp
from corner to corner. Let the camera fire away in full-auto or Program mode
while shooting under daylight conditions though, and the images you get will
be softer than they could be.
Flash
The "flip-up" flash on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 operates in Auto
(no icon displayed on LCD screen), Forced, Suppressed, and Slow Sync modes,
with a Red-Eye Reduction mode 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. The Slow Sync setting combines the
flash with a longer exposure, recording more ambient light to balance out light
from the flash. Red-Eye Reduction mode tells the camera to fire a small pre-flash
before firing the full flash to make the pupils of your subjects' eyes contract,
thereby reducing the effect of red-eye. Once enabled through the Setup menu,
the Red-Eye Reduction flash fires in both Auto and Forced modes. Flash intensity
can be manually controlled via the Record menu with choices of High, Normal,
and Low (except in Full Auto mode). If required, the flash pops up on its own
once the Shutter button is halfway pressed in all flash modes except Suppressed.
- But you have to swing it shut manually.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 also features a true hot-shoe external flash connection
on top of the camera. This greatly increases the options for connecting an external
flash. Additionally, an ACC Sony accessory flash input socket is on the camera's
left side, but is proprietary to the Sony HVL-F1000 external flash unit. (The
HVL-F32X flash unit is a much better match for the V3's capabilities though.)
All flash exposures -- whether from the built-in flash or a TTL-compatible
external flash -- are metered through the V3's lens, providing true TTL metering.
Sony's recent HVL-F32X external flash unit, for example, is one external unit
that takes advantage of the camera's TTL metering system. (Note that the earlier
HVL-F1000 external flash unit does not provide TTL metering.) The addition
of TTL metering (using the camera's pre-flash to precisely establish exposure)
is particularly useful when the subject is significantly brighter or darker
than its background and the lens is set to the telephoto end of its focal length
range. TTL metering determines exposure from just the part of the subject that
appears in the camera's field of view, ignoring foreground or background objects
outside the frame. The F32X also does an excellent job of throttling down for
macro shots, something many external flash units have difficulty doing.
HVL-F32X External Flash
As
just mentioned, the Sony DSC-V3 supports true TTL metering with supporting external
flash units such as Sony's own HVL-F32X flash unit. To our mind, the HVL-F32X
should be on the short list of accessories to add for any photographers seriously
interested in flash photography with the V3.
The HVL-F32X flash has a host of enhanced features relative to the earlier
HVL-F1000, not the least of which is the support for true TTL (through the lens)
flash metering when used with the DSC-V1 or Sony DSC-V3. This is a huge benefit
whenever you're taking telephoto shots of subjects that are significantly brighter
or darker than the background. With a typical area-metered flash, the background
will dominate the exposure, with the subject coming out either over- or underexposed,
depending on whether the background was darker or lighter than it. With true
TTL metering, only the part of the scene that's visible to the camera's CCD
will affect the ultimate exposure. Also worth mentioning is that the F32X does
an excellent job of throttling down for macro shots, something that many external
flash units have difficulty doing.
Here's a list of features of the HVL-F32X flash unit:
- Guide number of 32 meters - This is pretty powerful, translating
to a range of 10 meters with an ~f/3.2 lens aperture.)
- Autofocus Assist Illuminator - A set of 6 bright LEDs under the flash head
cast a surprising amount of light, greatly extending the range of the camera's
low-light autofocusing ability.
- Two-brightness AF Illuminator - The AF illuminator has two brightness settings,
letting you conserve battery power (not to mention your subject's eyesight)
when working at closer range.
- Modelling light - This is a common feature on high-end professional flash
units, but the first time we can recall seeing it on a prosumer-grade external
flash. There's a button on the back of the F32X that triggers the flash head
to deliver a very fast series of strobe pulses lasting about a half a second.
The effect is to turn the F32X into a moderately bright modeling light, letting
you preview how your flash setup will light the scene you're shooting.
- Manual flash strength setting - For use in conjunction with external "dumb"
slave strobes, or for other situations requiring purely manual control, you
can set the F32X to fire a single pop with each shot, and set the strength
of its output manually.
- Backlit control readout LCD - A nice touch for a strobe, which by definition will generally be used in dim lighting conditions that would make it hard to read the control display otherwise.
I haven't worked extensively with the HVL-F32X, but first impressions (from a very rough prototype) were very good. The TTL capability worked great, and the powerful AF illuminator was great for photographing more distant subjects in total darkness. (For a little more detail on the unit, as well as a few more product photos, see our Sony HVL-F32X news article on it from the Spring 2004 PMA show.)
Special Recording Modes
Like many Sony digicams, the Cyber-shot DSC-V3 offers a number of special recording
modes, including RAW, TIFF, Exposure Bracketing, MultiBurst, Speed Burst, and
Burst. Sony's software for manipulating RAW images allows users the ability
to do all of the post-capture processing that the camera would do internally
in a special software program that runs on the user's PC. Users are then able
to tweak images individually and output them as whatever supported formats the
software will offer. 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. Multi-Burst mode, which captures a very
rapid burst of sixteen 320 x 240 images arranged in rows and columns in
a single file. Once captured, the images may be played back in sequence on the
camera, but when transferred to a computer they are arranged in a matrix of
16 images in a 1280x 960 pixel image. Because image capture is so fast, the
effect is that of a slow-motion movie sequence. Three frame interval rates are
available through the Record menu, 1/7.5, 1/15, and 1/30. Exposure Bracketing
captures three images with one press of the Shutter button (one at the normal
exposure, one underexposed, and one overexposed). The variation between exposures
is adjustable through the Setup menu, with options of 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0 EV steps.
Speed Burst captures 8 images at 2.5 frames per second before pausing to write
them to the card. Burst fires up to 19 images at about one frame per second
before the buffer fills and writing slows down. Taken together, these continuous-shooting
modes provide an impressive array of tools for capturing fast action.
Movie Mode
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3's Movie mode is accessed by selecting the film frame
icon on the Mode dial on top of the camera. You can record moving images with
sound at 640 x 480 Fine (VGA), 640 x 480 Standard (VGA), or 160 x 112 (Mail)
pixels. Sony's MPEGMovie VX mode lets you record full VGA resolution movies
for as long as the Memory Stick has space. (The amount of available recording
time varies with the quality setting and resolution.) Recording begins 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.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V3 also provides limited movie editing capabilities
right in the camera. While most digicam users don't expect to find full A/B
roll video editing in their cameras, I've often wanted to trim off material
from the beginning or end of a video I've recorded, or extract an interesting
bit of action from the middle of a much longer clip. The V3 lets you do just
that via the Divide option on the Playback menu. As its name suggests, Divide
works by splitting 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, you can throw away the segments you don't need.
After enabling the Divide function through the Playback menu, the Sony Cyber-shot
DSC-V3 starts to play the movie. You simply press the OK button on the Four
Way Arrow pad to stop the playback where you want 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" the part of a movie file you want to save, given
that 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 MPEG editing
software on a computer.
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