Km A200

[mikesclee]

This was what I've posted in the Hardwarezone site. Hope to get a reply from somebody. Don't understand what Muko is trying to say, I also have the 3600 flash which I assume will work with the A200 but have not actually use it yet. I was told by the showroom people @ Funan that the flash will automatically active when there is insufficient light.

Since getting this camera and reading some books on digital photography, I do get some ideas on basic photography. Since I'm just a point and shoot type, I will just set to P or Auto mode and hope everything will turn out ok. I've found out that my camera allows me to have 5 pre-program settings and I intent to make use of it but need some advise on how to set 5 different settings for different occasions. I know for certain environment like indoor shooting, let say in a restaurant, there is an ideal setting like changing the shutter and exposure. Problem is I would not know what is the ideal settings for different environtment. All I want is the pictures taken must be sharp from foreground to background regardless of whether I am shooting at 28mm or 200mm. From some books I've read it says to set the f-stop to f9. All this playing with depth of field and other effects is not important. All I care is what I see is what I get and everything turns out sharp.
The 5 settings I would like will be in the following environments:
1. Indoor (candle light)
2. Indoor (normal lighting like restaurant or shopping centre)
3. Outdoor (bright daylight)
4. Outdoor (sunset)
5. Outdoor in the night (normal street light like along Orchard Road at night).
I'm sure with the right setting of Apecture/exposure/shutter speed for each environment will still be better than the P or Auto mode.
Does anybody know where I can get eFotoexpress Software. Since I intend to shoot all my picture in RAW format, the software is able to convert to JPEG2000 with no loss. My 1G cf card should hold about 100 shots. Is it true that since RAW format gives the best resolution, it also means that if the shot is bad, it will also give the worst result?

[pshing]

i think, there is no fix exposal (a combination of shutter speed and aperture) for under whatever situation. even under same lighting, u may have different exposal by just pointing at different object which have different distance from the light. so no one will be able to tell u the exact setting. it all depends on the situation.

in my opinion, F9 is a bit too much for daily use. unless you do shoot only outdoor under bright light. but it totally doesnt make sense to mi...

and, with such a good lenses (for consumer market, at least), why do you want to make everything sharp? there are many people in this forum paying thousands of dollar for a lenses that can get the background blur, haha...

btw... i think an ordinary point and shoot camera (with a smaller lenses) is more suitable for you in this case. Because a small lenses with a small CCD gives sharp image more easily for foreground and background......



RAW does not give u higher resolution. RAW gives unprocessed data directly from CCD, which contains highest level of details for the image.

It also means u have to process the picture yourself using software, instead of letting the camera to do the auto processing.

So it is more forgiving when u shoot with wrong exposal. In fact, it is easier to edit a picture with raw compare to jpeg as it allow u to have more flexibility when doing post processing.



A200 is for slight more advance level than point and shoot type. it allows u to play more things. dont pay extra and only play with the basic function. do ulitise it.

enjoy ur cam =)

[mikesclee]

Thanks Pshing for the quick reply. The only reason I got this camera is because of the anti-shake,swivel LCD and the 28-200 zoom and the review was quite favourable for use as a point&shoot purpose. It also comes with a 1G CF card and some other goodies for the IT show. The other alternative was the Olympus 7070 but it doesn't have anti-shake and the range is only to 105mm. I will now change the setting to 3624x2468 (extra fine mode). This gives me 157 shots. I guess I will just set the mode to P and just play around with the zoom. In this mode, will the whole picture remain sharp from foreground to background?

[muko]

yayyyy... another A200 newbie user... i am so happy...
Could you join the gathering on 5th of may...
we can discuss many there...

damned... where is the showroom anyway... i dunno where minolta showroom is... hiks...

yes..yes... pshing is correct...
it is almost always better to control your dof... you dont want to have many things in focus... because your pic will make confusion on what subject you are trying to show.

and correct also about the 5 setting you request. very difficult to get an exact combo of all the things that fits those 5 conditions. It is better if you learn how to do quick and good adjustment on the spot.
Me myself... very lazy to set and save those things... and definitely when the time comes.. i will forget about the things i saved... only thing is maybe i will save my settings if i will be going for long trip, so i can make some pre preparations before going on trip to save some times...
But never gone on long trip before... so this one only muko's blah blah... later on i will forget also.

Btw anybody ever used the saved preset for shooting?

[Agetan]

Originally Posted by mikesclee Thanks Pshing for the quick reply. The only reason I got this camera is because of the anti-shake,swivel LCD and the 28-200 zoom and the review was quite favourable for use as a point&shoot purpose. It also comes with a 1G CF card and some other goodies for the IT show. The other alternative was the Olympus 7070 but it doesn't have anti-shake and the range is only to 105mm. I will now change the setting to 3624x2468 (extra fine mode). This gives me 157 shots. I guess I will just set the mode to P and just play around with the zoom. In this mode, will the whole picture remain sharp from foreground to background?

Uhm.... There are a lot of things govern the depth of field (sharpness from front to back).

First, Aperture, the smaller the aperture, the deeper the depth of field.

Second, Focal length, f9 at 28mm will give you more depth of field than f9 at 200mm assuming your subject distance remain the same.

Third, Subject distance, f9 at 200 for a subject that is 2 meter in front of you will have pretty blur background, but if you use f9 at 200mm and the subject matter is about 100 meter away, then you will have sharp front and back.


It is not always desirable to have sharp from closest focus distance to fatherst focus distance, for example in portrait situation, you want the subject to stand out, so you use shallow depth of field to give separation of the subject and background.

But for Landscape, yes, you want maximum depth of field. All you do is focus at 1/3 into the picture and recompose and you will get extended depth of field. A method call Hyperfocal Distance.

A lot of people have wrong preception that when you buy an expensive camera, you will get best result. For a matter of fact, great images can be created from any types of camera.

There are a lot to learn in Photography and good luck for the journey.

If you are looking for an average snap shots, I think you have spend a lot for it.

But having said that, A200 is a very nice camera.

Good luck and hope I didn't offend you in anyway...

Hart

[TME]

Hart,

I think points 2 & 3 mean the same thing but of course it's good to highlight them all the same... in both cases, u are varying the subject to sensor distance... in 2, u are changing the distance with the help of the lens... in 3, u are physically changing that distance by shifting the subject itself... but of course the effect can be very different since shifting the subject or yourself may involve much greater changes in distance than in 2.

And I fully agree with you that if all the thread starter wanted was some nice snapshots, then it has been a rather expensive venture...

[Agetan]

Originally Posted by TME Hart, I think points 2 & 3 mean the same thing but of course it's good to highlight them all the same... in both cases, u are varying the subject to sensor distance... in 2, u are changing the distance with the help of the lens... in 3, u are physically changing that distance by shifting the subject itself... but of course the effect can be very different since shifting the subject or yourself may involve much greater changes in distance than in 2. And I fully agree with you that if all the thread starter wanted was some nice snapshots, then it has been a rather expensive venture...

I don't think point 2 and 3 are the same, but very similar.

Point 2 basically saying you have same subject distance, disregard what lens you use, if the subject is 2 meters away from you then whatever lens you use, the subject to film/sensor plane is 2 meters.

Point 3, if the subject to film sensor is 3 meters, and when you double the subject distance and using 2x focal length lens, the subject distance to film/sensor is still 6 meters.

The closer the subject matter is the shallower will be for the depth of field.

But if you are talking about angle of view, then its the same, however, angle of view and depth of field are not dependent on each other.

Have a think about it... hehehehehe..

[TME]

Hmmm..... that makes sense...

[mikesclee]

Thank you all for the feedbacks from my initial thread. The previous camera (Canon S10) gave me a lot of blur shots especially indoor, as the flash isn't up to par and the camera, being small, always shakes when taking little kids running about in the hall. Hence the next camera must have anti-shake, extendable LCD and 28-200mm zoom and able to accomodate an external flash. No other beginner/prosumer camera (below 1k) I know can offer the these feaures except the A200 and also the handling is superb when zooming. Prior to getting it, my other choice was the Ricoh Capilio RiV (28-135mm) but decided against it as camera shake will still be a problem. The others were the Olympus 7070 and Canon IS or G6. Dicounted the Sony DSV3 as memory stick is too expensive.

Since I've a quide on using which f-stop for outdoor (daylight) can I also have a few other benchmark settings for indoor setting ( @28-35mm) and outdoor night setting( @28-35mm and 100-200mm). These are the most likely environtments for most holiday makers.

[muko]

Originally Posted by l_n_h hello, just like to find out from owners of a200, how is its performance at low light? focus accuracy? focus speed? when i say low light, i mean like in a typical street at night. thanks.

Mine is okay.
A bit slow when focusing.. search search when you try to focus a very dark thing... but i guess no problem for me.

[TME]

Originally Posted by l_n_h hello, just like to find out from owners of a200, how is its performance at low light? focus accuracy? focus speed? when i say low light, i mean like in a typical street at night. thanks.

A typical street at night is considered very dark... u can expect the lens to hunt as it does not have an focus assist lamp unless u have an external flash attached, e.g. 3600 or 5600HS.

[UY79]

Originally Posted by TME A typical street at night is considered very dark... u can expect the lens to hunt as it does not have an focus assist lamp unless u have an external flash attached, e.g. 3600 or 5600HS.

AF assist does not work with digicams.

[TME]

Originally Posted by UY79 AF assist does not work with digicams.

??? I am not aware of that... reason? I thought the AF mechanism remains the same.... but then what do I know....

[UY79]

Digicams use video AF while SLRs use TTL phase detection. Different method of acquiring focus.

Minolta crippled their digicams probably because the AF assist on a digicam does not have the same effectiveness as when used by a SLR.

[TME]

Originally Posted by UY79 Digicams use video AF while SLRs use TTL phase detection. Different method of acquiring focus. Minolta crippled their digicams probably because the AF assist on a digicam does not have the same effectiveness as when used by a SLR.

Won't having the 3600/5600HS flash's IR illumination grid help the video AF as well?

[UY79]

Maybe because it's red and harder to pick up by video AF? Most other digicam have a yellow bulb for AF assist.

[TME]

Originally Posted by UY79 Maybe because it's red and harder to pick up by video AF? Most other digicam have a yellow bulb for AF assist.

I have no idea how video AF works but of course phase detection (TTL) needs some contrast which is provided by the red/IR grid... from the flash illumination assist... thought it might help video AF as well.... cos the 3600/5600HS also works with the A200/A2/A1 but not sure if the AF assist works with them as well.

[UY79]

No, it doesn't. Scroll down to the bottom for the compatibility chart.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/a1_pg2.html

[Flare]

Originally Posted by TME I have no idea how video AF works but of course phase detection (TTL) needs some contrast which is provided by the red/IR grid... from the flash illumination assist... thought it might help video AF as well.... cos the 3600/5600HS also works with the A200/A2/A1 but not sure if the AF assist works with them as well.

Nope AF assist don't work with Dimage 5 all the way up to A2. Don't think it works with A200 too...

No idea why Minolta made it this way, although it's red and not as bright as other make's compact camera's orange/white AF assistlamp, still think it'll still be better than without...

[dennixg]

Just got 49 mm Hoya Circular Polarizer for my A200.
After mounting it over my UV filter, I notice shadows on the corners on the LCD.

Should hae gotton a step up adapter.
Is there one for 49 to 52 mm?