Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I'd had a rough week at work. I was practically comatose through much of Saturday. Then my wife persuaded me accompany her a walk in Seattle's Discovery Park. This is not your typical city park. It's a former military base that is being allowed to largely revert to its natural state. And it's huge. At the last minute, I decided to take the Unlika Leica (Nikon Coolpix 990) along. I ended up doing a GeeBee-style walkabout. Along with beautiful nature, I even found a couple of tattooed GothChix wanabees! So, with tongue in cheek apologies to Graham, let me present: http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/DiscoveryPark/DiscoveryParkWalk.htm http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/DiscoveryPark/DiscoveryParkWalk2.htm I can see that the Coolpix 990 is not going to satisfy me long-term. Not enough megapixels, some shadow noise even at ISO 100, some oft-needed controls buried in menus you can't read in the sunlight. I'm very interested in how the supposedly improved, supposedly coming-in-August Lumix Lika Leica will work--I might be interested. Meantime, though, it's a great learning tool for not much initial outlay. Anyway, here's how I set the Coolpix, based on suggestions I received on the LUG and LEG, particularly from Sonny and Tina. The idea was to minimize shutter delay, menu fiddling and blown highlights, and still have usable shots. White balance: Set manually, don't use Auto. Contrast: Lowest setting Sharpening: Off Autofocus: Set to focus on the center spot with a half-press of the shutter release. I used infinity setting and occasionally guessed manual focus for scenics and action shots, respectively. Exposure: Usually shutter priority. Metering: Matrix, set to meter on half-press of the shutter release. Exposure compensation: Set anywhere from 0 to minus 1.3 stops, depending on how badly I thought the highlights might blow. The result was some slightly flat shots with I then did all my level adjustments and sharpening in Picture Window Pro. Usually I just pulled the black and white points to minimum and maximum, boosted the midtones a bit, and sharpened. I think I underadjusted some pictures due to blown highlight paranoia. I may try doing manual exposure on the Coolpix with a separate meter. Incident and brightness range stuff. Trying to use the camera for that is maddening. I also wish I had a rangefinder in the Coolpix. Fighting autofocus when I could focus more quickly myself. And yes, that is a Tilley hat. I bought it well before before I found out it was LUG anti-chic. - --Peter Klein Seattle, WA - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html