and histograms Re: 5 Digital Camera Questions

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> Judy,
> Another reason I like my little teeny Sony DSC-P10 aside from its not
> giving me a black eye (yet) is it has a battery meter on it that tells how
> many minutes I have left, oh, and when I turn it on and off it saves my
> settings from the last time I used it. The Canon does neither.

This Canon does save the settings except during times of voodoo. I
couldn't possibly redo the settings 20 times a day, and I do turn the
camera on & off all the time... In fact, if I don't turn it off, the
camera turns itself off after 3 minutes if nothing's been touched.

> It, however, along with the Canon, does blow out when I take pix in
> contrasty situations (or when you want texture while photographing that
> cottage cheese you are making), so whenever I perceive that to be the case I
> shoot -.7 EV. The Canon has a histogram, although I have yet to read my
> manual and use it. And RAW mode, too, of course.

Would RAW fix this? If we ever get a sunny day again, I'll test it. As
for histogram, that is something that comes on in this camera when you
least expect it, don't want it, & can't get rid of it. I also haven't
found it helpful. Images that look perfect to me get histograms that say
wrong, bad, stupid, hopeless.

And the camera has another odd trick -- supposedly a highlight area that's
over-exposed will blink. I've gotten that blink in areas that were
essentially specular highlights, but the picture I took in direct sun that
was totally blown out didn't blink ever at all.

I see these two features as inserted to fog the mind that is trying to
cope with the difficulties of adjusting exposure with a digital camera. At
least until I'm somewhat higher on the learning curve, that seems much
tougher in digital than analog. I'm used to shooting in streets that go
from sun to shade, but on film there was usually some reserve, something
you could squeeze out even when the negative was nearly bulletproof. (On
the other hand, you might not know that everything was overexposed until
you developed the film.)

J.
Received on Thu Jun 10 23:34:18 2004