Yeats
All-Pro
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
- Name
- Chris
In our previous episode of "As The Superzoom Turns", it seemed I had settled on the Fuji SL1000. The Nikon P510 had a horrible, slow, EVF and didn't shoot RAW. The Canon SX50 produced fine images, but the grip was tiny and the EVF was even tinier. The Fuji HS50 handled wonderfully (compared with the others), but the IQ wasn't as good as the Canon or even the Nikon, the lens had decentering issues, the LCD had a loose connection... *sigh*. So I got a Fuji SL1000. No fancy-pants EXR sensor, but actually slightly better IQ than the HS50. Large grip, good EVF... *BUT*... the EVF blanked out for 2 seconds after every pic, the zoom switch sometimes refused to operate, and when shooting a dark subject (like a blackbird) the center of the frame appeared purple. Not good.
So, I decided to give the Fuji HS50EXR another try.
The one I received a couple days ago doesn't seem to have an QC issues. Everything works. This go-around, I decided to try shooting RAW in Fuji's EXR D-Range mode. The idea behind EXR D-Range (Deranged?) is to "bin" the sensor's pixels, increasing dynamic range and reducing noise. The resultant image is 8MP rather than the sensor's native 16MP.
The worst aspect of EXR mode is that shutter speed and aperture cannot be adjusted, and ISO can only be selected in ranges (100-400, 100-800, etc). This can be problematic when shooting wildlife, as one generally wants to keep the shutter speed as fast as practicable.
Here are a few shots, in EXR DeRanged mode, slightly adjusted tone curve, resized and sharpened:
squirrel DSCF0057 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68542
squirrel DSCF0059 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68543
squirrel DSCF0064 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68544
squirrel DSCF0070 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68545
squirrrel DSCF0072 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68546
squirrel DSCF0076 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68547
grackle DSCF0080 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68548
grackle DSCF0081 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
This last one was shot in standard (non-EXR) aperture-priority mode:
View attachment 68549
swan DSCF0002 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
Next time I'll try the EXR "High ISO & Low Noise" mode, which is another 8MP mode, designed to reduce image noise. This one does allow you to select a specific ISO, though not aperture or shutter speed.
So, I decided to give the Fuji HS50EXR another try.
The one I received a couple days ago doesn't seem to have an QC issues. Everything works. This go-around, I decided to try shooting RAW in Fuji's EXR D-Range mode. The idea behind EXR D-Range (Deranged?) is to "bin" the sensor's pixels, increasing dynamic range and reducing noise. The resultant image is 8MP rather than the sensor's native 16MP.
The worst aspect of EXR mode is that shutter speed and aperture cannot be adjusted, and ISO can only be selected in ranges (100-400, 100-800, etc). This can be problematic when shooting wildlife, as one generally wants to keep the shutter speed as fast as practicable.
Here are a few shots, in EXR DeRanged mode, slightly adjusted tone curve, resized and sharpened:
squirrel DSCF0057 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68542
squirrel DSCF0059 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68543
squirrel DSCF0064 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68544
squirrel DSCF0070 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68545
squirrrel DSCF0072 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68546
squirrel DSCF0076 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68547
grackle DSCF0080 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
View attachment 68548
grackle DSCF0081 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
This last one was shot in standard (non-EXR) aperture-priority mode:
View attachment 68549
swan DSCF0002 by Yeatsy, on Flickr
Next time I'll try the EXR "High ISO & Low Noise" mode, which is another 8MP mode, designed to reduce image noise. This one does allow you to select a specific ISO, though not aperture or shutter speed.